Nigerian Who Created the Viral Illustration of a Black Foetus Intends to Sell it

A Nigerian illustrator and Chemistry graduate named Chidiebere Ibe recently illustrated the fetus of a pregnant black woman. He had his Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the University of Uyo in Nigeria. He plans to proceed to study at Kyiv Medical University, Ukraine, in 2022. The illustration has received attention beyond the expectation of the illustrator, especially on Twitter. This realization has made Chidiebere put the artwork out as an NFT at the set price of 10 ETH or approximately $38,000. The platform on which the artwork will be available for purchase is a cryptocurrency startup called OpenSea.

While announcing the sale of his art on Instagram, he (Chidiebere) mentioned that he would give part of the revenue from the sale of his art to help some initiatives he has been working on as a means of his social responsibility. This will help train, mentor, and empower those in need of it, such as young digital artists. He considers himself one of the many young creatives who have made it possible for works of digital artists to be listed as NFTs. In appreciating his work, most people cheered him, pointing out the uniqueness of his work being such that they have not personally seen such before.

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Speaking as to the inspiration for his illustration, he made it known that he considers himself an advocate for equality in health. He felt the only way he could contribute to the equality in question was through his medical illustrations. This is in line with research published in 2018, which found that less than 5% of medical textbooks' images portrayed dark skin tones. Concerning this study, Ni-ka Ford, the Committee Chair of the Association of Medical Illustrators, claimed such low graphical representation is traceable to the systemic racism in the healthcare sector, according to NBC News.