NATAAL ISSUE 3

UK £19

2 July 2022 – 16 April 2023

Supported by

With additional support from

Photography Lakin Ogunbanwo, Creative direction NATAAL, 2022 © V&A

ISSUE 3

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Words MIRIAM BOUTEBA

NATAAL

WELCOME

For this issue of Nataal, we asked our global community of contributors to explore what ‘beauty’ means to them. We’re wide open to the glorious diversity and personal promise held within this loaded word, and eager to celebrate the fine art of looking and feeling good. Whether it’s an attitude, a point of view, a sense of inner confidence, an expression of identity, or simply the power that comes from a slick of red lipstick, beauty can be experienced in myriad ways, and we’re here for all of that. So, from moving poetry and invigorating conversations, to uplifting visual tales that take us across five continents, the stories you’ll discover here are setting new standards.

This issue is also a special collaboration with London’s Victoria & Albert museum for its landmark show, Africa Fashion, which charts style on the continent from the independence era to the present day. Our dedicated end section of the magazine profiles some of the most vital next-generation designers, photographers and artists shaping African creativity, while our short exhibition film, Who Dey Shake by Lakin Ogunbanwo, captures the unadulterated joy of donning your favourite outfit and dancing like everyone’s watching. If that’s not a beautiful moment, then what is?

With love from Team Nataal

CONTENTS FRONT MATTER

WELCOME

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TEAM

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CONTRIBUTORS

STORIES

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MASCULIN BLEUTÉ

Power and poetry meet in a visual feast from Cameroon by Njaheut Gilles Valer

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MERYEM SLIMANI

A masterclass in making your mother an Instagram star

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WHERE GOOD THINGS FLOW

The joy of gap teeth by artist Precious Opara

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OJWOOOK

The emerging imagemaker leading us through Kenyan culture

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OBONGJAYAR

The musician slaying devils and touching hearts with an unparalleled sound

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MAKE THE CONNECTION

Joburg-based brand Viviers hit reset with its new collection

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A LOVE LETTER TO RESISTANCE

Rapper and activist Lowkey on the beauty of horizontal solidarity

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AZRA KHAMISSA

The henna artist whose style breathes new life into the ancient practice

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GHOST ISLAND

Lisandro Suriel’s spiritual body of work from Saint Martin

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CASSI NAMODA

The fine artist in conversation with curator Jessica Bell Brown

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GRACE NOTES

Four poems reflect on the pleasure and pain of being human

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IBEYI

Twins Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Díaz reveal the alchemy behind their music

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BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

Ivorian jewellery brand Ohiri honours the Crocodile King

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JOYCE AND WILFRED CISSE

The brother-sister duo on spreading love, beauty and empowerment through music

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GOOD HAIR

Egyptian photographer Najla Said questions societal norms surrounding hair

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ALTERED IMAGES

Where is the melanin in the metaverse?

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SHIFTING THE GAZE

Three South African beauty disruptors redefine the industry on their own terms

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MOSES SUMNEY

The Ghanaian-American indie darling on vampires, self-love and skincare rituals

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FASHION

AFRICA FASHION AT THE V&A

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A LITTLE MAGIC

EKUA KING

102

MOKORO

KRISTIN-LEE MOOLMAN

108

DAKAR DREAMING

MALICK BODIAN

118

DOUBLE TROUBLE

MICHELLE MARSHALL

124

SLOANE RANGERS

STÉPHANE GABOUÉ

134

J’AI DEUX AMOURS

AXLE JOZEPH

140

HEAD START

STEPHEN TAYO

150

TRAVESÍA MELODÍA

OLGA DE LA IGLESIAS

158

CHAOS THEORY

AHMED CHREDIY

168

EAST LOS

STIG DE BLOCK

176

TOGO YEYE

DELALI AYIVI

188

OH MOTHER CITY

NICK VAN TIEM

198

FOLIA DE REIS

GLEESON PAULINO

210

CATCHING A FLOWING RIVER IN A CALABASH

Dr Christine Checinska introduces the Africa Fashion exhibition

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WHO DEY SHAKE

Lakin Ogunbanwo captures the pleasure of dancing in your finest clothes

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THE FRAME GAME

Four fearless photographers driving new perspectives on modern Ghana

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AFROTOPIA

Ekow Eshun, Selly Raby Kane and Sunny Dolat talk Afrofuturism in fashion

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DREAM WEAVERS

Innovations in African textiles draw on heritage to take craft forward

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GEN NEXT

The new wave of streetwear brands from Cape Town and Lagos

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NATAAL

TEAM Creative Director MARIE GOMIS-TREZISE

Editorial Director

Design Director JOEL ANTOINE-WILKINSON

Associate Editor MIRIAM BOUTEBA

Art Directors PRECIOUS OPARA UDO EMEKA-OKAFOR

Senior Editor KAREN CHUNG Editorial Assistant BLESSING BORODE

Social Media Editor XANTHE SOMERS

Photography KENNY GERMÉ

Intern ASWAN MAGUMBE

Photography DELALI AYIVI

CONTRIBUTORS Aartthie Mahakuperan, Abigail Oghene, Adriano Salustino, Ahmed Chrediy, Akébéhi Kpolo, Alessandra Gomes, Alex Zuazola, Alexis Tsegba, Alice Mann, Alina Larissa Schmid, Amal Solomons, Annie Davis, Anya Defries, Archie Carter, Arthur Comely, Aurélia Felley, Avrelle Delisser, Axle Jozeph, Ayo Babatope, Barbara Ayozie Fu Safira, Bella Meyer, Benedict Moore, Bloco de Pedra, Caíque Marciano, Carl van der LindeImage, Caroline Daniels, Cassandra Scalia, Cassiano Reis, Catalina Sartor, Charlotte Cook, Charlotte Mensah, Chieska Fortune Smith, Christine Ajudua, Claire Laugeois, Colin Scanagatta, Connie NG, Corey Winston, Cynthia Laurence-John, Delali Ayivi, Dessireé, Diane Vincent, Donica Campbell, Eddie Lopez Bautista, Edem Dossou, Edima Willie, Ekow Barnes, Ekua King, Elenor Williams, Elza Rauza, Emma Friend, Emmanuel Affedzie, Emmanuelle Atlan, Eva Losada, Federico Covarelli, Felix Paradza, Francesca Daniella, Francesco Mbele, Frederick Stisted, George Zenko, Georgia Kuhn, Giorgio T-D, Gleeson Paulino, Gwen Joncour, Hanna Kelifa, Harry Buck, Ian Ribeiro, Imran Mohamed, Irene Chichi, Itziar Nzang, Jacob Kajrup, Jahnvi Sharma, Jess Williams, Joel Honeywell, Judah Odei, Jude Lartey, Justine Foord, Kacey

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Photography EKUA KING

Amoo, Kader Diaby, Karen Avenell, Karen Louise, Katarzyna Postaremczak, Kenny Germé, Kenya Vallet, Khumo Morojele, King Owusu, Kristin Lee Moolman, Lady Barbara Ayozie Fu Safira, Lakin Ogunbanwo, Laura Dominique, Lauren Bell, Lila Steinkampf, Lithemba Velleman, Lola Ogunnaike, Lorella Bianco, Lorena Maza, Louise Done, Louise Ford, Lowkey, Luana Lorena, Lucca Saad, Luke Bennett, Luke Ncube, Magnus Honeybourne, Makoto Tsunoda, Malaika Nabilah, Malaurie Accrombessi, Malick Bodian, Mariam Abu, Marie Reitner, Mariona den Tuinder, Martin Kofi Yeboah, Mata Marielle, Mattie White, Maycon Felix, MC Barnes, Meghan Green, Megumi Matsuno, Melissa Morena, Michelle Marshall, Michelle Nyarko, Monica LLonch, Monique Watson, Najla Said, Naomi Kaji, Nathan Klein, Neil Kwessi Bakar, Nicolas Leite, Nick van Tiem, Njaheut Gilles Valer, Okoli Isaac, Olachukwu Offor, Olga de la Iglesia, Olivier Duperrin, Petros Poyiatgi, Philip Smith, Phoebe Walters, Phong Luu, Piotr Chamier, Rafael Paiva, Raphael Tepedino, Rebecca Ilse, Rebecca Tinkler, Rendani Nemakhavhani, Roberto Frusciante, Rogers Ouma, Romaine Foster, Ronita Awoonor-Gordon, Ronita Temitayo, Roy Brandys, Ruby Okoro, Ryo Narushima, Salomé Gomis-Trezise,

HELEN JENNINGS

Founder ALASSANE SY

Contributing Editors AMBER NICOLE ALSTON BINWE ADEBAYO STÉPHANE GABOUÉ WANJERI GAKURU

Managing Director SCOTT KRAENZLEIN

Shoot production RAY OKUDZETO TONIA ARAPOVIC

Advisor KRISTINA TUNKRANS LIDEHORN

Photography STEPHEN TAYO

Photography GLEESON PAULINO

Sammy Cullis, Sam Storey, Seyon Amosu, Shamara Roper, Shirley Amartey, Sophie Strobele, Soraya Yasmin Gartoua Zilati, Stephen Tayo, Stig de Block, Suze Kuit, Tahiyah Ali, Tanatswa Gumbwa, Tatiana Chalhoub, Theresa Obeng, Toby Norman, Tomi Roppongi, Wai Lin, Webster Ojara, Yaa Addae, Yann Turchi, Yelena Grelet, Yosa Nosa, Yumiko Hakige, Zateesha Barbour, Zazá Pacego THANK YOU Benjamin Johnson, Christine Checinska, Constanza Sperakis, Daniel Olatunji, Ekow Eshun, Falana, Georgina Dawson, Ireti Zaccheaus, Isabela Lima, Jessica Bell Brown, Lorelle Aboagye, Mario Ogle, Peter Jennings, Polaroid, Sara Hemming, Saoud Khalaf, Selly Raby Kane, Sofiane Si Merabet, Studio Private, Studio RM, Sunny Dolat ADVERTISING JB Media PRE-PRESS Tapestry PRINTERS Pure Print DISTRIBUTION Antenne

Brand Partnerships ANITA ASANTE

Photography ALICE MANN

TYPEFACE DESIGN Haakon Spencer & Matthew Fenton at British Standard Type NATAAL online Visit us at nataal.com Follow us at @nataalmedia Nataal magazine is published by Nataal Ltd. 92–96 De Beauvoir Road, London, N1 4EN For all enquiries: info@nataal.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, reprinted or transmitted without permission from the publishers. Although the greatest care is taken to ensure all information contained in Nataal is accurate, neither the publisher nor the authors can accept responsibility for damage resulting from the use of this information. The views and opinions expressed in Nataal magazine are those of the contributors and are not necessarily shared by the magazine or its staff. Every effort has been made to contact the copyright owners of the images and texts in this issue. Any copyright holders we have not reached, or to whom inaccurate acknowledgement has been made, are invited to contact us.

ISSN 2515 9631

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CONTRIBUTORS

LOWKEY

JESSICA BELL BROWN

CHARLOTTE MENSAH

YAA ADDAE

GLEESON PAULINO

EKUA KING

LOLA OGUNNAIKE

BARBARA AYOZIE FU SAFIRA

SORAYA YASMIN GARTOUA ZILATI

DELALI AYIVI

WE GET TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER WITH SOME OF THE ARTISTS WHO FILLED THIS ISSUE WITH AN ABUNDANCE OF BEAUTY 10

NATAAL

LOWKEY Lowkey is a renowned hip hop artist, academic and political activist as well as a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

For this issue he has written a personal response on the theme of horizontal solidarity across borders and divisions.

What does beauty mean to you?

“Beauty is contained in subtle expressions of love between people. It is found in quiet moments of vulnerability. In addition to those manifestations, I see it as holding daring leaps of faith taken to assert the humanity of others in the face of what Edward Said called, ‘the normalised quiet of unseen power’.”

JESSICA BELL BROWN Jessica is Curator and Department Head for Contemporary Art at the Baltimore Museum of Art, as well as a writer and art historian. Her research focuses on relationships between form, Black radicalism and abstraction in 20th-century African-American art. A PhD candidate at Princeton, her writing has appeared in Flash Art, Artforum, Art Papers and The Brooklyn Rail. This issue she talks to fine artist Cassi Namoda.

sustainability across the world. Charlotte worked with photographer Stephen Tayo to create this issue’s hair story celebrating the beauty of Blackness, Africanness, and natural hair in her native Ghana.

