"Declaration of Independence" (DOI) is a project of collective study, installations and iterative performances inspired by by Ama Ata Aidoo's poem "As Always a Painful Declaration" from her 1992 collection An Angry Letter in January". DOI began in 2017 at the Diaspora Pavilion in Venice. This ongoing project reflects on the declarations made in conference halls, parliament buildings, and other forums where diplomatic negotiations, treaties of independence, coalitions, trade deals, manifestos and other policies happen. These are spaces where the voices of Black and of colour, women, trans and non-binary folx are rarely heard.

This is for us
A declaration of our independence
Our interdependence

Asante works with groups of ‘contributor-performers’ to share stories and personal experiences of the legacies of slavery and colonialism that live in our present. Together we create individual and collective declarations that have come together as video installations, live performances and sound pieces, foregrounding, the importance of collective action, the value of personal narratives in history and the daily rituals that enhance our experiences of living.

• Asante, Barby. 2019. Declaration of Independence. In: "Declaration of Independence", BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Arts, United Kingdom, 23 February – 6 May 2019. [Show/Exhibition]
• Asante, Barby. 2019. Declaration of Independence - BALTIC Performance. In: "Declaration of Independence Performance", BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Arts, Gateshead, United Kingdom, 24 February 2019. [Performance]
• Asante, Barby. 2020. Declaration of Independence Bergen Kunsthall Performance. In: "Declaration of Independence Performance", Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway, 30 November - 1 December 2-19 and 18 January 2020. [Performance]
• Asante, Barby. 2020. Declaration of Independence Performance Brent Biennale. In: "Declaration of Independence Performance Brent Biennale", Metroland Cultures, United Kingdom, November-December 2020. [Performance]
• Asante, Barby. 2023. Declaration of Independence Performance - Bwa Kayiman: Congressing at the Heart of Liberation. In: "Bwa Kayiman- Congressing at the Heart of Liberation", Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin, Germany, 12 August 2023. [Performance]
• Asante, Barby; Oriogun Williams, Femi and Taylor, Foluke. 2020. Declaration of Independence Podcasts. [Audio]

This entrance scroll video lists all the people who have been involved in the project and the shared influences of all the contributors from 2017 to 2019.
Video by Barby Asante & Jess Harrington

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/34901