\n\tIbrahim Mahama, a Ghanaian artist whose work has appeared in an array of shows ranging from the Bienal de S\u00e3o Paulo to the Venice Biennale, was hospitalized after he was attacked on Saturday in Tamale, Ghana. Mahama alleged that his attackers were part of a special operations police unit known as the Black Maria.<\/p>\n
\n\tAccording to Mahama, officers with the unit made their way through a traffic jam and entered a bus that the artist was riding following a visit to a mosque. After a passenger questioned their actions, Mahama began recording the incident on his phone. \u201cThey broke into our bus, forced me to open my phone, and deleted the pictures,\u201d Mahama told 3news.com<\/em>. He has since called the beating that followed a \u201cbrutal assault.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOn Monday, Mahama led a press conference to say that he planned to take members of the Black Maria to court. \u201cI don\u2019t think I can even travel for the next month because the last few days I have not even eaten solid food because my lips are all bruised, and three of my teeth are broken, I have sores in my mouth,\u201d Mahama reportedly said, adding that the attack had \u201cput my whole life on hold.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAli Adolf Mboridiba, north regional minister of Ghana, subsequently denounced the attack while also saying that he knew of no activity by the Black Maria in the area. \u201cWe cannot tolerate this kind of lawlessness in the region, and anyone found culpable will be dealt with,\u201d Mboridiba said.<\/p>\n
\n\tMboridiba added, \u201cIbrahim Mahama is a diplomat, and an attack on him won\u2019t be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Ghana Police Service also denied that the Black Maria was involved, calling Mahama\u2019s claims \u201cfalse\u201d in a release announcing an investigation into the attack.<\/p>\n
\n\tMahama is one of the most famous contemporary African artists, known both for his own sculptural installations and for his work within Ghana, where he founded the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art, Nkrumah Volini, and Red Clay Studio, three art spaces in Tamale. He topped the ArtReview<\/em> Power 100 list in 2025, the year that he exhibited a full-size diesel locomotive at the Kunsthalle Wien in Austria as a comment on British colonization during the 19th century.<\/p>\n
\n\tHe has framed the institutions he founded as an effort to expand the art scene in Ghana. \u201cThere are brilliant curators, writers, and artists yet to be born,\u201d he told Art in America<\/em> in 2023. \u201cAnd it\u2019s important that, when they are, the conditions for art are as wide-open as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAll three of the organizations launched by Mahama signed a statement in which they called the attack \u201ca disturbing act of police brutality.\u201d Also among the signatories was blaxTARLINES, a Kumasi-based artist collective participating in this year\u2019s Venice Biennale; Compound House Gallery, a space in Accra run by adviser Nuna Adisenu-Doe; and the Foundation for Contemporary Art \u2013 Ghana.<\/p>\n\n
\n\t\u201cMany citizens are routinely subject to various forms of police brutality in Ghana,\u201d the statement said. \u201cWe use the incident and the attack on Mr. Mahama, to draw attention to these unprofessional acts by personnel who are mandated to enforce the law and protect the public peace. Abuses like these constitute grave violations of citizens\u2019 rights. Such actions often go unpunished and have the potential to erode public trust in law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWithin Ghana, the incident has generated a mixture of scrutiny and empathy. Abla Dfiza Gomashie, the Ghanaian tourism minister, issued a long statement in support of Mahama, writing, \u201cAs a nation that prides itself on upholding justice, human rights, and the rule of law, such incidents must be addressed with the seriousness they deserve. It is in view of this that I have held discussions with the Hon. Minister for the Interior, who has assured me of his utmost support in unravelling the people behind this cowardly act.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-1211491430.jpg?w=1024″] Ibrahim Mahama, a Ghanaian artist whose work has appeared in an array of shows ranging from the Bienal de S\u00e3o Paulo to the Venice Biennale, was hospitalized after he was attacked on Saturday in Tamale, Ghana. Mahama alleged that his attackers were part of a special operations police unit known as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1845221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1845221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1845221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1845221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1845221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}