GLEESON PAULINO Gleeson Paulino has travelled the world as a photographer, his vision driven by imagining a future that is inclusive, diverse and sustainable. He currently calls São Paulo home, where his editorial clients include the What is your idea of beauty?

Brazilian editions of Vogue, Elle and GQ. In this issue Gleeson shoots a fashion narrative “Beauty is embracing yourself for who you are.” inspired by Folia de Reis, a folkloric festival from southern Brazil.

YAA ADDAE What does beauty mean to you?

Yaa is a curator, writer and artist who works as a community researcher at design studio “Beauty is in every corner, and it depends Comuzi. Their practice is informed by the on us how we perceive it. It’s an interior liberatory power of the imagination, play manifestation.” and restorative love economics: bringing love to the systemically under-loved.

Here they profiles four young Ghanaian LADY BARBARA AYOZIE FU SAFIRA photographers for our V&A section.

Barbara is a dreamer, costume stylist and art director who uses style and elegance as What does beauty mean to you? her tool of communication and expression.

She has collaborated with Wizkid, Little “Toni Morrison said, ‘Beauty is not simply Simz, Cleo Sol and contributed to GlassBook, something to behold; it is something one Hunger and Vogue Italia. For Nataal she styles musician Obongjayar and our can do’, and that about sums it up for me.”

Emolyne make-up story.

What does beauty mean to you?

LOLA OGUNNAIKE Lola is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, “Beauty is something that captures the pure essence of your soul. Growing up in the Architectural Digest, GQ and Rolling Stone. She’s interviewed an array of Italian countryside with Nigerian parents, What does beauty mean to you? luminaries, among them First Lady the notion of beauty was taught to me Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Charlize within simplicity and nature. It’s my duty as “Beauty to me is ease. It is both a kind of Theron, Kanye West and Robert De Niro. an artist to distil all of this into a code that fearlessness and a mode of surrender to the She is also a commentator on CNN and future generations will use as a guide to marvelousness of every present moment.”

MSNBC and recently began the Well Suited harmony and peace.” podcast. Here, she interviews cover star Moses Sumney about everything from skincare to vampires.

EKUA KING DELALI AYIVI Ekua is a London-based photographer Delali is a photographer and former Nataal What is your idea of beauty? who takes inspiration from her Jamaican art director based in London and Lomé.

Her work aims to contribute to a diversified heritage to inform her warm fashion “External beauty is ephemeral. Internal beauty narrative of Black communities and lives. and portrait images. She has shot for is everlasting.”

Delali was named Its Nice That Graduate publications including Luncheon, Porter of 2020 and in 2021 she was selected for and i-D and brands such as Selfridges and FOAM Talent, Photo Vogue Festival and Nike. She lenses our Emolyne cover story SORAYA YASMIN GARTOUA ZILATI the Taylor Wessing Photography Prize. For featuring six models who reflect a wide Soraya aka Cuentos Rosales is a Nataal, she continues her Togo Yeye project spectrum of African beauty. multidisciplinary artist who uses digital highlighting young Togolese creatives. self-portraits as a form of expression What does beauty mean to you?

What does beauty mean to you? that’s inspired by her dreams and Imazighen culture. Soraya collaborated “I got burnt on my right arm when I was six “I think beauty is nature. As artists we with photographer Olga de la Iglesia for months old, so I don’t know life without spend much of our time trying to recreate my scar. My mama always bought jewellery a fashion shoot in Spain that explores the idea of being a contemporary immigrant the effortlessness that is naturally created. for my arm and hand because she never Beauty is difference and symmetry. It is wanted me to be embarrassed or scared to citizen coming from a millennia-old ancestral culture and features a cast of what makes us unique and what binds show it, so to me, my burn is beauty.” talents with North African roots. us. Beauty is as beauty does, regardless of whether contemporary discourses of What does beauty mean to you? beauty and aesthetic recognise it as such.”

CHARLOTTE MENSAH Charlotte is an award-winning hairstylist, “Beauty is a sensation that crosses the owner and artistic director of the Hair soul and makes the heart dance. Beauty Lounge salon in London and founder of the Charlotte Mensah Manketti Oil product is unique and often depends on the gaze range. She launched her charity, The that perceives it. But for me, it’s always Love Naa Densua Foundation, in 2020, something that only the uniqueness of the to facilitate entrepreneurship and selfsoul identifies and tastes.”

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Words HELEN JENNINGS

Photography NJAHEUT

NATAAL

MASCULIN BLEUTÉ

PHOTOGRAPHER NJAHEUT GILLES VALER UPENDS IDEAS OF MASCULINITY

Njaheut Gilles Valer, from the ongoing series Masculin Bleuté

Nataal is honoured to debut these photos by Njaheut Gilles Valer, his first series captured in Cameroon. The artist and creative director was born in Douala, Cameroon, but moved to Brussels aged 10. Over the past decade, his portraiture has increasingly questioned gender, sexual and ethnic stereotypes. Here, he reveals the events that led to the making of Masculin Bleuté, an evolving project.

“I went to Cameroon last summer to see family and reconnect with my home after 10 years away. I didn’t know whether to bring my camera. My dad encouraged me to take it but urged me to be careful because people can see photography as part of spiritual rituals.

The first week was all big smiles, good food and hugging my family. I was just in the NATAAL

moment. I hadn’t planned to shoot but you can’t control it; sometimes your camera calls to you. I saw a guy and was like, damn he’s got something. I discovered we were distant cousins so we started talking about culture and art and he told me I was the first person to ever ask him about these things, and so we decided to shoot.

Yaoundé is surrounded by seven hills and at the top of one is the famous Hotel Mont Fébé. The views are incredible and the nature is savage. We climbed up there one morning at sunrise. He undressed down to his shorts and I gave him a veil, which I like as it creates mystique. And I found a flower that was very shiny and bright. Somehow it felt like a revelation to me. I took a few frames and knew we had drawn on everything surrounding us.

Words HELEN JENNINGS

These pictures now form part of my series Masculin Bleuté, which I started in Belgium, and which explores the femininity, sensitivity and poetry in men. I think there are certain expectations of Black men that they always have to convey power, but in these images they say, ‘Yes, I am young, strong and powerful but I also have poetry and beauty’.

This is one of the first steps in my journey of using light and shadow in tandem with an object to try to represent a person’s whole existence. The reason I started here is simply because that is my reality, but I also want to expand this work to include all types of people. We are all humans regardless of our race so I want to interpret things and go beyond appearance to portray the rich complexity of our identities.”

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Words HELEN JENNINGS

Photography NJAHEUT

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Words HELEN JENNINGS

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16 Meryem Slimani, Undefeated, 2020, courtesy Hama Gallery

Words PHONG LUU

NATAAL

MERYEM SLIMANI

A MASTERCLASS IN MAKING YOUR MOTHER AN INSTAGRAM STAR

Najate Leklye and Meryem Slimani photographed by Cye Wong-Loi-Sing

“There was this grandma I saw on Instagram, Baddie Winkle, who was really OTT with her skimpy outfits. And I thought, ‘This is an older white lady but what if an older Muslim woman was the centre of attention?’” That lightbulb moment proved a gamechanger for Meryem Slimani. Initially the Rotterdam-based creative behind cult account @meryemsfirst had tried to cut through into body-positivity and streetwear circles, but she’d found them a crowded and unwelcoming space. It was only when she buddied up with her mother, Najate Leklye, that she hit Insta-gold.

Sixty-nine years old, Muslim and an immigrant, Leklye is a singularity in the influencer pantheon, although it’s easy to see her draw.

Her style is a fusion of traditional Moroccan dress plus streetwear and designer pieces – a leopard-print djellaba accessorised with a Nike baseball cap and Telfar bag, for instance.

She’s flamboyant, fun and quite unexpected.

“There was no one else doing what we were doing and so it grabbed everyone’s attention,” says Slimani. These portraits were originally intended to amuse her mother while she was NATAAL

undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer in 2016, but the duo has since attracted 78k followers (and counting), and also appeared in campaigns for Daily Paper, Uniqlo and Ace & Tate among others. Affirming as these are, for Slimani they were only ever a means to an end – to make their lives visible. “I just want our story to be seen and heard.”

As a young teacher, Leklye had emigrated to the small Dutch town of Schoonhoven in the 1980s, and started giving Arabic lessons to fellow newcomers – doing much to bring the local community together. She was later knighted in recognition of her work. It is this quiet strength Slimani captures. “Because my mother is so herself, it shows people you can be proud of who you are.”

Slimani was born in The Netherlands, but lived in Morocco for her first four years before rejoining her mother, who raised her alone after she divorced her father. She found growing up Moroccan in a largely white society wasn’t always easy. “There was no one who looked like me on TV or in magazines. I remember seeing Missy Elliott in a video and thinking, Words PHONG LUU

‘Oh wait, this is cool!’. I’m far from Black but she looked more like me than Britney Spears.”

She also became aware of just how narrow beauty’s parameters actually were. “People would ‘compliment’ me because I didn’t look Moroccan. It feels like an insult because what you’re actually telling me is that I’d be ugly if I did. But I never saw being beautiful as being white. I just wanted to be seen for who I was.”

Throughout, Leklye has always remained her North Star. “I’m her only child and she has raised me mostly as a single mum. It was a bit like the two of us against the world,” she says.

Now her own young son also makes regular appearances on her feed.

The family recently had their first show at the Hama Gallery in Amsterdam. While this may have felt like a real landmark moment, Slimani is modest. “Really the only difference between us and other first-generation immigrants is that we shared our pictures. Every other mother is as special as mine; they’ve all had special lives. Leaving everything behind and going to live in another country – that in itself is incredible.”

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WHERE GOOD THINGS F LOW

In this photo-collage, British-Nigerian artist Precious Opara celebrates the Yoruba belief that associates gap teeth with wealth and beauty.

The layered work presents her effusive grin, along with some of her most significant personal trinkets, as a window to nature’s abundant splendours – a recurring motif in her work. The result is a joyous self portrait overflowing with gemstones, fresh waters, blue skies, vivid flowers and evergreen trees. Opara – also a model and art director – says: “This whimsical image was made to emphasise the idea of beauty as adornment and femininity, in contrast to more traditional motifs of wealth. I hope it makes people smile.”

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Illustration PRECIOUS OPARA

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Words ASWAN MAGUMBE

Photography ROGERS OUMA

NATAAL

OJWOOOK

THE YOUNG IMAGEMAKER FINDS INSPIRATION ALL AROUND KENYA

Asha Eleven, Into the Light, photographed by Rogers Oumas

Roger Oumas – aka Ojwoook – is a Nairobibased photographer, filmmaker and creative director driven to inspire Africa’s next generation of visual artists. His career was sparked simply by his youthful curiosity. “I picked up a camera because it was fascinating to me, then I just started shooting,” he says. Years later, he won a full scholarship to study business in India, but stayed true to his calling NATAAL

and remained in Kenya to learn media communication and hone his craft. “I’d shoot, go on YouTube to learn about techniques, then from there started making films for all sorts of clients in Nairobi.”

His work feels both nostalgic and somehow familiar, thanks to his pull toward fashion portraiture warmly lit by the East African sun. “For me, I think beauty is us. It’s about Words ASWAN MAGUMBE

our culture,” he says. He now produces work for brands all over the world – fashion labels Post Imperial and Haute Baso among them, and is represented by Kanaiza Gallery in the UK. But it’s his home-based community that keeps him constantly inspired. “It’s about doing the thing you love to the fullest,” he says. “Right now is prime time for us to be pushing boundaries. The future is here.”

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OBONGJAYAR

THE ARTIST ON SLAYING DEVILS AND TOUCHING HEARTS WITH HIS UNPARALLELED SOUND 22

NATAAL

Obongjayar wears TOM DAVIES KENT X MARSHALL COLUMBIA sunglasses, PRADA top, KENZO trousers, ALIGHIERI jewellery.

FEATURE

OBONGJAYAR

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(Left) Obongjayar wears PRADA boxers and trousers, CLARKS wallabees, stylist’s own pearls.

(Right) Obongjayar wears KENZO vest, trousers and shoes, ALIGHIERI jewellery.

