Ibrahim Mahama, the Ghanaian artist who topped ArtReview's Power 100 list in 2025, the first African artist ever to hold that distinction, was allegedly beaten by police officers in Tamale, Ghana, on March 21, after Eid-ul-Fitr prayers. He has since announced plans to pursue legal action.
According to Mahama, his vehicle became caught in a traffic jam near the Mariam Hotel junction when officers from the Inspector General of Police's Special Operations Team, known as the Black Maria, attempted to force their way through. When a passenger in his bus questioned their conduct, the officers entered the vehicle. Mahama began recording on his phone. He says they forced him to unlock the device, deleted his footage, and then beat him and his uncle. He was hospitalized and treated for injuries, including a broken tooth, rib pain, recurring headaches, and dental instability. He has described the ordeal as a "brutal assault" and "a violation of his rights from beginning to end."
The Ghana Police Service has disputed the account, with the Northern Regional Police Command stating the Black Maria unit was not operating in the city at the time. A deputy superintendent said officers were in fact intervening to protect Mahama and his companions from an angry crowd. Mahama has flatly rejected that version of events. The Inspector General of Police has since ordered an independent investigation through the Police Professional Standards Bureau.
At a press conference in Tamale on March 23, Mahama confirmed he intends to take the officers to court. He was scheduled to deliver lectures this week at Cambridge, Oxford, and the Royal College of Art, then travel to Helsinki, Amsterdam, and South Africa for additional art events. All of those commitments have been cancelled. "I cannot really sleep at night because my ribs are still sore from the assault," he said. "I'll be a bit incapacitated within the studio and just trying to recover my health, at least within the next couple of months."
Ghana's Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Abla Dzifa Gomashie, issued a statement of support and said she had engaged the Minister for the Interior, who assured her of full cooperation in identifying those responsible. The Northern Regional Minister called the attack unacceptable and noted that Mahama holds a diplomatic passport, issued by Ghana's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in recognition of his contributions to the country's creative sector.
The art institutions Mahama founded — the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art, Red Clay Studio, and Nkrumah Volini — released a joint statement calling the incident "a disturbing act of police brutality" and used it to call attention to broader patterns of police violence affecting ordinary Ghanaians. Mahama is known internationally for his large-scale installations made from stitched jute sacks, which explore labor, colonialism, and industrial history. His work has appeared at the Venice Biennale, the Bienal de São Paulo, and major institutions across Europe and the United States.
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