Jana Na Leo

‘Jana na Leo’ presents a body of work comprising drawings in ink, ballpoint pen and coloured pencil, alongside mezzotint prints on paper. The works explore the construction of manhood, masculinity and male identity in contemporary Africa, focusing on the transition between boyhood and manhood and the ways in which ideas of maturity, responsibility and masculinity are shaped by cultural traditions and colonial histories.

The imagery draws from Wasike’s understanding of manhood within Bukusu culture, with particular reference to the community’s male initiation ritual. An age-old tradition and vessel for generations of collective memory, the ritual is rooted in a warrior tradition and connected to the legend of Mango, a man said to have slain a monstrous serpent that terrorised the Bukusu and neighbouring communities. Within this tradition, initiation marks a significant passage into manhood, carrying with it expectations of courage, fearlessness and responsibility.

Alongside these cultural references, ‘Jana na Leo’ considers how colonialism disrupted and reconfigured African understandings of identity and social belonging. The short trouser, a recurring motif throughout the work, becomes a particularly charged symbol. Under colonial sartorial conventions, the garment was associated with childhood and immaturity, and was at times imposed on adult African men. Dress therefore became more than a matter of appearance: it could function as a means of categorising, diminishing and regulating African bodies according to European ideas of masculinity and civilisation.

The tension between these histories is central to the work. The transition from boyhood to manhood is not presented simply as a biological or cultural passage, but as a space in which different ideas of masculinity encounter one another - traditional, colonial and contemporary. The works consider what has been inherited, what has been disrupted, and what continues to shape the understanding of African manhood today.

In this sense, ‘Jana na Leo’ acts as both a container of cultural memory and an examination of its continuing relevance. Through drawing and printmaking, the works invite reflection on the persistence of colonial ideas within contemporary African society, while asking how inherited traditions and identities might be understood, negotiated and reimagined in the present.

Copyright - Thom Ogonga (2026)