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“MUSIC SHOULD COME FROM AN EMOTIONAL PLACE. THOSE SONGS THAT TUG ON YOUR HEARTSTRINGS CAN GIVE YOU HOPE”

OBONGJAYAR

Words HELEN JENNINGS

Photography SALOMÉ GOMIS-TREZISE

“Music saves me. When things aren’t going my way and the outside world is falling down on me, I go back to music,” Obongjayar tells me. We’re at a south London café, drinking black coffee and enjoying an unseasonably blue sky. Today isn’t a bad day, but he’s keenly aware when they come, and uses them like fuel. “We all have those moments when it’s hard to keep the faith. Do you call your family, vent to your friends, down drugs? For me, it’s the music, man. That’s my Wind Sailor. When I’m in the gunk of that emotion, I pay attention to it, write a song about it and come out the other side. And then, let’s fucking go.”

On Wind Sailor, Obongjayar’s favourite track on his recently released debut album Some Nights I Dream of Doors, the artist’s singular voice is accompanied by a simple organ melody that delivers the listener to a contemplative space. In fact, the entire album is the result of Obongjayar mining his feelings to lend a raw tenderness to every song. And, of course, it’s exactly that bittersweet spot from which the best music always stems. “Music should come from an emotional place. Those songs that tug on your heartstrings, that make you feel more, especially when the language is so beautiful, those are the ones that can give you hope,” he says.

The album’s sincerity convinces the listener that Obongjayar speaks from experience. Born Steven Umoh in Calabar, Nigeria, he was brought up by his grandmother from the age of four after his mother fled the country due to his father’s violence. “It was a horrible situation. The only way to go was out, to start again somewhere that has more opportunities – if you were willing to take the chance. And that’s what she did,” he recalls, rightly proud of her strength. He attended a government-run boarding school, which he describes as “no joke”, and his initial musical education was in church. “It was unconventional in that there was no choir or drum section. We all sang acapella and clapped. So, I think that’s influenced how I hear things and where I’m at.”

As a young teenager he was inspired by US rappers such as 50 Cent, Kanye and Lil Wayne; aged 15, he laid down his first tune.

“It was terrible,” he recalls with a grin. “I got hold of a hooky copy of Fruity Loops and figured out how to make this whack-ass beat.

I got my boys over to check it out and they were like, ‘Yeah, man, that’s not it’. And I was, ‘Nah, trust me. You don’t get it’. I was so stubborn. I washed my uncle’s car and saved up for time to afford to get into this studio and record the track and it came out so bad.

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Styling LADY BARBARA AYOZIE FU SAFIRA

But the takeaway was that I knew I had that thing even though I didn’t understand what it was yet.”

Aged 17, after several failed attempts at getting a visa, he and his brother were finally able to join their mother and sister in London, and after college, he went to art school in Norwich. During this time he began to listen to everyone from Asa and Fela Kuti to Radiohead and Billy Bragg, and read voraciously too; he cites Zadie Smith and James Baldwin as influences. As a result of what he calls his “wide-eyed approach” to learning, he developed a nuanced creativity. “I was being introduced to artists who saw the world differently, and I started to call myself an artist, too.”

After putting demos on Soundcloud, Obongjayar attracted the attention of XL label founder Richard Russell and guested on Everything Is Recorded alongside Damon Albarn, Giggs, Kamasi Washington and Sampha. His debut EP Home was released in 2016, followed by the sparce Bassey EP and the sonically complex Which Way Is Forward?, which featured the standout tracks Still Sun and Ivor Novello-award-winning God's Own Children. Last year he returned to Lagos to record his 80s-synth-drenched Sweetness EP with Sarz and shoot the video for Little Simz’ Point and Kill. And 2022 kicked off with another A-list collaboration, this time on Pa Salieu’s Style & Fashion.

Bearing witness to, and being part of, Nigeria’s cultural renaissance fills Obongjayar with joy. “I love to see that, man. It’s a whole bunch of young people doing their thing and being so proud of it.

They’ve broken the seal and changed the creative consciousness,” he says. “It’s brilliant to see the whole scene across the continent.

These sounds have always been there but are now having a big stamp on culture because we know ourselves. That’s all you need to do – know your voice and sing as loud as you can.”

Some Nights I Dream of Doors is a testament to Obongjayar doing just that; his music and lyricism have blossomed into a mature statement of intent. “This new record feels like a coming of age,” he says. “Compared to what I’ve done before, I think the most important thing is having found the right balance between what I’m saying and what’s backing it. What’s the armour around my words?”

A year in the making with producer Barney Lister, the equilibrium is spot on, his experimental sound ranging from intimate and minimal to the rich and layered. And his voice, which veers from gentle to ferocious; husky to falsetto; singing to spoken word, is never less than captivating.

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(Left) Obongjayar wears MAPALO SIMON waistcoat and trousers, BIANCA SAUNDERS shirt, ERDEM t-shirt.

(Right) Obongjayar wears KENZO jacket and shoes, PRADA top, DIOR trousers, ALIGHIERI jewellery (Opposite) Obongjayar wears TOM DAVIES KENT X MARSHALL COLUMBIA sunglasses, 26 PRADA top, ERDEM trousers, ALIGHIERI jewellery, stylist's own pearls.

OBONGJAYAR

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FEATURE

OBONGJAYAR

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“ENJOYING LIFE. NOT QUESTIONING YOURSELF IN YOUR FEELINGS. THAT’S WHAT MAKES SOMEONE BEAUTIFUL”

“The album was originally inspired by the basketball documentary he says: “I definitely tapped into the spirits. That’s how I felt when I Hoop Dreams, which follows the journey of these two protégées who was making this album, and I did it to the best of my abilities. I hope are aiming for the NBA but neither of them makes it. That’s what it’s it touches people but that’s all I can do. Then it’s on to the next one.” like when you’re a kid. You feel anything is possible. Then as you get Recognised as a Future Artist by BBC Radio 1 and labelled older, life starts to close in on you. And maybe that’s okay. So, ‘destined for greatness’ by GQ, Some Nights I Dream of Doors feels it’s taking the idea of success and focussing on the things that really fated to soar. Yet Obongjayar doesn’t show up for the fame. His matter. Rather than dream forward, let’s dream of the present. response to the question that drives this issue of Nataal – what But as I started writing, the album became about time travelling does beauty mean to you? – makes that abundantly clear. “Beauty through introspection. The doors are about going through your life to me is freedom. The ability to just be without a care for what working out what’s next because of who and where you’ve been.” people think of you. It’s about how you feel and if you’re confident The opening track Try sums this up succinctly. “We used to be in that moment, that’s top. Enjoying life. Not questioning yourself invincible / We used to be so beautiful, my dear / We had the world in in your feelings. That’s what makes someone beautiful.” front of us / How did we ever end up here?” he laments over a stirring Over the course of his career to date, he has been on his own melody and scattered beats. Elsewhere, it takes a political turn as aesthetic journey, going from hoodies to a sharp, streethe rails against state corruption. Message in a Hammer was written psychedelic style. Today, he has mini mushrooms hanging from his necklace and wears statement shades. And during the Nataal as a response to the 2020 Lekki Tollgate Massacre, when the Nigerian armed forces opened fire on a crowd of peaceful End SARS shoot the previous week, he was drawn to the brightest looks from Labrum and Prada. “What you’re wearing, how you talk, how you protestors in Lagos making a stand against police brutality. In the album’s most visceral expression, Obongjayar calls out the country’s move, could inspire someone. But if you’re just there, dressing for the occasion rather than being the occasion, then you are a rulers as thieves and murderers over a backdrop of insistent drumming. “The struggles that the soldiers and the protesters have nothingness. That’s why you have to push to be yourself.”

The same goes for his crown, a fine head of dreads that he’s been are the same. They go back to their houses and there will be no cultivating for as long as he’s been releasing records; like his music, electricity or water. We’re fighting the same fight. But because it’s a reflection of being in charge of his own destiny. “Sometimes you’re in uniform, your hatred or your pride trumps all of that united I’m like, okay I’m a dread guy. It’s weird how it changes you,” he says. struggle? That broke my heart.”

Equally confrontational is Parasite, a deceptively subdued track “One of the main reasons I got dreads was to challenge the idea of what it means to be well-kempt. Why do I have to show up with a that dresses down UK politicians for telling disadvantaged people trim? I’m going to get dreads and what are you going to do about it? how to live despite having no experience of struggle themselves.

Hair can just be hair. It shouldn’t be political. But our society can For Obongjayar, the fact that working-class people keep them in power reflects the same one-upmanship and lack of humanity make it so. I deserve to go into any room and be respected. It’s he experienced back home. “People will fight tooth and nail for about holding that power within yourself so that your hair, or where a system that doesn’t serve them for what they think it means. you come from, has nothing to do with it.”

I’m bigger than you, I’m better than you. But it’s smoke and mirrors With that, it’s time to get back into the sunshine but before we and people are dying or losing their livelihoods. Fuck that.” go, I have to ask him to explain his Instagram description: ‘Devil More personal moments include the jaunty Tinko Tinko (Don't Slayer’. “It’s someone who takes no nonsense,” he says as we step Play Me For a Fool), for which he steps into an ex’s shoes to accuse outside. “They will call out anyone who is being disrespectful. If himself of coasting in their relationship. The woozy Wish It Was Me you’re not on the side of good, I’m going to fuck with you,” he adds, is a soppy ode to his brother. And on the spacey, goose bumpthen pauses. Lights a cigarette. Ponders. “But it could also be eliciting title track he soulfully croaks “Save me I’m dying / Save me fighting your own inner demons and not letting them take over.

I’m losing this fight… Trying my best to survive”, those eternal doors All those bad days…’ before quoting his own lyrics to make a beautifully distilled point: ‘Up like sun, down like sun. Still sun’.” bringing him right back to the edge. On his creative process, 28

Grooming AVRELLE DELISSER, Grooming assistance MICHELLE NYARKO, Styling assistance ROBERTO FRUSCIANTE

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Obongjayar FEATUREwears TOKYO JAMES shirt and trousers, LABRUM blazer, ALIGHIERI OBONGJAYAR jewellery.

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Styling CHLOE ANDREA WELGEMOED, Hair CELLAR DOOR, Make-up TAMARYN PRETORIUS, WordsMOFOKENG LITHEMBA Photography EVA LOSADA Models THAPELO at VELLEMAN 20 MODEL MANAGEMENT, SUE SUZY SUZANNE at FABULOUS

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MAKE THE CONNECTION JOBURG FASHION BRAND VIVIERS HITS RESTART WITH ITS LATEST DROP

Looks from Viviers’ Motherboard collection

“Beauty is what makes us get out of bed,” says Lezanne Viviers, creative director of the eponymous brand. “It makes our souls feel alive. It is what challenges us and is a way for us to make sense of the world and reality we create.” She founded the brand in Joburg in 2019 to create limited-edition collections from vintage and dead-stock textiles, all crafted by artisans who personally sign each piece. The brand challenges luxury ideals through its genderless, ageless, seasonless aesthetic. “It’s a way to seek the truth, which embraces the offbeat, sometimes grotesque, sometimes decayed,” she says.

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Her latest collection, Motherboard, references rewiring connections between heart and mind – the source of creativity. Viviers recently became a mother, and Viviers simultaneously outgrew its showroom in her home, mid-century Lotus House. The team moved to the Glasshouse – all clean lines and tall windows – and took off in a new direction.

“It’s fun, because there are no rules,” she says. Plastic mixes with wool, silk, synthetics and repurposed scraps, all elevated by being manipulated into sublime, transparent yet classic shapes. E-waste is repurposed in a wry commentary on built-in obsolescence; a

Words LITHEMBA VELLEMAN

computer keyboard’s keys become jacket buttons. And actual computer motherboards are deconstructed into beading, collars and fastenings on woollen jackets and trousers.

Similarly whimsical is a voluminous skirt transformed from a Ghana Must Go bag.

“I’ve always been obsessed by creating beauty from things others consider trash, and I get a kick from upcycling and celebrating them as a status symbol,” Viviers says.

This radical reworking of materials is compelling – what at first glance may seem redundant or useless can be transformed into beautiful pieces that last a lifetime.

