Anilez Silva 'Africa' by Daniel Bracci Delves Into Woman's Collective Unconscious

Anilez Silva 'Africa' by Daniel Bracci Delves Into Woman's Collective Unconscious

Originally written July 7, 2012, 3am — same time I found it again just now. Little by little, I am restoring the far-flung DNA of GlamTribal.

Looking at Daniel Bracci’s magnificent images of Anilez Silva entitled ‘Africa’, my rational mind says “don’t go there, Anne”. Our politically-correct world only sees stereotypes where you see art and connection.

After all, Anilez Silva is fiercely tribal, sensual, erotic, impenetrable, dangerous, ancestral, aboriginal and ancient. She is ferocious, native, natural, primeval and primitive; turbulent, unbroken and proud. 

My friends at Jezebel would probably hate her. We tend not to see eye-to-eye on a few issues, and this is one of them. Are Bracci’s images stereotypical? Racist? I’m not an African American — or African woman — or African Parisian woman, so I can only speak to how these images affect me personally.

When the subject is Africa, I have a visceral response that another person might have with India. Most Americans have no visceral response at all, in terms of connection with “foreign” imagery, but this is not the case for me.