To me, Black History Month means the celebration of Black heritage, culture, beauty, and the unity of everyone around the world with African ethnic descent. I tried to tie all these concepts into the cover piece by depicting a laughing Black woman decorated in gold, with the pan-African flag colours in the background. The pan-African flag colours — red, black, and green — represent the bloodshed of Africans who died in the fight for liberation, the colour of their skin, and the fertility of their land. I thought it was an important flag to include because of the ideology behind it: solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora ethnic groups of African descent, which is a major theme of Black History Month.
Makena Mwenda designed the cover of The Varsity‘s Issue 18 in celebration of Black History Month.