Photography EVA LOSADA

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YOU MAY TAKE THE LAST STRIP OF MY LAND, FEED MY YOUTH TO PRISON CELLS, YOU MAY PLUNDER MY HERITAGE, YOU MAY BURN MY BOOKS AND POEMS, OR FEED MY FLESH TO THE DOGS, YOU MAY PUT OUT THE LIGHT IN MY EYES, YOU MAY DEPRIVE ME OF MY MOTHER’S KISSES YOU MAY CURSE MY FATHER AND MY PEOPLE, YOU MAY DISTORT MY HISTORY, I MAY, IF YOU WISH, LOSE MY LIVELIHOOD I MAY SELL SHIRT AND BED I MAY WORK AS A STONE CUTTER A STREET SWEEPER, A PORTER I MAY CLEAN YOUR STORES OR RUMMAGE GARBAGE FOR FOOD O ENEMY OF THE SUN BUT I SHALL NOT COMPROMISE AND TO THE LAST PULSE IN MY VEINS I SHALL RESIST

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A LOVE LETTER TO RESISTANCE RAPPER, ACTIVIST AND ACADEMIC LOWKEY ON THE BEAUTY OF HORIZONTAL SOLIDARITY These powerful words were found in a blood-stained book in George Jackson’s prison cell after the author and Black Panther was shot dead from a surveillance tower in 1971. The text was posthumously credited to him for 40 years, but they were in fact written by Palestinian poet Samih al-Qasim.

There is a natural and deep fellowship between those united in a common and righteous cause, and the bonds of horizontal solidarity wrap around each other like roots girdling a tree. This is my love letter to all those fighting for Palestine and anyone struggling against a plurality of race-based alienations.

There is a freedom struggle in Palestine, her youth are aching to be free and writing her name in the soil with their sweat, tears and blood. Her old are writing her name in the stars as they exit this world, humming with frustration and unrealised yearnings for justice.

When Israel's first President, Chaim Weizmann, was asked about the British colonial authorities’ impression of the Palestinians, his answer illustrated their status as unpeople, "With regard to the Arab question – the British told me there are several hundred thousand Negroes there but that this matter has no significance.” While it was one of the architects of white minority-rule apartheid in South Africa, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, who drew this parallel in 1961: “Israel like South Africa is an apartheid state.”

Since then, B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have drawn the same conclusion.

In a recent report, Amnesty documented how “massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a system which amounts to apartheid under international law.”

The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu recalled: “I’ve been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land.

It reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa.” Throughout his life, he was steadfast in his assertion that the Palestinians were suffering under apartheid and he was a strong supporter of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS), the Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality.

Solidarity can have a severe price when the stakes are this high. Some have paid with their livelihoods – in 2018, CNN fired the Black academic Marc Lamont Hill after his speech calling for Palestinian freedom at the UN, to give just one example – while many others, including George Jackson, have paid with their lives.

In Britain, it cannot be forgotten that while the agents of apartheid were planting bombs at ANC offices in London in the 1980s, the British police were spying on anti-apartheid groups rather than investigating these operations, and Nelson Mandela was also targeted by government spies . In 1984, when The Specials released the hit ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ – the unofficial anthem of the anti-apartheid movement – it was illegal to display his picture publicly in South Africa. Today, there is a statue of the great man on London’s Parliament Square and the system of white minority rule in South Africa has been categorically discredited.

Recently, one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States personally told me that the organisation had its funding cut when they travelled to Palestine and spoke out in support of her people. And I, like the courageous son of Sheikh Jarrah, Palestinian writer and activist Mohammed el-Kurd, have been targeted with a long-running campaign to de-platform me due to my anti-apartheid position.

I consider it a badge of honour and echo El-Kurd's prescient words at the United Nations: "All empires fall."

The subjugation of the Palestinians cannot last forever. They tell us that resistance is futile but history tells us that resistance is fertile, and we will continue to plant seeds for trees we may not live to sit in the shade of. Never think that you're broken or think that you’re no one. Remember, a rope is strong because of strings interwoven. And we shall overcome!

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AZRA KHAMISSA

THE HENNA ARTIST WHOSE STYLE IS BREATHING NEW LIFE INTO THE ANCIENT PRACTICE

Azra Khamissa photographed by Natalie Lines

“Allah is beautiful, and he loves beauty” – so goes the hadith that inspired the gold necklace henna artist Azra Khamissa is wearing when we meet. “Nobody ever talks about the importance of beauty within religion but it’s so inspiring to me,” she says. Refreshing the ancient art of henna with her contemporary designs, she has won fans and press attention all over the world. Her Instagram reveals multiple influences on her handiwork, from waves and polka dots to stripes and honeycombs. “The leopard print received the biggest reaction. That one is pretty crazy,” she says. “Although I did it on myself, it freaked me out because my hands no longer looked like hands, they looked like paws.”

Born in Canada to a South African father and Canadian mother – both of Indian heritage – the ornate Indian style was her initial introduction to henna. “I didn’t like having it done when I was young because the designs just weren’t me,” she says. “But later I found NATAAL

out about the North African tradition, which is very minimal and very contemporary.” She moved to Dubai when she was 12, as her family wanted to immerse her in a society in line with their Islamic faith. At 18 she relocated to Melbourne, where she embarked on a career in chiropractic – all the while exploring her personal take on henna artistry.

Launching her brand then began to take shape in 2015, after she returned to Dubai. “I had a lot of time on my hands after qualifying as a chiropractor, and started making leather bags. I was broke so my friends encouraged me to sell them,” she says. “I was shooting the bags with photographer Cheb Moha, and my hands were hennaed. The model was late and so we photographed them. That’s when I saw how beautiful it was. From there, I just kept experimenting.”

She then launched henna kits, including sleekly packaged cones and stencil stickers (hearts, moons, flowers and lettering) as well Words MIRIAM BOUTEBA

as a small collection of pared-back leather goods and that beautiful necklace, all locally and ethically made, often with like-minded artists. Every design references the human form, reflecting her training in anatomy.

Khamissa also incorporates politics into her work, recently highlighting the plight of China’s Uyghur Muslims as well as the ongoing Nakba in Palestine. “When things really move you and you have a platform, it is the least you can do,” she says. But in a sense, her henna is also political; she’s shifting the narrative away from ritual and democratising availability. Her ambition is for it to become as commonplace as manicures. “I love seeing kids with henna, and how happy it makes people. I hope it becomes an everyday thing,” she says. “It should be available at Sephora because it’s part of a lot of people’s identity and culture. I want to see more women wearing it with pride. Henna makes you feel good and it’s a way of having fun with your body.”

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The Adze, 2021

GHOST ISLAND

PHOTOGRAPHER LISANDRO SURIEL SPINS SPIRITUAL BACK STORIES IN SAINT MARTIN

Arrival of the Rain: Nana Buruku, 2021

With Ghost Island, Lisandro Suriel is creating a photo-documentary of the Black Atlantic, a secret realm inhabited by spirits, goddesses, deities and forgotten souls. Born and raised on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin, he relocated to the Netherlands to study at the Royal Academy of Art and the University of Amsterdam. But his practice has blossomed since he returned home, where he uses the language of magic realism to relearn his heritage and bring ancestral memories to life. In this, he is rejecting the dominant narrative that Caribbean identity started with slavery, and building a space where unwritten knowledge can be seen and felt.

During his studies he began to research Anancy tales from across the islands, as well as the folklore of diasporic communities in Bahia and New Orleans. He is also drawn to West African Ewe and Yoruba lore. “No one NATAAL

speaks about these beliefs,” he says, explaning that with the advent of Christianity and colonialism, they were demonised as witchcraft and black magic. “People were made to fear Black mythology, Black spirituality and Black philosophies; these ways of knowing were remarketed by the West. It has been so effective, it’s even made Black people afraid of ourselves.”

This put Suriel on a path to a new territory: “where you can engage with the Black imagination”. He rejects the labels afrofuturism or surrealism in his aesthetic approach; instead, he plays in the domain of the immaterial to make inner worlds real, amid the backdrop of the island’s alluring waters and dramatic forests. In Afefe: The Wind in the Cemetery, an Orisha lights a fire for the air and stars, a peach-hued sky just visible through twisted branches. In Arrival of the Rain: Nana Buruku, Words ASWAN MAGUMBE

smoke plumes rise around supreme beings, evoking empowerment free of terror.

“I always shoot in nature because it allows the imagination to breathe. My art practice is also my spiritual practice,” he says. His own supernatural encounters, as well as those of other local people, provide more revelations, thereby “treating Black and indigenous ways of knowing and of conceiving as legitimate.”

So far, Suriel has been supported by the Mondriaan and the Prince Bernhard Culture Funds; exhibited at Photo Vogue Festival in Milan as well as the Foreign Agent gallery in Lausanne, Switzerland. He also won the Best Experimental Film prize at New York’s Indie Shorts Awards in 2021. He’s keen to keep the project going and to push Saint Martin’s art scene forward. “We don’t have major cultural institutions here on the island, so I want to have a platform where we can share stories.”

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The Jumbee Sea, 2021

Afefe: the Wind at the Cemetery, 2021

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Apparition: Dancing River, 2021

CASSI NAMODA

THE ART OF SLOWING DOWN: IN CONVERSATION WITH CURATOR JESSICA BELL BROWN 40

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CASSI NOMADA

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“WHEN SOMETHING BECOMES OBVIOUS IT IS NO LONGER INTERESTING. AND THIS IS THE WAY THAT I THINK ABOUT MAKING WORK”

CASSI NAMODA

Introduction XANTHE SOMERS

Photography WAI LIN

Cassi Namoda’s dreamlike figurative portraits explore everyday life in post-colonial Africa. She draws on mythology and memory to create deceptively simple scenes that quietly reveal complexity. Born in Mozambique, she originally studied cinematography then worked as a fashion designer before switching to painting in 2017. Since then, her star has risen with solo shows in London, Johannesburg, São Paulo and Los Angeles, and her work has been acquired by MACAAL in Marrakech, the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA).

Jessica Bell Brown, Curator for Contemporary Art at BMA, is a longtime supporter of Black women artists who engage with historic, social, political and environmental constructs. Her research focuses on the relationships between form, Black radicalism and abstraction in 20th-century African-American art. As Namoda’s latest show opens, Condemned To Perpetual Earth at Goodman Gallery in Cape Town, they discuss beauty, romance and sensuality in and outside her work.

Beauty is central to your work, especially when you think about finding beauty in different places, in different sets of imaginations or experiences… cassi namoda: There are so many different notions around beauty and it can often be misconstrued in the West. I am a product of them but I understand that there are many ways to approach these ideals. Beauty in the West is the search for youth, right? But I like to think about beauty in the sense of ‘ugly’ beauty. That for me is an interesting beauty, a beauty of nuance, and it is a realistic one.

We have all been exposed to it, whether we are aware of it or not.

I try to find novelty. I search for new experiences and I am not afraid to find myself in totally unfamiliar places. I am moving to a new home in The Berkshires, Massachusetts, and the house I fell in love with is a 200-year-old building with wonky floors, crooked hallways and misshaped windows but to me, it is absolutely beautiful.

Some people may disagree but I am attracted to that. Just like how someone could find crooked teeth beautiful but others may like them white and straight. My approach to living and how I enjoy my environments all filter into my practice as an artist. I think living in a very modern or polished setting would hinder my ability to see.

It’s hard to think about beauty outside of a sense of attainment, or what we want to look like, but when we look at beauty as a whole, we can use it as an approach to life. jessica bell brown: I am so glad you started there. Your work is so much about moving us away from Western idealism and notions of beauty or even what it is to be an antiquated painter or a painter of modern life. I think it is important to foreground that you are jessica bell brown:

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very much a citizen of the world. Mozambique is central to your formation and you spent time in Haiti as well. This creates so many different frames for being and ways of seeing and these all find their way into your work. I was wondering if you wanted to say more about your upbringing? cassi namoda: Yes, that is very poignant and really hits the nail on the head. I grew up with my father’s philosophies. Even though my father was very western he was also very anti-Westernisation, so in some ways that was always at my family’s core and this leaks into my practice.

Now when I think about the cities I’ve lived in – the longest being Kampala – they were all very dynamic and exposed me to a world of architecture. We engaged with urban landscapes every day. In some ways I think the unfamiliarity and over-stimulation created an early anxiety in me, but it also gave me a way to consider varied or alternative ways of being. In my twenties I spent time in Maputo in Mozambique, the city where I was born but had never lived, and it had vibrant Art Deco and Brutalist architecture but there were also dilapidated sidewalks on the coastline as well as the erasure of the colonial past and a stoic quality to the people.

