Activist and model Adwoa Aboah yesterday revealed the third part of her photo project with British luxury fashion house Burberry shot by Juergen Teller. The 25-year-old began the series with the iconic photographer in London last December, which is where she grew up.
For this part, she went back to her roots; Ghana for a family campaign shot. In the photo, she and four women including her grandmother and aunts are shown wearing traditional Ghanaian dresses designed by her aunt but made of vintage Burberry fabrics. In the caption, Adwoa shares her relationship to her heritage in Ghana where her father was born, and how it has shaped her.
She wrote on Instagram:
Never have I been more proud of something. The last part of my series with @burberry Art Directed by myself, shot by #juergenteller Styled by @poppykain. Make-Up by @celiaburtonmakeup Outfits by my Auntie Tina. Featuring my cousin @kensemah My Grandma, Auntie Mary, Auntie Tina and my skrillion @sonny_hall .Thank you to everyone who made this possible, for listening to Juergen and I when we came up with this mad idea. This is what it’s all about, do something different, think outside the box and create something iconic. #juergenxadwoa – Going home, back to the motherland. A place where I felt like an outsider but always wanted to belong. Growing up differently, never knowing the mother tongue.
Patronized by the world, one sided images of famine and underdevelopment. Culturally appropriated, continuously stolen with no respect or return.
The world knowing nothing about the magic that Ghana is, the beauty and chaos.
Where my father was born, the other half of my British blood, Accra. Home away from home with the church and the swing and grandma and grandad, aunties, Kente cloth, fufu and buckets for washing. Memories, so many memories of 6 hour journeys to visit my other half.
The last chapter and I want the world to know that there are two families, both that mean the world to me, two sides to my story. I want the world to see the beauty and Ghana to have that moment in the light, one that it has always deserved.
I have been claimed by Ghana, told to go and show the world, make them proud. I belong.
So that’s what this is, a message of love and pride to my family and the people of Ghana.
Despite growing up in the UK, and now residing in New York, Ghana still holds a very special place in Adwoa’s heart. Adwoa told Vogue exclusively:
It feels like home because I have so many lovely memories from there. I think it feels like home, more so because it was where my dad grew up and it is very much a part of him. He is such a family man and he has really taken that into our family and had such a presence in mine and my sister’s life. Although we didn’t grow up in a completely African household, there have been certain hints throughout our whole life. Even though I have felt like an outsider, I always secretly felt like it was home.
Watch the full video of Adwoa’s journey in Ghana and the new Burberry Autumn/Winter Pre-Collection, captured by Juergen Teller.