Ibrahim Mahama, the world-renowned Ghanaian contemporary artist ranked No. 1 on ArtReview‘s 2025 Power 100 list and the first African artist ever to hold that distinction was allegedly assaulted by Ghana police officers in Tamale on Saturday, March 21, 2026. The incident has triggered a wave of outrage from Ghana’s art community and renewed urgent calls to address systemic police brutality in the country.
The Incident
On the evening of March 21, Mahama, along with members of his family, was returning from prayers at a mosque when their bus became stuck in a traffic jam near the Mariam Hotel junction in Tamale. According to accounts attributed to the artist, a team of Ghana Police Service personnel, believed to be part of the Inspector-General’s Special Operations Team, known as the “Black Maria” attempted to force their way through the congested traffic. When a passenger on the bus questioned the officers’ conduct, the police allegedly ordered the vehicle to stop and, after further exchanges with passengers, turned on those inside.
Mahama, who had been recording the unfolding scene on his phone, says officers physically assaulted him and his uncle, forcibly seized his device, and deleted the footage he had captured. As a result of the attack, he sustained serious injuries including a broken front tooth and was subsequently admitted to a private hospital in Tamale for treatment.
The Ghana Police Service has disputed the account. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Jalil stated that officers were, in fact, acting as protectors — intervening to prevent a mob of frustrated road users from attacking the driver and his companions. However, Mahama has firmly rejected this version of events, describing the ordeal as a “brutal assault” and “a violation of his rights from beginning to end”.
Official Response
The incident drew swift response from authorities. The Northern Regional Minister, Hon. Ali Adolf Mboridiba, assured the public that the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) would not tolerate such acts of lawlessness and that those found culpable would be held accountable. The Inspector General of Police (IGP), COP Christian Tetteh-Yohuno, has directed the Police Professional Standards Bureau (PPSB) to launch a formal investigation into the matter.
Art Community Speaks Out
In a strongly worded press release, members of Ghana’s art community, led by the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA), Tamale, and co-signed by Red Clay Studio, the Foundation for Contemporary Art Ghana, and Compound House Gallery condemned the attack in unequivocal terms. The statement described the incident as “a gross abuse of power” and called it emblematic of a wider culture of police brutality that ordinary Ghanaians face routinely.
The signatories have made three explicit demands: a full, transparent, and independent investigation into the incident; the immediate identification and swift prosecution of the perpetrators; and concrete, permanent steps by the Police Hierarchy to address systemic excesses within the Ghana Police Service.
Who Is Ibrahim Mahama?
Born in 1987 in Tamale, Ibrahim Mahama is one of the most significant contemporary artists of his generation. He studied painting and sculpture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, graduating in 2013. His practice is rooted in the transformation of discarded, industrial materials — most distinctively, jute sacks previously used in Ghana’s cocoa and charcoal trade, which he stitches together with teams of collaborators to create vast textile installations that drape across entire buildings and public spaces.
His work is a meditation on labor, extraction, migration, and the unresolved socio-political legacies of colonialism in Africa. By elevating everyday objects that bear the physical marks of human toil, worn, stained, and repaired into monumental public art, Mahama transforms the invisible labor of workers into collective, visible memory. Notable projects include Out of Bounds at the 2015 Venice Biennale and A Straight Line Through the Carcass of History, which has been exhibited in Athens, Kassel, and New York.
Sources: Press Release issued by the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art and co-signatories (March 2026); GhanaWeb; MyJoyOnline; ArtReview; White Cube; Artsy.
Athmaja Biju is the Editor at Abir Pothi. She is a Translator and Writer working on Visual Culture.
