The Nelson Mandela Center for African Culture is hosting, for the first time, a solo exhibition by a prominent Seychellois artist—an event that will pave the way for other exhibitions focused on the region. Emmanuel d’Offay presents, August 20 through September 20 2026, Forgotten Saints, a visual ode to the unknown slaves of his country. Dominique Bellier
He may have fair skin and blue eyes, but Emmanuel d’Offay has always felt African and takes pride in the significant amount of Ghanaian and Mozambican blood that runs through his veins. His father, a plumber, mingled with ordinary people, and Emmanuel broke a taboo by marrying a Black woman… His interest in the legacy of slavery dates back some thirty years. With the exhibition *Forgotten Saints*, he honors the anonymous individuals who suffered and resisted in silence. It is difficult to trace theenslaved people whom the system has consistently rendered invisible. It’s impossible to know what they looked like, unless one explores the archives from the 1860s, when the British administration photographed Africans freed from the illegal slave trade by the Royal Navy, which intercepted rogue ships. More than 2,600 of them settled in the Seychelles from 1861 to 1875.
Galla’s deep gaze and serene face moved and intrigued Emmanuel d’Offay, to the point of inspiring him to create this exhibition. A member of the Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, this young Ethiopian woman is said to have royal blood. Under the artist’s brush, this woman who escaped slavery is depicted wearing the sacred colors of gold and blue. Through her and all those he has portrayed, Emmanuel d’Offay pays tribute to the spirit of resistance, to dignity preserved, and to the soul that remained free despite the servitude imposed upon it. Suffering, terror, and abuse are evident in many of the forty faces presented. The materials used and the intensity of their gazes command respect for these people, without whom our countries would not exist.