I think the constant unfamiliarity made me experience life in a cinematic way and this finds its way into my paintings. Prior to my last exhibition Forgotten Limbs (at François Ghebaly, Los Angeles in 2021), I had been dancing around the history of Mozambique. I would go off into themes of urban and rural storytelling but finally I decided I needed to speak about the war. I was born in a liberated country that soon after went into a state of civil war. In this show – I turned to abstraction and I think in beauty there also exists abstraction.

When something becomes obvious it is no longer interesting. And this is the way that I think about making work. It must be pleasing; however there needs to be a sensitivity that creates curiosity, which produces appeal.

I feel very connected to colour and my expression of colour is very attached to my ideas of beauty. Through colour I develop a narrative and create duality within my works. We have this issue in society, when we allow the obvious to become the norm and we need to focus more on the subtleties and nuances that exist. jessica bell brown: Yes, I remember seeing a presentation of yours and I found the painting to be, as I always do, utterly beautiful but in the way that you describe as an ‘ugly beauty’, in an almost impossibly beautiful way. You bring attention and beauty to scenes that you might otherwise want to look away from such as unemployment, extreme poverty, decapitation and death, but again your masterful colour sensibility really slows us down and there is such a deep tenderness in the way you handle paint and colour relationships that make these scenes digestible.

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At Rest, the Tragedies of a Fantasy II, 2022, courtesy Goodman Gallery.

Bar Texas 1973, 2022, courtesy Goodman Gallery.

Season of Judgement, 2022, courtesy Goodman Gallery.

Young wife, 2022, courtesy Goodman Gallery.

“I TRY TO CREATE SCENES ONE CAN VIEW WITHOUT LOOKING AWAY. I DO THIS BY CREATING CURIOSITY”

Yes, they are digestible. I try to create scenes one can view without having to look away. I do this by creating curiosity.

In our society we take one look at an image, consume it, and we have already created a whole story around it. I try to slow this down by complicating the narrative.

I call my recurring female figures Maria. They usually appear in my urban landscapes. I also portray a recurring symbolism of a burnt sun or an orange moon. In one piece, a Maria is holding a glass of wine that is spilling from her hand as if she has lost her grasp on reality, or her state of being. When viewers engaged with this, they initially thought the figure had stabbed herself, but slowly realised that the image wasn’t threatening, and it was wine spilling not blood.

I try to remind people that it doesn’t always have to be so obvious. jessica bell brown: Yes. I wonder if we may switch gears to talk about romance. cassi namoda: I love romance! Life must be very romantic. jessica bell brown: I am thinking about this video that you shared of a young couple on the beach dancing and it was striking to me, as it was very crude. cassi namoda: Yes, absolutely. It made people very uncomfortable but we have lost touch with our sensuality, which is the essence of life. And although Forgotten Limbs is an exhibition about retracing war in abstracted ways, at the centre of life there will always be love, there will always be romance and there will always be sensuality.

Angola has had one of the longest-standing wars and I thought it was important to show this clip of a gyrating young couple at the Bay of Benguela, moving in a sensual way. Within the suffering and hardship of life, Black people are able to celebrate life with their bodies. We are body people! jessica bell brown: I love that so much. When I watched it, I thought about dirty dancing in middle or high school! They are moving in a way that is hyper-intuitive and with such expressivity. Dance allows one to move through all of life’s complexities. cassi namoda: Dance is the vernacular language of Black culture.

It’s interesting because I think it can be seen as a threat when Black people use their bodies to engage in life. When I do explore video work or performance art there is always a physical expression or manifestation, which includes romance and sensuality.

In one of my previous exhibitions, I had Léopold Sédar Senghor (poet, cultural theorist and first president of Senegal) swimming laps in a pool at his home in Dakar. I wanted this to exude a sense of peace.

There is mysticism around water in Black life, which I saw when I spent time in Benin in West Africa. There is a mythical creature named Mami Wata which people have a profound respect towards.

I would jump off sand dunes and go swimming in the water and everyone thought I was insane. But to me being in the water is my cassi namoda:

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sense of peace. I found this video of Senghor taking off his jacket and slowly descending into his swimming pool and it is the most elegant and sophisticated depiction of beauty to me. Beauty is also self-care. jessica bell brown: Totally. How do you find renewal in and outside of your work? Where is the constant inspiration for you? cassi namoda: I think you have to be a soulful being. My show at Xavier Hufkens Gallery was called Tropical Depression and I made it about recently visiting my mother in northern Mozambique. I was really sick with Covid and the whole time I was with my family I was having this out-of body-experience. I was feeling off, my mood was off, but everyone around me was also suffering. Life in the tropics can be very hard. Often it is made to seem exotic; this very happy place with mangoes, beaches and palm trees. But there is also depression. The whole time I was there there was a looming prospect of a cyclone, also known as the ‘tropical depression’. It was as if everyone was crying around me and the sky was crying as well.

European male painters were able to travel to these "exotic" places and claim their narrative and it is interesting for me to reclaim these histories, especially from the perspective of a female Black painter. jessica bell brown: There is something interesting in how your painted Marias exist in the post-colonial, Lusotropical world. There is a very particular engagement between white and Black bodies in your work and your Marias denote vulnerability but also a reclamation of power and beauty. cassi namoda: Exactly, it is a reclamation of power. Tropical Depression is one of the most feminine shows I have made. My new show with Goodman Gallery in Cape Town is called Condemned To Perpetual Earth and it is only female bodies. There is a divine sense of power but also a vulnerability, which is not usually depicted with female bodies of colour. I feel there needs to be more examples of female Black beauty which are not so didactic. jessica bell brown: Let’s end with this question. How does fashion and design enter into your work? Arguably you are one of the most elegant and worldly people that I know. There is a very distinctive sensibility that you have, especially in how you hold your body, how you wear your hair and move around in the world. cassi namoda: They say that necessity is the mother of invention.

When I lived in Lamu, life was very simple and I would make clothes with the local tailor. Donkeys roamed the dirty streets and there is a beauty there if you let it absorb you. I think it requires sensitivity and then design becomes natural, cooking is natural, wearing your hair is effortless and organic and that builds self-confidence, which is the ultimate form of beauty. jessica bell brown: That couldn’t be better said.

Cassi Namoda's Condemned To Perpetual Earth is at Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, from 14 July to 3 September 2022

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GRACE NOTES Curation and introduction Wanjeri Gakuru Four poems reflect on beauty and the pleasure and pain of being human Poetry is ancient and universal. It can help us make sense of complexity, empathise with others, or change the way we think. It can make us feel seen, give us a glimpse of the extraordinary or offer us a way out of the darkness. For this issue, we asked award-winning poets Asmaa Jama, Ber Anena and Saddiq Dzukogi alongside Afeif Ismail and Vivienne Glance (who work together in Arabic and English to distil the expressive potential of both languages), to explore the concept of beauty. They responded with works that thrum with life, each one gazing out into the world with softness and rigour. Gathered here are their masterful navigations on what is true and what remains.

POET PROFILES Asmaa Jama is a Danish-born Somali poet and artist who has been shortlisted for the Wasafiri Writing Prize, The Brunel African Poetry Prize and the James Berry Poetry Prize and longlisted for the UK's National Poetry competition.

Ber Anena is a Ugandan writer, editor and performer and joint winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa (2018) for A Nation in Labour (published under the name Harriet Anena). Her fiction has been nominated for The Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the Short Story Day Africa Prize.

Nigerian Saddiq Dzukogi is the author of Your Crib, My Qibla (University of Nebraska Press, 2021). His poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, Guernica and Magma Poetry. He is a PhD candidate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Afeif Ismail is an award-winning multilingual Sudanese-Australian poet, short-story writer and playwright. Vivienne Glance is an Australian writer and performer who has worked in poetry, fiction, performance and spoken word.

They have collaborated on a form they term ‘transcreation’ since 2004.

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GODSONG after angel nafis Asmaa Jama

ahmed has poor fine motor skills, and is generally unresponsive to his name being called when i was ten, my brother who was infinite in beauty, walked into the road, and a month later, having learnt directions, ran up the street and away from us, my aunt traced him one way my father the other – they didn’t find him he responds aversely to certain stimuli, he may want to wear clothes reversed i closed my eyes, my brother in his crinkling, crisp packet brilliance, spliced each one open, and made a hundred light catchers, the policeman asked what he was wearing i replied always his selfmade spacesuit though unremarkable he is not unintelligent, we believe he has a rich interior life ahmed i went to sleep and dreamt a godsong one where i gave you my voicebox and you said, i love the insides of everything hidden ahmed i believed them though i couldn’t pronounce intelligent, we were each others’ grounds, each other’s mines he has a poor ability to judge his environments and their safety ahmed my miracle, limbs long, loose and flowing, aabe couldn’t see you were a comet, couldn’t see your fast furious trailing ahmed didn’t they find you on the other side of the motorway, behind an immense building i look at the photos sometimes of your small silhouette, swallowed in its shadow, atomic, in convent, i still believe you flew, ahmed who just this year, learned to listen to a traffic light hooyo and aabe kept praying over your body, when you came back, rubbing oil on your limbs, like they were instructions to stay, and you kept smiling, grand hero, older brother, you terrify me always at times, he may become overwhelmed with stimuli, this may lead to outbursts ahmed my lodestar, lamplight, friend, in my dreams, there’s a godsong, and neither of us is singing though he is a pre-teen he has the capabilities of someone much younger aabe keeps going to jeddah searching for a cure, hooyo took you to nairobi, and they blasted quran, i know they wanted your limbs to vibrate, to wail yourself new it is unlikely he will develop speech i’m sorry i let them want for your change that i also prayed, ahmed i went to sleep and in my dreams, there was a cut-out in your place, ahmed to change you, is to take you back, to make you fiction, ahmed my godsong, i’ve believed for so long now in your silence, you’re the only one i claim

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LUNCH BOWL

After Impossible Idyll by Samantha Zighelboim Ber Anena

A girl emerges at the mouth of a platform, flashlights sunning a face lathered so thick she’s no child now.

Props bellow in her mind then, a quick tucking of a tummy that isn’t there.

Back straight. Chin up. Eyes gaze at nothing. Arms find waist. The runway conquest begins.

All around, hands come together in chorus. Eyes climb her body like tree creepers in a forest of glitter.

Girl Two catching this glamour on TV runs into the bathroom. Hands reach for mouth, longest finger heads down the throat. She serves her lunch to the toilet bowl.

Two bodies – one ample, the other not – on different runways, each performing for the audience.

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LETTER TO SELF Saddiq Dzukogi

You must love exactly how they want to be loved, even if awful, even if with abandon.

Your shadow has no window for light to enter.

And nostalgia is the cousin of grief. Remember a road is a snake that holds you beyond its teeth, a two-headed snake that can swallow you from either end. By a swing you see a man pull out a cigarette, his mouth makes him his own clouds that the air is quick to swallow. Think, in its foggy hands, what else can take hold of us.

In a tree a bird flies out of another bird’s nest, you wonder why things not ours appeals to us the most. why do you keep your lips sealed?

Words are creatures with teeth wolfing inside your guts. Life is kneaded with pain, grief and love. Know this.

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I THINK IT’S A ROSE Afeif Ismail and Vivienne Glance

The rose that is surprised by dew breathes the morning from her lungs before becoming a scent of perfume imprisoned in a Parisian bottle.

The rose that wakes before dawn looking like a woman’s delirious flower after climax where within her wild bush, stuttering with wet language and illegible words her clear sight is nearly strangling herself with ecstasy.

The rose that gets up before all creatures praying with pagan meditation to the gods of the morning’s blush.

When the prayer of the ascetic adorer sees her raising her appealing hands he sees in her, a face never looked upon.

The rose that blossoms in front of a homeless, orphaned child like a mouse opening his mouth to satisfy his own hunger with his hunger; it’s only a passing nightmare received by his antenna, from his future.

That rose the one who professionally plays the ritual of the game of plurality in front of spectators where the shadow disappears behind the light, the reality behind the illusion, the mirage in front of the fogs, until everything is dispersed between colours; it will become • a rose • Parisian perfume • a woman’s flower after climax • the face of God • the hungry mouth of a mouse.

A lover, his iris outlined with thirst like the tracks of a lost fawn, tries, with a rainbow, to draw on the white clouds the smile of his absent sweetheart.

