In Sentinela-Kinda by Antonio Obá two figures stand guard around a tomb. In the background there is what appears to be a city, but is in fact a cemetery. On top of the grave a flowering camellia tree grows, a historic symbol of abolition and resistance. The artist imagined the two figures as one person, both mourning and experiencing a rebirth at the same time through different stages in life. The figure in the background is a young choir boy singing while crying who becomes the figure in the foreground in the yellow shirt holding a lit candle, as if guiding the path for those to come. The young boy is experiencing a death and is reborn through the fire of the candle. Obá cites the 15th century Adoration of the Magi by Gentile da Fabriano as a reference for the compositional structure of Sentinela-Kinda which has an episodic quality. The work tells a story frame by frame, creating a sequence.
Sentinela-Kinda includes the Kicongo word Kinda, Kicongo is an Afro- Brazilian language spoken by a few in Minas Gerais, Brazil derived from the Bantu languages of Angola and Congo. It translates to “be strong”. But this strength is related to death, an honoring of deceased ancestors. It also means to be upside down, that is, to be with your head underground facing your buried ancestors.

Sentinela-Kinda celebrated deceased relatives, their memory and honor, as well as their strength. The tomb brings together notions of grief, death, and the end of life, but at the same time an affirmation of the presence of continuity in the cycles of life as expressed by the camellia flowers in full bloom.