Akosua Paries-Osei is an award-winning artist-heritage practitioner who specialises in unlocking the hidden histories of medical and botanical resistance by African and Enslaved women during slavery and beyond. As a historian, Akosua explores natural history, fine art, museum collections, and colonial archives to document and visualise, through Video essays, the untold lives of African and enslaved women during the era of slavery and colonialism. The Black ArtChives was conceived to visualise this rich and diverse history through the critical lens of resistance and knowledge.
Akosua's work on the botanical and medical resistance of African and enslaved women is featured in the Natural History Museum's central Hintze Hall. She discusses the use of Aloe Vera by enslaved women as an act of reproductive resistance during slavery. Akosua's work on the botanical and medical knowledge of enslaved African in the New World will be featured in an upcoming international exhibition by the Science Museum.