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‫أظنها وردة‬ ‫شعر‪ :‬عفيف إسامعيل‬

‫الورد ُة التي فاجأها الندى‬ ‫وهي تتنفس االصباح من رئيتيها‬ ‫ٍ‬ ‫محبوس يف قارور ٍة باريسي ٍة‬ ‫قبل أن تصري شذى عط ٍر‬ ‫قبل الفج ِر‬ ‫الورد ُة التي تصحو َ‬ ‫تشب ُه هذيا َن زهر ِة امرأ ِة بعد الوصال‬ ‫بني أحراشهاُ الربي ِة‬ ‫تتمت ُم بلغ ٍة مبلول ٍة مطموس ِة الحروفِ‬ ‫ِ‬ ‫الشهقات ح ّد االختناقِ والنشو ِة؛‬ ‫واضح ُة‬ ‫تنهض قبل كلِ الكائنات‬ ‫الورد ُة ُ‬ ‫تصيل بابتهال وتثني عىل آله ِة الشفقِ‬ ‫حني رأها العاب ُد الزاه ُد ترف ُع كفيها بالدعا ِء‬ ‫‪.‬رأى فيها وجهاً ال يُرى‬

‫الورد ُة التي تفتقت أمام طفلٍ يتيمٍ مرش ٍد مثل فأ ٍر فاغ ُر فاه‬ ‫يري ُد أن يُطع َم جوع َه من جوع ِه‬ ‫ٍ‬ ‫كابوس عاب ٍر‬ ‫مل تكن سوى‬ ‫‪.‬التقطت ُه قرون استشعاره من غده‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫تحرتف طقوس لعب ِة التعد ِد أما َم أع َني الناظرين‬ ‫تلك الورد ُة التي‬ ‫حيث يختفي‬ ‫الظل وراء الضو ِء‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫والحقيق ُة َ‬ ‫خلف الوهمِ‬ ‫الضباب‬ ‫اب أمام‬ ‫ِ‬ ‫والرس ُ‬ ‫ثم تنقش ُع الرؤي َة بني األلوانِ‬ ‫فتص ُري وردة‬ ‫عط ٍر بارييس ‪-‬‬‫زهر ُة امرأ ٍة بعد الوصال ‪-‬‬‫وجه الله ‪-‬‬‫فا ُه فأ ٍر جائعٍ‪- -‬‬ ‫بؤبؤ عيني عاشقٍ تكحلتا بالظأم مثل أثا ِر ظبي رضيعٍ تائ ٍه‬ ‫َ‬ ‫سحب بيضاء ابتسام َة حبيبت ِه الغائبة‬ ‫‪.‬فحاول بِقوس قزح أن يرس َم عيل‬ ‫ٍ‬

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IBEYI LISA-KAINDÉ AND NAOMI DÍAZ DISSECT THEIR MUSIC ON THE EVE OF THEIR MAJOR TOUR 56

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(Left to right) Naomi wears 16 ARLINGTON top, own jewellery.

Lisa wears 16 ARLINGTON dress, stylist’s own top, own jewellery.

(Left to right) Naomi wears ROKSANDA top and trousers. Lisa wears ROKSANDA dress.

“ARTFORMS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE HAVE HAD SUCH AN INFLUENCE IN OUR LIVES” LISA

IBEYI

Words BLESSING BORODE Photography ALICE MANN Styling SHIRLEY AMARTEY

In the Yoruba dialect of Nigeria and Benin, Ibeyi translates as died. Naomi sat on the cajón for the first time and started playing like “twins” – who are widely celebrated as magical beings and omens a musician. I remember looking at my mum and my grandma and we of prosperity. To many though, Ibeyi also means French Afro-Cuban were all so stunned.” Lisa understood the power of music when she sisters Lisa-Kaindé Díaz and Naomi Díaz, whose influential music wrote her first song aged 15 but it was with Naomi’s encouragement explores the duality of human nature and the relationship between that she fully embraced her gift. the physical and spiritual worlds. Their 2015 self-titled debut album Ibeyi often describe their music as “magic” – a way to remain introduced their visceral, polyrhythmic soundscapes, fusing soul, connected to themselves while honouring their late father and elder electronica, jazz and punk with their celestial voices. Lisa-Kaindé sister, who died in 2013. Music is healing and release, rather than a spilled out her lyrical meditations while Naomi held the beat on the vehicle for fame, and it is made with a sense of freedom. “The great cajón and bata drums. Since then, they have collaborated with thing about Ibeyi is that we are allowing ourselves to do whatever Beyoncé and released the critically acclaimed album, Ash. And now we want,” Naomi asserts. They wrote their first album as teenagers all ears are tuned into their current release, Spell 31. and released the transformative collection when they were 20.

When we talk, they are deep in rehearsals for their European and “When I look back I’m really proud of how hard we worked. It was beautiful to see how powerful it was to be so different,” Lisa recalls.

US tour – their first time on the road for almost three years. They Rooted in Yoruba spirituality, their project is saturated with the will amplify their live sound by adding two instrumentalists to their presence of the supernatural Orishas, from acoustic prayers to the usually intimate set-up. “It was always just Naomi and I, so it’s mighty Eleggua to melodic invocations of Oshun, mother of water, exciting to get to hear the songs sound bigger. We’ve been more purity, sensuality and love on the stand-out track River. ready than ever,” Lisa tells me.

They believe neither would be able to shine as bright as solo Creativity runs deep in the Díaz family; their grandfather was a painter and poet, their father Miguel ‘Angá’ Díaz was a Grammymusicians. “If it was me alone, it would have been less interesting award winning percussionist and member of the Buena Vista Social but really successful, and if it was Lisa alone, it would have been Club and their mother Maya Dagnino is a photographer and singer more interesting but too complicated and people would not listen – as well as their manager. Naturally, they were raised on a generous to it,” Naomi says jokingly, adding: “The common ground between and varied mix of music. “People should listen to everything. You us is balance. Differences in life are important.” have to at least allow yourself to like a lot of things and then choose,” The enchantment continues with Spell 31, whose title is taken Naomi says. Visual art also influenced their childhoods and Lisa from The Egyptian Book Of The Dead, which their producer and XL remembers Francesca Woodman photographs and pictures by Frida label boss Richard Russell gave them. The song Made Of Gold Kahlo on the walls of their Paris home. They are deeply inspired by directly references the text: “Oh, you with a spine/Who would work the eminent Cuban painter Manuel Mendive, who made much of your mouth against this magic of mine/It has been handed down in an unbroken line/The sky encloses the stars /I enclose magic”. their father’s album art. “It’s wonderful how artforms from around Lisa believes in looking for the answers you seek in art, and as the globe have had such an influence in our lives,” Lisa says.

There is barely a memory the twins share that isn’t connected to primary songwriter, she tells me how the radical works of Betye music and Naomi feels her vocation was inevitable. But Lisa recalls Saar and her daughters Alison and Lezley Saar inspired the album.

“Their art really looked how our music sounded. I messaged Alison a seismic incident when they were 11. “It was the day our father NATAAL

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“DON’T TRY TO CONTROL IT OR SHAPE IT INTO WHAT YOU THINK IS BEAUTIFUL. ALLOW IT TO SHOW YOU” NAOMI

Saar and talked to her. She told me she would listen to our albums to wake up the spirits in her studio and it made me cry because I thought of how incredible it is to feel that connection when we’d never met.”

She credits printmaker Belkis Ayón as another key inspiration, as well her research into Sangomas – South African traditional healers – who are honoured on the opening track.

Their music-making process has also changed. “Instead of the beat morphing to the songs, the song had to morph to the beat.

I think it’s the best balance we found between Lisa’s world and mine because the rhythms are really strong,” Naomi says. Another development has been welcoming more collaborators into their tightly knit circle, with Jorja Smith on Lavender & Red Roses, Berwyn on their cover of Black Flag’s Rise Above and Pa Salieu on the ancestor-stirring Made Of Gold.

Intuition fuels their music. “It’s this balance between listening to what fate and the universe is telling you and allowing the creative

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direction to reveal itself to you. It’s what my therapist calls ‘letting go of the fireworks’. Don’t try to control it or shape it into what you think is beautiful. Allow it to show you its best shapes and colours.” Having faith in each other also means embracing imperfection. “Sometimes little mistakes make the song good,” Naomi says.

On Creature (Perfect) Lisa confronts how she once held herself back. “I was obsessed with being perfect. I felt almost like an actor, trying to find what someone else would deem beautiful to make myself into.” I ask her to define perfection now, to which they both chime: “There’s no perfection – it doesn’t exist!”

As they prepare for the spotlight the album and tour will bring, they tell me about some of their grounding practices. For Naomi, she feels most beautiful on stage because she is most aware of her power. For Lisa, it’s singing in Yoruba. “I always feel my dad when I sing Yoruba songs, and all of my ancestors that have sung those songs before us. I never feel alone when I sing in Yoruba.”

Hair ZATEESHA BARBOUR, Make-up FRANCESCA DANIELLA using KEVYN AUCOIN, Creative production RAY OKUDZETO Photography assistant PRECIOUS OPARA, Production assistants BELLA MEYER, ASWAN MAGUMBE, Styling assistant ELZA RAUZA, Drone operation MAGNUS HONEYBOURNE, Studio JUMP STUDIOS

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(Left to right) Naomi wears ROISIN PIERCE dress, own jewellery. Lisa wears ROISIN PIERCE dress, own jewellery.

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Words YELENA GRELET

Photography KADER DIABY

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BETWEEN TWO WORLDS OHIRI’S BOLD BODY ADORNMENTS HONOUR THE AKAN CROCODILE KING

(Opposite) Ear cuff by OHIRI (Above) Shoulder necklace by OHIRI

With the Outlines collection, Ohiri invites us to the watery kingdom of the Crocodile King.

Designer Akébéhi Kpolo created these powerfully enigmatic body adornments in tribute to Yammoussoukro, forgotten former capital of Côte d’Ivoire. “The city was the birthplace of Félix Houphouët-Boigny, our first president, who filled his residence with crocodiles from around the world,” she says.

Born in Abidjan, Kpolo spent her summers traveling around the country with her family discovering its history and culture. “My parents taught me to love and learn more about our heritage.” She read economics and social development in Paris and set up Ohiri (which means “being in gradual development” in Bété) in 2012, to unite the traditional and NATAAL

modern in Ivorian craft. Since then, she has created imaginative, genderless body adornments in brass, silver and vermeil – art objects that subvert the idea of what jewellery is, designed to be worn on the lips, nails, ears, knees and shoulders.

This collection, presented at Paris Fashion Week with Ethical Fashion Initiative support, explores her fascination with the gold jewellery of the Akan people. The crocodile represents strength, while gold symbolises the union between humanity and the divine. An ear cuff depicts two crocodiles biting each other’s tails in an ode to duality. “They symbolise the symmetry between feminine and masculine, and also the challenges of aligning community and personal interests,” she

Words YELENA GRELET

says. An elegant choker features a mesmerising lapis lazuli eye, believed to bring peace and serenity. “I see jewellery as being in tune with the human being,” she says. “There is a conversation between it and the body.”

Beyond the pleasures of body ornamentation, she believes nothing is more beautiful than authenticity. “Charisma and confidence are the foundation of beauty. Whatever you are confronted with, it can be overcome with those two qualities.”

She has achieved so much with this meaningful made-in-Africa brand, but plans to go further by opening an atelier in Abidjan. “My artisans are very talented, because even with very limited materials, they are able to make wonderful pieces with what they have.”

Photography KADER DIABY

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(Above) Stool bag by OHIRI (Opposite) Choker by OHIRI

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Artistic direction AKÉBÉHI KPOLO and KADER DIABY, Model ABDEL DOUMBIA, Jewellery OHIRI

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Words YELENA GRELET

Photography KADER DIABY

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JOYCE & WILFRED CISSE

INTUITION AND EMPOWERMENT UNITE THE MUSICAL SIBLINGS 66

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JOYCE & WILFRED CISSE

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68 wears PRADA dress.

