Harare Review of Books

Sharing photos from this fantastic exhibition of US artist and filmmaker Cauleen Smith‘s “Not Yet Read: Ayi Kwei Armah” that I saw at the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town last year.

Here’s what the exhibition text says:

Cauleen Smith

Not Yet Read: Ayi Kwei Armah

2025

Graphite, brush and coloured inks, and watercolour on graph paper

Courtesy of the artist

Best known for his celebrated debut novel The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968)—most of Ayi Kwei Armah’s works are self-published. These rare titles are said to be difficult to find through mainstream-and particularly Western-literary distribution channels. It was through a casual yet intimate conversation with Ntone Edjabe-the Cameroonian writer, researcher, and founder of the Cape Town-based art and music library and project space Chimurenga-that Smith first became aware of their existence and the mythology surrounding them.

With these works, she continues her intertextual practice of speculating on new forms of Black resistance and imagination through literature.