A Modern African Tarot

This card marks the beginning of a powerful journey—a series of African-themed Major Arcana reimaginings that will culminate in the final card: The World. Each card in this series is designed to reflect modern African life, symbolism, and spirit, offering a fresh lens through which to explore timeless archetypes. We begin, as all journeys do, with O FOOL.

The Fool is the number O, it represents infinite potential, the void, and the beginning of all creation. It is both nothing and everything—a paradox that symbolizes the fertile ground from which all existence emerges. The Everything.

In traditional tarot, The Fool represents new beginnings, spontaneity, and the leap of faith. The Rider–Waite version depicts a carefree youth stepping toward a cliff, accompanied by a small dog and carrying a white rose. While iconic, this imagery is steeped in European medieval symbolism—castles, tunics, and allegorical innocence. For many Africans, it feels distant, even alien.

O FOOL, by contrast, is grounded in the here and now. The figure walks confidently through a neighborhood of wooden houses, framed by a modern city skyline. He wears a green shirt, blue tie, and dark trousers—attire that speaks to ambition, professionalism, and urban identity. His glasses suggest clarity and intellect, while the Six Pointed Figure pendant hints at spiritual depth and ancestral connection. This is not a naive wanderer; this is a seeker who knows where he comes from, even if he doesn’t yet know where he’s going.

The path beneath his feet is symbolic: it bridges tradition and modernity. The wooden homes evoke rural roots, community, and generational wisdom. The city skyline represents aspiration, progress, and the unknown future. The sky is open, scattered with clouds—suggesting both possibility and uncertainty. This Fool is not stepping off a cliff; he is walking forward with purpose, navigating the real terrain of African life.

The card’s color palette—warm earth tones and vibrant greens—reinforces its grounded energy. It speaks to growth, vitality, and rootedness. Unlike the Rider–Waite’s solitary rose, this Fool carries no flower. His adornment is cultural, not ornamental. The necklace is a symbol of spiritual inheritance, not romantic idealism.

O FOOL invites us to rethink what it means to begin. In African contexts, beginnings are rarely isolated. They are communal, ancestral, and often tied to rites of passage. This card honors that complexity. It suggests that the journey of self-discovery is not a whimsical escape but a deliberate walk through layered realities—economic, spiritual, cultural.

This reinterpretation also challenges the notion of foolishness. In many African traditions, the fool is not a clown but a truth-teller, a disruptor, a sacred outsider. O FOOL embodies that energy. He is not lost—he is choosing to walk a path that others may not yet understand. His journey is not reckless; it is radical. It is a refusal to conform to inherited scripts that do not reflect his lived experience.

As the first card in this series, O FOOL sets the tone for what’s to come: a deck that speaks to African identity, modern life, and spiritual depth. It is a mirror for those who have long searched for themselves in the cards and found only foreign reflections. This deck is not just a reinterpretation—it is a reclamation.

Watch this space—the next card in the series is The Magician, reimagined through African symbolism and power. The journey has only just begun.

All images in this series, including “O FOOL,” are AI‑generated. They are used here as creative visual interpretations to accompany the written narrative. The intent is to blend modern technology with African symbolism, offering readers a fresh lens on the tarot archetypes.