The Muthuvan Kudi (community) in the hills of Munnar are artists whose lives are at stake. Nia Zera, artist and writer, who grew up near this settlement, and spent the better part of three decades, trying to find a language, both visual and literary, to express what she witnessed there. And, she discovered it from the continent of Africa.
Her exhibition Cobalt Blue, which recently opened in Chennai, brought together 31 paintings on shaped wooden panels. The work draws a parallel between the Dravidian communities of south India and the people of Africa. She paints into the canvases of wood, a shared history of rich resources and exploitation. Nia came to this subject through Karen Blixen's 'Out of Africa', a memoir on a Danish woman building a business on the continent. "While I was reading the book, I was so invested in knowing African culture more.We study more about the historical connection between India and African countries in school, but I was more into the art and cultural side." The artist took exactly one year and a month to complete her creations.
Munnar sits at the edge of Kerala, a town Nia comments as one of the last places where British colonial presence lingered. The plantation economy that the British built did not wholly dissolve when they left. "There are no Britishers or white people here now, but there is hierarchy everywhere. The literate people are exploiting the labourers the same way Britishers did. Compared to our life and civilisation, the people of Muthuvan still live in maybe a 20-year gap," she says. She estimates, ten households in the community may share two bathrooms, and also struggle to make ends meet while working all day throughout the year.
There are a lot of first generation students who are studying . But, the problem she reveals is that there is no real change in companies there. “If you want to have a job in a Tata company like TCS, you can go to another city and take up a job. But you cannot work in the plantation factory as a higher official where your parent is a labourer,” she informs. It took the artist 30 years to get a clarity on the real life political scenario in her town. She mentions about the "Pombilai Orumai" (Women's Unity) strike, the historic, nine-day labour uprising in September 2015. Over 5,000 female tea plantation workers in Munnar, Kerala, protested against low wages and poor bonuses. The movement made headlines for completely bypassing male-dominated trade unions and achieving a successful wage hike through grassroots solidarity. She admits that in many areas the situation remains the same. “The people are surviving mostly because of the support of the communist party. I'm not saying that they are doing great, but they are helping the people out,” she says.
Africa, she argues, has gnawing imprints of colonisation. Though rich in resources, they are showed in a poor light. Cobalt, blue-green algae, ivory, diamonds, cocoa — the continent's wealth gets exported while its people in most areas still keep suffering due to poverty. Nia says, "Africa is pictured as so muddy, dusty, and dirty always. But it's so colourful. The people are portrayed as uncivilised and problematic." To make that colour visible, she worked in a predominantly blue palette, referring to the blue algae that is now sold across Europe in beauty products and protein powders, and the cobalt mined from the continent. One of the most arresting pieces in the exhibition takes the shape of Padayappa, a wild elephant from Munnar. Inside his outline, Nia has painted the Maasai Mara, the African wildlife, and elephant sanctuaries, then drawn export routes on the ear of the elephant like wounds dressed in plaster. Elsewhere, a baby is etched on a bird flying upwards, a deliberate refusal to reproduce the image of patronised African childhood that western medias often show. "The children of the continent are often portrayed wearing oversized T- shirts, over emphasising their misery. The children deserve to be fed, provided with good education, clothes, and everything the rest of the world has. They need to be happy and that needs to be shown," shares Nia. Her works are indeed symbols of rage, of bleak reality.
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The writer-artist, who studied English Literature at Cauvery College for Women in Trichy and later pursued a PhD in film studies, spent five years as a programme director with Kerala's Information and Public Relations Department before resigning last year to dabble with the pen and paint brush full time. She published her debut poetry collection, Wildflower in a Saucepan, in 2024. Her latest fictional work, a satirical novel about the caste system in India is forthcoming in July.