There is a photograph in Andrew Dosunmu’s exhibition ‘The African Game’ that stops people cold. A shirtless man runs through a muddy lot, his back painted red, yellow, and green with the number nine, a flag streaming behind him. Since the show opened at ADAMA, the African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta, Fahamu Pecou, ADAMA’s founder and executive director, says he has watched at least 25 or 30 visitors pose beside it, mimicking the man’s stride.
“That image really grabs people,” said Pecou. “It also draws you into the space.”
The timing is intentional. ‘The African Game’ opened as the 2026 FIFA World Cup gets underway across the United States, Mexico, and Canada — and as a record ten African nations compete in the tournament for the first time. Dosunmu, a Nigerian-born photographer and filmmaker based between New York and Lagos, spent more than two decades traveling across nine African countries to make the images on view. The work centers not on players on the pitch, but on fans in the stands, the streets, and the spiritual preparations that precede every match.
Admission to ADAMA is free. The exhibition runs through July 25 at Pittsburgh Yards, 352 University Ave SW, Atlanta, GA 30310.
A museum built on a gap
Pecou founded ADAMA out of a recognition that Atlanta, despite its reputation as a Black cultural hub, had no civic-scale institution dedicated to contemporary Black art and culture.
“In a city like Atlanta that touts itself as a Black cultural Mecca, we did not have a civic-scale institution that reflected that,” Pecou said.
ADAMA does not limit its mission to objects on walls. Pecou describes the museum’s approach as “relanguaging” art — repositioning it as something lived rather than observed.
From Marrakesh to Pittsburgh Yards
The collaboration between Dosunmu and ADAMA began, as Pecou tells it, with a kind of serendipity. ADAMA had planned an exhibition tied to World Cup activity from the start, and early conversations centered on Moroccan photographer and installation artist Hassan Hajaj. During a group trip to Marrakesh for the 1-54 Art Fair, a journey Pecou organized for roughly 60 Atlantans, the group stopped at Hajaj’s restaurant, where an installation of ‘The African Game’ was on view. Dosunmu happened to be present.
“After seeing his work and hearing him talk about his passion for documenting the fan experience in the African diaspora around football, it was a no-brainer,” Pecou said. Dosunmu was also looking for a venue to show the work during the World Cup. “It just all came together beautifully.”
Dosunmu’s photography, Pecou notes, carries the same cinematic quality as his film work. “He has an ability to tell a story through a very small lens … to capture energy and movement and excitement in really powerful ways.”
Not the pitch — the people
The deliberate choice to center fans rather than players or gameplay is at the core of what Pecou sees ADAMA contributing to World Cup conversations. African nations, he argues, are frequently overlooked in discussions about football’s global culture, despite their long influence on the sport.
“Africa largely gets ignored in the conversations around the sport, despite the fact that we’ve been so influential,” Pecou said. “Highlighting the fan experience is really about demonstrating the way this is a community enterprise. A social enterprise.”
A short film accompanying the exhibition drives that point home. The narrator describes the rituals that precede any match: visits to spiritualists, to chiefs and shamans, the bringing out of gungun, prayers, ceremonies .
“Community is not a secondary thought,” Pecou said. “It’s at the heart of it.”
The exhibition design reflects that energy. Dosunmu worked with ADAMA on the floor plan to produce what Pecou describes as a rhythm — floor-to-ceiling prints interspersed with smaller framed moments, an installation that moves rather than sits still.
“It’s not static, it’s not sterile,” Pecou.“ It’s energy. There’s a vibration to it.”
What Pecou hopes visitors take away
Pecou describes a moment that happened the day before WABE Arts visited: a group from Curacao came through the gallery and immediately pulled out a phone to show Pecou a photo of one of their own painted fans.
“People walk in and they’re immediately excited,” he said. “I hope that excitement remains.”
For international visitors in Atlanta during the World Cup, Pecou hopes the exhibition offers a sense of recognition and affirmation. For Atlanta residents, he hopes it serves as a form of cultural education, evidence that the game and the art surrounding it belong to a community far larger than any single match or nation.
‘The African Game’ is on view at ADAMA through July 25. Admission is free. Donations are welcome.
