Milumbe Haimbe is a Zambian painter and digital illustrator. Born in 1974, she grew up in the ’80s amidst Zambia’s worst economic crisis. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Copperbelt University. Haimbe then obtained a master’s degree in Fine Arts from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in Norway. Her work portrays black women as superheroes and her inspiration comes from the lack of black female characters in comics. Her graphic novel titled The Revolutionist features a female protagonist named Ananiya. The novel addresses issues such as racism and same-sex love.
Haimbe’s childhood memories include spending hours sitting on a deserted piggery wall, perfecting extra-terrestrial code language. The goal was to send an SOS out to the superheroes in the galaxies. Then a spaceship would come down to Earth to save her, her siblings, and friends from their dreary lives. Superheroes such as Superman, Spiderman, and the Incredible Hulk were huge deals for a lot of children growing up. Due to their powerful, all-embodying beings, their brands were merchandised in just about everything. Accordingly, they influenced many aspects of the childhood experience such that Haimbe aspired to become a superhero herself. However, most of them were male and all of them white. She wanted to create something that would influence more children and popular culture the same way.
The Revolutionist is set in the near future, on a satellite colony that is located a little off the orbit of mainland Earth, and administrated by a corporation. The graphic novel subliminally reinforces social conformity in the interest of the collective through symbolism and iconology, while the economy is purely corporate-driven. People and robots are exploited for labour and this gives rise to the resistance. The protagonist, Ananiya, joined the resistance at 13 years old. During present day she is 17 and has recently been appointed as an agent in the Covert Operations Division. In the ensuing standoff where the Corporation increasingly maintains control with an ironclad fist it is not long before the resistance becomes a full-blown revolution.
Drawing on a background of painting, Milumbe’s current art practices are based in digital illustration, including sequential art as an intermedial process that integrates illustrations and written texts into narratives. This process has led to a natural progression by the artist into explorations of genres such as comics, animation and graphic novels. Her interests are related to intercultural issues, focusing on the forms of representation of cultural minorities within the context of popular media.
Haimbe has exhibited at FOCUS 10 Art Basal in Switzerland. Additionally, she has done the Biennale for Contemporary African Art in Dakar, Senegal. She is an alumnus of the Art Omi International Artist’s Residency in New York. Haimbe won the 2015 Bellagio Arts Fellowship Award and the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship Award. Other locations where her work has been exhibited include South Africa and Norway.