Joyce

JOYCE & WILFRED CISSE

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“PEOPLE START OFF AS SEEDS IN LIFE BUT YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE TO BLOSSOM INTO A BEAUTIFUL FLOWER” JOYCE

JOYCE & WILFRED CISSE

Words BLESSING BORODE

Photography CHIESKA FORTUNE SMITH

Styling HANNA KELIFA

“Known who I is since out the womb,” sings Joyce Cisse, aka Wilfred credits his free-flowing mindset to his early life in Côte Flowerovlove, in her indie-trap single Malibu. It’s not a statement d'Ivoire, where he spent the first six years of his life before the family every 16-year-old can make, but Joyce is not your average schoolkid: migrated to London to escape civil war. Growing up, the mellifluous balancing homework with making nostalgic alt-pop tunes, walking sounds of Malian singers Oumou Sangaré and Salif Keita filled their at Paris Fashion Week and fronting campaigns for Gucci and Pangaia. home. Joyce cites Justin Beiber and One Direction as staple sounds Every Flowerovlove tune is an Eden of lush melodies, whimsical of her childhood, but their mother also introduced her to Boney M, lyricism and endless sunshine. Flowerovlove is proof that wisdom whose chant-like backing vocals made a huge impression. The doesn’t necessarily come with age. siblings’ influences sit on opposite ends of the spectrum, but they With lo-fi guitar motifs, reverbed vocal ad-libs and computerised were raised to appreciate multiplicity, and when making music drums, Joyce conjures perfect pop songs with her 24-year-old together they embrace their creative differences. “If I really like brother, musician and producer, Wilfred Cisse. There’s an instinctive something and fixate on it, then it’s happening. If he thinks it’s not ease between the two, yet their songwriting approaches can differ: working, I’ll go away, come back and then we’re like okay, let’s think “I make sure that if you listen to this you will cry, and she’s like of something new,” Joyce says. In these critical moments, she has ‘Nah, if you listen to this I want you to laugh and feel like you’re ultra- complete trust in her intuition. “I’m a Gen-Z and Wilfred’s not, so high,’” Wilfred says, sitting beside his sister in a London studio, we hear things very differently. Something he might think is cringe, fresh from their Nataal shoot.

I know could actually blow up.”

Wilfred released his first EP SW8 in 2020; four grime-laced tracks One of the joys of making music as siblings is the honesty they honouring legends such as Skepta, Jme and Wiley. “We lived in Oval share, and that disagreements are never taken personally. “I can say in south London when crime was high, so a lot of stuff in there was ‘Yeah, this is shit, do you want to move on?’ And there are times when very much lived. It was easy to tap into that energy.” He followed this I’m wrong,” Wilfred admits, citing the single Will We Ever Get This with a much mellower, space-trap sound with the release of the Right, in which Joyce navigates the complexities of an unrequited singles Okay, Fish Out Of Water and Show In LA. “I think it’s essential crush over a rolling bass line and shimmering guitar melody. Wilfred to have the ability to produce anything. Music is an industry of people stepped away from production duties because he wasn’t convinced who understand feelings and how to tap into them. Like acting, by the track, but Joyce completed it regardless. “I heard beauty it’s just about expressing emotions.” in the song,” she says, to which Wilfred replies: “Did you feel like it Wilfred admits he doesn’t push his work out as much as he could: was therapeutic, like you needed to get it out to arrive where you’re at right now?” She ponders for a moment before responding.

“She’s the one who wants to be a pop star,” he laughs, motioning to Joyce. In fact, he has a catalogue of unreleased music but for him, “Everyone needs to have a form of therapy and music is that for me.

I really enjoyed writing that song and finishing it was one of the best versatility is everything. He originally trained as a tailor on Savile feelings ever.”

Row and is now exploring filmmaking.

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70 to right) Wilfred wears RICHARD JAMES suit and shirt, TURNBALL JOYCE (Left & ASSER & tie,WILFRED WEEJUNS shoes.

CISSE Joyce wears DIOR suit, bag and boots, SHRIMPS earrings.

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JOYCE & WILFRED CISSE

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JOYCE & WILFRED CISSE

Wilfred wears RICHARD JAMES suit and shirt, TURNBULL & ASSER tie.

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“MUSIC IS AN INDUSTRY OF PEOPLE WHO UNDERSTAND FEELINGS AND HOW TO TAP INTO THEM. IT’S JUST ABOUT EXPRESSING EMOTIONS” WILFRED

They have a unique way of testing when the music is right. “We But her family always reminded her their African features and make something and play it over a Studio Ghibli film, and if it syncs traditions set them apart. And her brother simply states: “I never left then it’s a Flowerovlove song,” says Joyce. There’s a fantastical the motherland. It’s at home.” Today, he sports immaculate braids element in their sonic and visual aesthetic – take the cover art for and Joyce relishes her full afro. “People say, ‘We love your hair, it’s so I Love This Song, which pictures Joyce with an elongated, oversized 70s.' No, it’s not, it’s just called being Black,” Joyce chides. Wilfred arm, or Will We Ever Get This Right in which she holds hands with adds, “You don’t go up to a white person and say, ‘I like your Beatles a stickman. “He’s a stickman because I can draw him the exact way haircut’. That’s rude! Afro hair doesn’t equal 70s.”

I want in my mind but that’s not actually how he is. It’s kinda deep.”

The pair’s natural affinity for fashion seems to run in the family – their uncle is famed stylist and creative director Jenke Ahmed Joyce’s stage name is the manifestation of her intention to spread love, beauty and empowerment. “People start off as seeds in Tailly, who has worked with Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian. The life but you have to choose to blossom into a beautiful flower.” She siblings always choose sustainable brands or vintage. “I absolutely refuse to buy fast fashion. I wear clothes from charity shops and advocates self-love over everything else. “I never had music that was telling me, ‘You are amazing’. It’s always, ‘Baby I love you… baby I think people should be inspired by that because it shows that you care about the planet – and the clothes are actually nicer,” Joyce why don’t you want me?’ Shut up! Not everyone’s in love. If you’re says. Wilfred’s desire to become a designer began when he saw an going to tell someone to be in love, they should be in love with Alexander McQueen show, after which he mined the Vogue archives. themselves. And then you feel like you can do, be or have anything “It was about understanding the history of fashion. I’m in love with you want and don’t have that voice telling you, ‘What if you’re not tailoring. When I’m in a suit that was crafted and custom made for good enough?’” me, I sit differently.”

Her 2021 debut EP Think Flower embraces this mindset. Made What’s next for Joyce and Wilfred? Expect lots of new music from during lockdown, it was a remedy for the overwhelming moments Flowerovlove and conceptual music videos – as well as intimate of melancholy most of us experienced. How did she approach it?

“Through life experiences you become more confident. I faked it till fan events. “They help me get to know them because when I drop something it’s not just about me. It’s also fun because this is my I made it, that’s for sure, but it manifests and it works. I just dream.” Meanwhile Wilfred is working on a film about the murder pretended to be really confident and now I am.” of south London teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1994, a case that She acknowledges the external forces that affect how we see ourselves. “I used to straighten my hair,” she says. “You don’t realise continues to reverberate today. But he hasn’t completely shut down the idea of releasing more of his own music. “Doing music is what it when you’re young, you just think straight hair is good. Then you I’ve been missing all this time. Now it feels like the right place to be.” fancy the white guy with blonde hair, you disregard the Black guy.”

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Hair TOMI ROPPONGI, Make-up LAURA DOMINIQUE, Production THE CURATED PRODUCTIONS, Executive production GIORGIO T-D, Photography assistance FEDERICO COVARELLI, Styling assistance PHILIP SMITH, ANNIE DAVIS, Equipment PROLIGHTING, Studio 63 SUN STUDIO

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74 wears HOTZWEILER top, AMI blazer, MOLLY GODDARD skirt, PRADA Joyce JOYCE socks. & WILFRED CISSE

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Joyce wears SHRIMPS earrings, TOGA suit, PRADA socks, MULBERRY shoes.

Wilfred wears RICHARD ANDERSON suit, own shirt, JOHN LOBB shoes.

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I’D LIKE TO SPEAK TO THE MANAGER

Art direction and set design ALINA LARISSA SCHMID and REBECCA ILSE at FORGET ME NOT Food sculptures LILA STEINKAMPF

GOOD HAIR

PHOTOGRAPHER NAJLA SAID PLAYFULLY BRUSHES AGAINST SOME LONG-HELD TROPES

Najla Said, There Was No Answer, 2021

“When my friend Habiba Haddara put the hair costume on, she couldn’t move. This was literally the physical embodiment of how much hair and its connotations weigh on you,” says Najla Said of her image There Was No Answer.

“I was addressing the idea that hair is used as a tool to make women conform.” Taken from the Egyptian photographer’s Sister Oh Sister series, it depicts a woman in a chador made from blonde hair, kneeling in prayer, which prompted questions about the significance of women’s hair in the Arab world.

The work of the Cairo-born, Berlin-based photographer reconciles the many different, often conflicting desires and expectations culture places on women. She uses humour to deftly untangle these knotty issues. “Why should my entire femininity and womanhood be reduced to how I wear my hair?” she asks.

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“If you’ve got long hair, you’re seductive, if you’ve got a ponytail, you’re modest – and if it’s too short? You’re probably a guy. It’s like we’re being held hostage by our hair.”

While colonial hang-ups mean that natural curls are often tamed into smooth waves, there is also a pressure to be free of body hair. A collaboration with her friend Yasmina Haefliger asserted women’s self-ownership by exploring the idea of belly dancing as an artform, separate from the male or imperialist gaze. But it was Haefliger’s armpit hair that most caught people’s attention. “There was an intense backlash,” she says. “People were commenting she has too much testosterone and should go to the doctor; someone said they could smell the photo! It’s so fucked up; you hope you’ve outgrown it, then it comes and slaps you.”

Words MIRIAM BOUTEBA

Said further mined the idea of hair in the “wrong” place evoking revulsion in her latest project, I’d Like to Speak to the Manager: a collaboration with Alina Larissa Schmid and Rebecca Ilse of design studio Forget Me Not, alongside Lila Steinkampf, a food and floral stylist who crafts impossibly pretty, edible sculptures. Their still life series combines sweets and straight hair – two supposedly beautiful things – which evoked queasiness when combined together. “I was treating the hair as a completely abstract medium, binding it with jelly, which although attractive, has its own unique consistency and texture, Said explains. “It’s really this point of commonality between hair and food that’s interesting in provoking feelings of discomfort or disgust, and which allows me to tackle notions of beauty versus ugliness.”

Photography NAJLA SAID

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ALTERED IMAGES

WHERE IS THE MELANIN IN THE METAVERSE? 78

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“THE METAVERSE IS A POWERFUL LEVER FOR BEAUTY BECAUSE IT WILL ALLOW PEOPLE TO CREATE COMMUNITIES NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE” BROOKE DEVARD OZAYDINLI

ALTERED IMAGES

Words AMBER NICOLE ALSTON

Illustration ALEXIS TSEGBA

When it comes to beauty, the metaverse is like a teenager’s bedroom – a cluttered space where looks are tested and refined before they take a spin in the real world, and hedonistic cultural trends, as well as childlike fantasies, are taken seriously. This experimental quality has attracted bold new creators to the arena, offering a fresh take on what it means to be beautiful in a world where literally anything is possible.

“The metaverse is creating a cadence. It’s a valuable place to gather and talk about beauty in more nuanced ways,” says Darian Symoné Harvin, beauty editor-at-large at LA Times Image. “The thing about beauty is that it’s one of the few things you still have to show up for. Somebody can auction off a cool image of a lipstick, but it will fall flat unless you assign deeper meaning to its creation.”

Everyone – even the people making their fortunes from it – struggles to explain what the metaverse is and where it ends.

While we were all sitting at home during the pandemic, what originated as a portmanteau of ‘meta’ and ‘universe’ in a 90s sci-fi novel became shorthand for the next frontier of digital engagement.

As Eric Ravenscraft explains in Wired magazine, “the term doesn’t refer to any specific type of technology, but rather a broad shift in how we interact with technology.”

It’s the internet on hyperdrive – a loose network of augmented reality, virtual reality, video games and other immersive technologies.

Because it is decentralised, everyone experiences it in radically different ways. Cartoonish torsos chat in environments reminiscent of the movie Tron. Avatars with bobbleheads sit around sterile conference tables. Then there are more experimental places where alien-like creatures populate new dimensions or hyper-realistic models march down catwalks.

“Gaming affords players a unique opportunity to interact and connect with the brands they love, discover new ones and get inspired,” says Lucy Yeomans, former Porter editor and founder of gaming app Drest. “For brands, gaming enables them to meet their target consumers where they are spending their time. It also provides an innovative way to forge affinities with the luxury consumers of the future and create deeper connections that go beyond gameplay. Our partnerships with the likes of Prada, Cartier and Messika allow players to immerse themselves in their world.”

