The Masters Africa Can Still Afford
Ayo Adeyinka left finance to deal in modern African art. As his gallery takes Lamidi Fakeye to Frieze Masters, he makes a case for buying the continent’s masters while they remain within reach, and giving their work a life beyond private collections.
The Commercial Life of African Culture
Ownership, rights and distribution shape who profits from the African creative economy, from wax print and photography to Afrobeats.
The Art of African Braiding, Through the Eyes of Gen Z
In many African cultures, hair can carry stories from one generation to another. Through braiding and threading techniques, a simple change in appearance can become meaningful, representing different statuses and stages across an individual’s lifespan. Hair traditions were therefore fundamental to a community’s identity, often signifying the crown of its kinship and the core of […]
Filhas do Barro / Daughters of Clay
On Santiago, Cape Verde, seven women potters speak of the livelihoods they have built in clay and the knowledge they will leave to their daughters. “Clay has been my source of livelihood,” one of the women says early in Filhas do Barro. “Ever since I started working alongside my mother, clay has been my school.” […]
The Protocol Is the Border
The download button is easy to find. The condition above it belongs to every person whose voice is inside the file, and it is the easiest thing on the page to miss. DhoNam is a Dholuo speech dataset stewarded by the Maseno Centre for Applied Artificial Intelligence in Kenya and hosted on Mozilla Data Collective. […]
Whose Taste Is It Anyway? The Cultural Renaissance of the African Home
In the 2009 published book Yoruba Proverbs and Philosophy, author and traditional leader Chief F.I. Sotunde coined the term “westernosomiasis,” a condition he believed was draining African youth of cultural pride, treating their heritage with indifference while embracing anything Western. He wrote about what was at stake for future generations and the significance of returning […]
Young African Photographers Are Looking Back
In 2024, a Nigerian hit found a second life on social media. “Who Get Dat Thing (Remix),” by Dekumzy featuring Slow Dog and Stormrex, began circulating after a group of young Nigerian women recreated the choreography to Stormrex’s verse, dressed in the exaggerated glamour of the late 1990s and early 2000s: fitted tops, low-rise bottoms, […]
Who Made the Welcome
The lion began with a schoolgirl’s drawing. Ndeye Mariama Diop drew the character selected through a national school competition. A second student, Ndeye Khady Kristall Coumbassa, supplied its name. Together their contributions became Ayo, the mascot of the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games. Senegal’s education authorities credit them both. The ministry reports more than 500 […]
From Korhogo Cloth to Digital Print: Alia Baré and the Language of Senufo Textiles
The garments in Alia Baré’s SS26 collection move the way the cloth that inspired them never could. Stylised birds, animals, human figures and hatched borders travel across dresses cut long and light, in a fabric made to drape and follow the body. The imagery is Senufo. The fabric carrying it is not. The Korhogo cloth […]
Yemi Alade, In Her Own Name
It is a blazing noon in the second week of March 2026 when the Grammy-nominated artist Yemi Alade presses record on a “Get Ready With Me” video. She begins with a meditative hook, her eyes closed, her hands pressed together solemnly. In the same measured succession, she works moisturising cream into her face before turning […]