The cover image is part of a series titled Searching for Libertalia. It is inspired by the cult book A General History of the Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson (a possible pseudonym for Daniel Defoe), in which the utopic settlement of Libertalia is established by the fictional character Captain Misson in the island of Madagascar.
Bayjoo explores three main strands within this series: Madagascar's history of piracy with the story of the fictional hero-like figure of Captain Misson, slave trading by the French East India Company throughout the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, and the Malagasy fight for independence from France's Vichy government during the Second World War. The interlinking between these distinct narratives reveals the repetitive nature of history. Searching for Libertalia also underlines liberation and anti-colonial movements in African post-colonies and their relation to contemporary questions of race and identity.
Searching for Libertalia spans from video to painting...
