Always Have, Always Will

2024 | Mixed Media: Fabric, Paper Collage, & Acrylic on Canvas, Stretched on Wood Frame

This piece of contemporary Rwandan art is a bold reflection on women empowerment and resistance. In a world that is often cruel to women and girls—marked by harmful initiation rites, oppressive socio-cultural norms, and gender-based violence—this work honors the beauty, strength, and defiance of those who push back. Women and girls resist the forces that seek to silence and confine them: unequal power structures, restrictive gender roles, child marriage, the burden of domestic labor, and the denial of education. They continue to take up space, reclaim their voices, and envision freer, more just futures. In this world, being a girl or woman is itself an act of resistance.

See more artwork by Angella Ilibagiza