Artist Ibrahim Mahama Says Police Attack in Ghana Put His ‘Entire Life On Hold’

Artist Ibrahim Mahama Says Police Attack in Ghana Put His ‘Entire Life On Hold’

Celebrated contemporary artistIbrahim Mahamasays he is planning to file charges against Ghanaian state police after suffering aviolent attackon Saturday. Mahama, who is from Ghana, says that members of a state police unit called the Black Maria accosted him on a bus he was riding after a visit to a mosque in Tamale, Ghana;the artist sayssevere damage was done to his face.

The officers, Mahama said, unexpectedly boarded the bus after cutting through traffic. When another passenger asked what was going on, Mahama began to record the scene on his phone, at which point the officers attacked him, he said.

“That evening, I was meant to travel to the UK because I had to go and give some lectures in some schools from Cambridge to Oxford to the Royal College in London, and also continue to Helsinki for work and then to Amsterdam and then to South Africa before coming home,” Mahama said in a press conference on Monday. 

“But all those trips have to be cancelled, and I don’t think I can even travel for the next month because the last few days I have not even eaten solid food because my lips are all bruised, and three of my teeth are broken, I have sores in my mouth,” Mahama said. 

“Currently, it has put my entire life on hold,” Mahama said. 

“Of course, we’ve heard many stories about the same unit and the brutalities,” Mahama said of the Black Maria unit. “That’s why they could say that we could kill you and nothing will happen.”

In a statement released on Saturday, the Ghana Police Service called Mahama’s claims “false;” adding that the Black Maria “has been out of the Northern Region” since March 5. 

Mahama is best known for his monumental installations interpolating jute sacks—bags made from jute fibers which are imported into Ghana to transport cocoa beans, maize and charcoal—but he also uses a wide range of found materials and textiles to create interventions in public spaces which address central themes of postcolonial decay and global transaction. 

Mahama’s work has been featured prominently at the 2019 Venice Biennale, the High Line in New York in 2021, and many other institutions. In 2023, Mahama was also appointed artistic director of the 35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana.