In many cultures black and white colour themes evokes the balance of opposing yet interdependent forces: masculine and feminine, acting and being, day and night, light and shadow. In African cosmologies, black and white are seen as complementary forces rather than opposites, embodying balance and harmony. This mirrors the concept of duality found in other cultural philosophies. Black is often associated with the earth, fertility, the unknown, and the spiritual world. It represents depth, mystery, and the origins of life. White, on the other hand, is linked to purity, light, clarity, and the physical world. It often symbolizes the realm of the living and is used in rituals for protection and purification. In Yoruba tradition, black and white are associated with Esu (or Eshu), a trickster god trickster messenger between heaven and earth representing the coexistence of opposites. The juxtaposition of black and white is also prevalent in African textiles, such as kente cloth and mud cloth, where the patterns often convey stories, cultural values, and social identities. These colour contrasts are integral to the visual language of African art, symbolizing unity and diversity.
This polarity also reflects a tension that extends into the historical and cultural dynamics of colonialism and global systems. Whiteness, constructed as “civilized,” aligns with notions of domination, production, and consumerism—systems that prioritize exploitation, growth, and anthropocentric worldviews. In contrast, blackness, often racialized and marginalized, can be connected to “indigenous” ways of being that emphasize balance, interdependence, and a deep connection to the land. In the binary thinking imposed by colonial histories, whiteness imposed itself as superior and “rational,” casting blackness as “primitive” and “irrational.” Yet the crises of today reveal the unsustainability of such hierarchies, pointing instead to the wisdom embedded in systems that value relationality, reciprocity, and non-anthropocentric understanding of life. As explained by Bayo Akomolafé, in our postcolonial time the concept of blackness and whiteness go beyond the colour of our skin.
The choice of red earth as a third color evokes our connection to the land, the planet, and the materiality that grounds human existence. Symbolizing the soil, the body of the earth, and the life it sustains, red earth resonates with indigenous traditions that view the land as a living entity, inseparable from identity, culture, and survival. This symbolism aligns with the philosophical current of new materialism, which rejects the binary opposition between nature and culture, subject and object, and instead embraces the dynamic interplay of matter, energy, and agency. New materialism emphasizes that the world is not composed of inert, passive substances shaped solely by human will; instead, matter itself is vibrant, alive with potential, and co-constitutive of human and non-human worlds.
