AfriCOBRA

AfriCOBRA, an acronym for the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists, is a group of African American artists founded in Chicago in 1968. It grew out of the Chicago collective OBAC and the experience of creating the mural Wall of Respect, and its founders included Jeff Donaldson, Wadsworth Jarrell, Jae Jarrell, Barbara Jones-Hogu, and Gerald Williams. The artists sought to develop a distinctly Black aesthetic, rooted in African American and African culture, that would empower the community. Their visual language relied on bright "Kool-Aid" colours, rhythmic patterns, calligraphic lettering, positive images of Black people, and messages of dignity and unity. AfriCOBRA became one of the leading artistic forces of the Black Arts Movement and, in parallel with the struggle for civil rights, championed an art oriented not toward the museum but toward the community itself—accessible and legible to a broad audience.