Abayomi’s first journey to Africa took her to Dakar, Senegal, and led her to Gorée Island — a place that is filled with tourist destinations for many, but for her, it held haunting silence and historical weight. From a distance, the island beauty, bathed in soft hues of pink, blue, and yellow. But no amount of color can conceal the painful legacy of the memory of enslaved Africans whose last sight of their homeland was through the Door of No Return.

Passing through the door, she felt an overwhelming sorrow, knowing that some of her ancestors may have passed through that very passage, torn from their families, stripped of their names, and cast into the Belly of the Beast.

The doors at Gorée are more than architectural features; they are portals of memory. They symbolize the severing of African ancestors from land, language, and lineage. Being there deepened her understanding of the wounds of enslavement and the generational longing for belonging, identity, and cultural clarity.

This experience affirmed Abayomi’s need to create art that speaks to loss, memory, and the healing that can come from looking back to move forward.