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A Memory of Walls

Upward view of a massive concrete cantilevered overhang supported by columns at the University of Lagos, with vertical fins and a palm frond visible against the sky.

A Memory of Walls Uche Ibemere photographs the brutalist soul of the University of Lagos   The University of Lagos was not built to be beautiful. It was built to be permanent, a concrete declaration that independence would have institutions to match its ambitions. Constructed between the 1960s and 1980s, the campus is one of […]

Maputo’s Modernist Moment

Folded concrete church with angular roof forms against blue sky. Igreja de Santo António de Polana, modernist architecture in Maputo, Mozambique, designed by Nuno Craveiro Lopes, 1962.

Between the late 1940s and the early 1960s, in the city then called Lourenço Marques, a generation of architects produced a body of work

How Colonial Morality Still Polices African Fashion

How Colonial Morality Still Polices African Fashion FLY02238

How Colonial Morality Still Polices African Fashion Akamba Warrior (Kenya): Image No. 10768. Courtesy of Penn Museum Archives. Before colonial rule, most communities wore practical, hand-made garments: woven cotton wrappers in West Africa; smocks and robes for traders and farmers; leather and beadwork in parts of the Sahel and southern Africa; wool and barkcloth where […]

Inside the Rise of Africa’s Skateboarding Culture

Inside the Rise of Africa’s Skateboarding Culture Ethiopian Ladies Skate Team

  In Kampala, in a neighborhood called Kitintale, a half-pipe rises from the red earth. It is not polished concrete poured by a city planner or a glossy installation by a global sports brand. It is a handmade monument, built nearly twenty years ago by Jackson Mubiru, who believed Uganda’s children needed a place to […]

Sindiso Khumalo Debuts Flagship Store in Cape Town as a Love Letter to African Craft

Sindiso Khumalo Debuts Flagship Store in Cape Town as a Love Letter to African Craft Sindiso Khumalo Portrait 1

There are many facets to Sindiso Khumalo: She is, foremost, a designer whose textiles are instantly recognizable for their bold colors and hand-drawn prints. She is a storyteller who weaves African and Black history into contemporary fashion, creating a compelling bridge between different eras of design. Beyond that, she is an architect by training, an […]