Nzinga Future

Subject Matter:

In 2015, Shani Peters brought her multidisciplinary project The Crown to the University of Michigan’s Institute for the Humanities  and GalleryDAAS. The installations featured gold crowns inspired  by traditional headpieces of figures from the African continent and  the Global North, including the ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti,  Miss America, and the queen of England. For Peters, this breadth  of bloodlines and cultural influences together contain the nuances  of the intricate contemporary cultures members of the African  diaspora have created, and wearing the crown is both a metaphor  for self-determination and a celebration of what it means to be  Black. In Nzinga Future, Peters wears a crown based on that of Ana  Nzinga (1583–1663), the formidable queen of Ngondo (in present-day  Angola), whose shrewd diplomatic and military maneuvering amidst  early Portuguese and Dutch occupation immortalized her forty-year  reign.

But for Peters, the crown is not just a celebration. She also wants  to prompt consideration of what she refers to as the “possibilities  and perils that lie within” the process of self-determination. In her  Crown project, she asks: “When we imagine ourselves as kings and  queens as a method of counteracting the slave, maid, and criminal  identities Western society prescribes for us, do we also have an  understanding of the hierarchies and inequalities that these systems  of royalty delineate?” Critically reflecting on the complexities of  what success means for Black people is especially important in  the context of higher education, with its inherent exclusivity and  competition.

Physical Description:

Silhouette of a person facing away from the camera wearing feathered headwear.

Usage Rights:

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