Projects > Sambo Scratches His Navel and Watches His Crazy Sister (2006-2009)

Michael Dixon and Onye Ozuzu, Sambo Scratches His Navel and Watches His Crazy Sister
I Surround Myself With Bodies Darker Than Myself, Hoping the Color Might Rub Off On Me
Oil on canvas
30x24
2007

Ellegua is an Orisha (spirit) associated with "opening the ways", or crossroads. Often depicted as a child or a small man, he is a playful and a trickster god. Sambo is a racial term for a Black in the United States. It is considered a racial slur. Blackface is a style of theatrical makeup that originated in the United States, used to take on the appearance of an archetype of American racism - that of the darky or coon. Minstrel shows portrayed and lampooned blacks in stereotypical and often disparaging ways: as ignorant, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, joyous, and musical.