AfriCOBRA Manifesto? “Ten in Search of a Nation”

In the AfriCOBRA manifesto Donaldson describes the origins of the group and its aesthetic principles: “The expressive awesomeness that one experiences in African art and life in the U.S.A. like the Holiness church . . . and the demon that is the blues, Alcindor’s dunk and Sayer’s cut . . . Symmetry that is free, repetition with change, based on African music and African movement . . . We want the work to look like the creator made it through us . . . We want the things to shine, to have the rich luster of a just-washed ’Fro, of spit-shined shoes . . . Color that shines . . . Color that defines, identifies and directs . . . Coolade colors for coolade images for superreal people.”