In 2004 Donkor made a series of paintings titled 'Caribbean Passion: Haiti 1804' to mark the bicentenary of Haiti's independence after the successful uprising by liberated slaves against French colonial rule in what then was Saint-Dominique (now Haiti). The series included the two paintings 'Toussaint L'Ouverture At Bedourete' (2004) and 'Bacchus & Ariadne' (2004) which the gallery will present at Independent, New York in May 2023. 'Toussaint L'Ouverture At Bedourete' draws on C.L.R.James's description of L'Ouverture's defiance in the face of the French army. It also has a very deliberate dialogic relation to Jacques Louis David's celebrated 1801 painting 'Napoleon Crossing the Alps'. David's painting celebrated Napoleon's 1797 invasion of Italy, presenting a triumphant vision of Napoleon crossing the mountains separating France and Italy on his horse. At the same time of that invasion however, Toussaint L'Ouverture was leading freed slaves against French forces in Saint-Dominique, an event given far less prominence in western history than Napoleon's invasion over the Alps. Donkor's painting re-asserts this erased part of history. In Donkor's painting the figure of L'Ouverture might be understood as facing off or ready to combat David's Napoleon. For whilst there is a clear visual echo of David's painting, L'Ouverture and his horse are positioned facing out towards the right of the canvas (as the viewer looks at it), mirroring the pose of Napoleon and his horse in David's painting, who face left. If the paintings were hung side-by-side with Donkor's on the left, L’Ouverture and Napoleon would be facing each other, ready for battle. In this way the painting might be understood as answering back to the Western canon.