Zohra Opoku-Sassa: Accra, Gallery I

The concept Sassa is described in some writings as the soul, as the universal energy that is invisible, but always present; in others it is referred to as Sasa, the restless, often vengeful, spirit of one whose death was somehow unnatural. In her work, Opoku explores her own versions and concepts of what constitutes the self through time and place and through the elements around her, inventing her own rituals and traditions. She defines for herself her own version of what Sassa is, and can be, whether through her portraits of the Ahemaa, the Queen Mothers of the Ashanti, her father’s region; in the series of Bodymasks that explore her family identity, both Ghanaian and German, as well as her sense of home; and in her self-portraits, in which the artist, merging with nature, determines how much of herself she reveals.