Woven Stories: 9 African Artists Shaping Contemporary Narratives Through Textiles
Textiles are more than material. They hold stories, histories and languages shaped through time. I think of them
The Image Belongs to Us
There’s a moment early in My Father’s Shadow where Lagos doesn’t announce itself. It just… is. A street. The quality of afternoon light on a wall you’ve definitely seen before. Children doing the specific nothing that children do in cities that haven’t been built for spectacle. I was in Cannes when I first saw it […]
Karibu Nairobi: Stamped and Approved
Sinatra Chumo on reclaiming the postage stamp as a site of cultural critique
The Hotels That Actually Know Where They Are
The Hotels That Actually Know Where They Are Cultural programming has become one of hospitality’s most overused promises. Here’s how to tell the difference between a hotel that has genuinely embedded itself in a place — and one that has simply dressed the lobby. Credit: HBD Principe – Oca Sundy Restaurant, Sundy Praia, Príncipe Island […]
The Jersey Economy: Why Africa Is the Most Valuable Untapped Market in Sports Merchandise
There is a version of this story that begins at a football match. Maybe it is a World Cup qualifier
Market Entry Is Not a Mood Board
Market Entry Is Not a Mood Board Why Brands Mistake Aesthetics for Infrastructure and What Credibility Actually Requires Photo: Carlos Idun In recent years, several major fashion houses have staged shows and campaigns across the African continent. Runway presentations in Dakar and Marrakech. Campaign shoots in Lagos and along the Kenyan coast. Capsule collections developed […]
A Memory of Walls
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 […]
Why Bonhams Is the Last Global Auction House With a Dedicated African Art Sale
On March 19, Bonhams holds its Modern & Contemporary African Art auction at New Bond Street. The lots tell a
Bal d’Afrique, on African Ground
Byredo’s new campaign was shot in Accra with a West African cast, a Burkinabè choreographer and a creative team spanning the continent and its diaspora. It may be the most structurally ambitious fragrance campaign of the year. Photography by Philip-Daniel Ducasse for Byredo Byredo’s new Bal d’Afrique campaign was shot in Accra, Ghana, and built […]
Between the Algorithm and the Altar
None of it has disappeared — the bridewealth, the communal celebration, the ceremony. But in the 2020s, something is shifting fast.