The options for beauty are elaborate and seemingly endless, and as a result, the standards are constantly changing. Clinique and Nars were among the first to venture into the space, with the former introducing NFT (non-fungible token) versions of its Black Honey Almost Lipstick and Moisture Surge, alongside a chance to win physical products. Gucci has partnered with Nintendo’s Animal Crossing to create GG Island, centred on its Gucci Guilty fragrance and featuring kitschy storefronts as well as a Jared Leto avatar.

On Drest, celebrity make-up artists such as Mary Greenwell curate social face filters to complement the platform’s vast luxury-fashion 80

collection. Whatever the entry point, users are spending serious money to ensure that when they create representations of themselves in the metaverse, people take notice.

“I love that people are interrogating what they’ll wear in the metaverse,” says Brooke DeVard Ozaydinli, creator marketing manager at Instagram and host of The Naked Beauty podcast. “It’s a place where you can go further than what’s possible in the real world. If I’m wearing a T-shirt, maybe the colour changes based on my emotions or how many compliments I’ve gotten today.”

By nature, metaverse style bristles against everything that came before it. The people creating the most talked-about looks aren’t always fashion-school graduates. They’re more likely to be 3D designers and tech devotees who’ve found a new and lucrative creative outlet. The stakes are also different. Creators are less concerned with fabric sourcing and ad budgets and more invested in toothy issues such as ownership and decentralised economies.

Transactions take place using cryptocurrency and ownership is traceable through NFT signatures.

The metaverse also arguably chips away at the fashion-industry machine that's based on acquiring prestigious prizes and lofty social connections to get ahead. Enterprising individuals can upload designs to the metaverse from their bedrooms, set prices on a whim, and offer as few or as many versions of a product as they like.

And just as much money is funnelling into metaverse design from Silicon Valley as it is from Paris.

Using business models popularised by Telfar’s bag security – a QR system that stops bots snapping up stock – and Supreme’s weekly drops, brands can use the metaverse to screen designs.

In theory, it’s an attempt to democratise fashion production and limit waste. Rather than creating goods and hoping for the best, brands debut digital iterations of new designs online to see how they perform before putting them into production. In 2021, virtualsneaker creator RKTFK partnered with then-unknown 19-year-old artist Fewocious to create hundreds of bold sneaker designs featuring expressive characters. The collection sold for $3.1 million in just under five minutes.

The metaverse is also using fashion as a tool for social commentary. Gabe Gault, the first artist-in-residence for Meta’s @Metaverse Culture Series, recently presented his VR experience, I Am a Man, as part of its Black History Month campaign. Ripe with anti-establishment undertones, he recreates himself as a sort of puppet master whose electric-blonde hair and tangerine hoodie are seen against a backdrop of pivotal Civil Rights demonstrations.

Historical icons in tailored suits holding handmade signs remind us that protest fashion has changed drastically in the last half-century.

“The future of fashion has always been born from anti-culture,” says Gault. “Anti-80s fashion bred 90s, anti-90s bred 00s, and so on.

Now AR/VR fashion is rising, and the only limit is our imaginations.”

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The first-ever Metaverse Fashion Week took place in March 2022. Hosted on the virtual real estate platform Decentraland, the high-profile event attracted Etro, Dundas, Dolce & Gabbana and Estée Lauder among others. One stand-out was the LA-based label Imitation of Christ, who collaborated with photojournalist Lynsey Addario to present a collection that included liquid-metal hoodie dresses and flaming gowns, a comment on the climate crisis and California’s ongoing wildfires. A portion of the profits went to Ukraine Dao, a crypto-based Ukrainian support fund.

The metaverse, therefore, has the potential to become an arena for positive change. But the ecosystem still falls victim to the biases that plague the human world and most modern technologies.

Light skin, European features and thin bodies are over-represented, leaving many users hungry for textured hair, darker make-up shades, plus-sized clothing options and more to help them feel welcome. “I noticed an uptick in companies wanting to work with people of colour after the George Floyd protests,” says Morgan Nixon, a popular gamer and make-up artist better known as BettyNixx. “In summer 2021, interactive livestreamer Twitch tried to give Black creators more visibility. Fast forward to this year’s Black History Month, and I didn’t see much representation. I know that it will probably take a long time before anything changes.” Nixon famously slammed drugstore beauty brand Elf Cosmetics last year for attempting to launch a dedicated Twitch channel to “uplift female gamers” and instead visibly excluded trans people and women of colour.

It’s a curious decision, considering how much people of colour – specifically Black women – spend on beauty. According to a 2019 Neilsen study, Black Americans bought more beauty products year over year than any other group, outspending their counterparts by nearly 19 per cent. In addition, the number of high-income Black households grew by 26 per cent. Simply put, overlooking Black beauty in the metaverse isn’t just a political misstep, it’s an economic one too.

Ensuring that the metaverse upends old beauty standards requires more than mindless board meetings and half-hearted brand activations. “When it comes to inclusion and true equity I think it’s going to be important that the people behind it – the creators, engineers, etc – are coming from various points of view,” adds Ozaydinli. “You need to have Black and Brown people involved in creating avatars, so things as simple as hair texture are right. If I want my avatar to have my laid baby hairs, I’d love to know that there is a designer that understands what that means and why someone would want that as an option.”

In defence of this, diverse creatives worldwide are ramping up output. “In the early days of the internet, there weren’t many Black investors and even fewer opportunities,” says Gault. “I believe it can be a redemptive place for more people of colour to shape how the metaverse will look and feel before it takes off.”

London’s Thrill Digital gives us an idea of what Black people creating phygital (physical/ digital) experiences through gaming technology can achieve. Staffed by diasporic Nigerians across the UK, Canada and Lagos, the firm uses Web3 technology to produce show-stopping versions of fashion’s most coveted items, such as the Dior saddlebag and Nike Air Jordans. But what’s most striking is its ability to create life-like avatars that reflect the features, skin tones and hair textures of Black people. For their work the group recently received a grant from Epic Games.

“I see the metaverse as a virtual reality created for the utility of avatars, in the same way our physical reality is created for human bodies,” says Alex ‘Delz’ Erinle, CEO of Thrill Digital. “We research what people want out of avatars – some want real life and others desire fantasy. It’s still early but so much of what we see in the metaverse is driven by certain body types. Some brands seem to think that you can’t sell clothes on models who don’t look one way.

We believe the metaverse should be inclusive for everyone.” Thrill Digital has turned these ideas into action by creating Astra, a metaverse that encourages users to compete to win digital fashion NFTs for their avatars. The lead character is a dark-skinned woman with full lips and coiled hair whose mix of loud gold jewellery and multi-coloured catsuits are undeniably afro-futuristic.

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Leighton ‘Late-FX’ McDonald, a New York-based spatial interaction designer whose CV includes collaborations with Yeezy, Complex Media and Under Armor, presents his vision of an inclusive digital future through AR. Most recently, he collaborated with Snapchat on the release of an exclusive lens for their Spectacles Augmented Reality Glasses, dubbed BlackSoul Gallery. Inspired

by McDonald’s childhood desire to see Black artists depicted in museums in his native South Carolina, the experience showcased portraiture, photography and sculpture by young Black artists in a gallery-like space and was available to the public.

Projects such as this highlight the barriers facing independent creators from underrepresented backgrounds who need to have the money to purchase the high-quality computers and software required to create eye-catching 3D work. They also need funding to scale. “Pitching as a Black agency has been terrible,” reflects Erinle.

“We’ve seen other people who don’t even have a deck raise millions, while we still have to convince people we are genuine. Most investors want to see at least one white or Asian person—we’re a bunch of Nigerians. But I’m stubborn, I’d rather die than have someone white show up and pretend to be me.”

To court a truly global audience, fans from all socioeconomic levels need access to high-speed internet, VR. headsets or AR-enabled smartphones, or other gaming equipment. The Washington Post found that roughly 37 per cent of the world’s population has never used the internet. And according to Fortune, less than one per cent of Eritrea’s population, and 1.16 per cent in Myanmar, have online access.

“Our first gaming demo was with a Nigerian audience,” says Niyi Okeowo, chief design officer and co-founder of Thrill Digital. “They kept complaining about the internet speeds, which must be fast if you want several people playing at once. Otherwise, the players can’t hear or talk. It’s an unfortunate reality we can’t escape at the moment. If we only marketed ourselves to African consumers, we’d leave ourselves closed to the customers whose resources and access make them better primed to enjoy the full experience.”

While big brands playing in the metaverse may seem to be having harmless fun, their interactions have to translate to dollars, which often leaves inclusivity low on priority lists. Many have therefore opted to promote the same globally appealing products to court those they believe are most active in the metaverse. Yet adaption is slow and segmented even in countries with high online penetration rates. Because beauty and fashion products are sold as NFTs, information has to be conveyed before a person can do something as simple as buying a new lipstick for their avatar. To get Ethereum, Bitcoin, or any of the other cryptocurrency coins, you must first be able to transfer bank funds in a crypto wallet, which exist on apps or web pages that need to be downloaded and require legal verification. It also means consenting to participate in this often volatile currency market.

“People who bet big on NFT projects right now are mostly white men,” says Harvin. It’s a harsh truth she learned trying to auction off her viral Mona Lisa in Paris NFT, rallying for Black women to share their visits to the Louvre and get their first passports. “A lot of people don’t have crypto wallets or money in them. I don’t think it’s a reflection of Black people only. The average person isn’t tapped into crypto. A lot has to be done to get people to understand the value of NFTs and what the metaverse is going to evolve into.”

Community building can offer an answer. Across the metaverse, people of all stripes are rallying around the brands they love and products they covet to form new social connections and understand what it truly means to be immersed in this brave new world. “The metaverse is such a powerful lever for beauty because it is going to allow people to create communities no matter where they are,” says Ozaydinli. “People of colour have stronger ties and affinity toward beauty brands that work for us and our skin because we know that we’re not always being catered to.”

So, next time you’re in the metaverse be sure to stop and take a look around. More than the next frontier of the internet, it is emerging as the best hope for truly inclusive notions of beauty and is helping rebut the standards that limit creativity, expression and even the way we see ourselves.

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SHIFTING THE GAZE

THREE SOUTH AFRICAN DISRUPTORS FORGE BEAUTY’S BOLD NEW WORLD 82

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SISTA NTSWEMBU

KHAYA MHLELI

“INSTEAD OF PEOPLE GUESSING WHAT A FEMME BODY DOING MAKE-UP MIGHT BE, I’M THERE DOING IT” KHAYA MHLELI

“I AIM TO PUSH BOUNDARIES AND IDEAS OF WHAT NAILS SHOULD AND CAN BE” SISTA NTSWEMBU

SHIFTING THE GAZE

Words BINWE ADEBAYO

“WE CREATED A REALLY SOLID COMMUNITY THROUGH FEELING CREATIVE AND BEAUTIFUL” FOYIN OG

Photography FRANCESCO MBELE

There is no doubt that the beauty game has changed and Black and frequently sexualised. For Sista Ntswembu, this is partly why she African communities have a lot to do with it. Just 10 years ago, it creates such OTT work – to reclaim these as empowering: if you was hard to imagine men leading global campaigns in full make-up; want coffin-point talons festooned with pearls, snakes, crosses and long “ghetto fabulous” nails in Hollywood or the extent to which gemstones, you got it. “I aim to push boundaries and societal ideas everyday people now live their best beauty dreams in the comfort of what nails should and can be. It’s all about expression, doing of their homes. Equal parts the effect of globalisation and Africa’s what you want and creating gorgeous things to look at,” she says. identity reclamation (as well as a certain level of appropriation), In conversation with culture hub Bubblegum Club, she explained in South Africa, beauty creators are creating looks that are inclusive, that for her, this attitude is all in the name: “For anyone who grew dynamic and right on the pulse of the continent’s diverse, fastup ekasi (identifying with the township), the name Sista Ntswembu changing beauty landscape. is often given to the coolest girl in the hood. The ghetto-fabulous Three young creators are shifting the focus from the Western sista with an undeniably effortless swag to her. ‘Tse Ntswembu tse gaze and shaking up the space. Khaya Mhleli is a non-binary blind’ – the stuff that just can’t be bought. And ever since then I’ve make-up artist; Foyin Ogunrombi – aka Foyin Og – is a make-up lived to embody what it really means to be that, fully, inside out.” artist and blogger, while Naledi Thabo – known as Sista Ntswembu And in essence, that’s the purpose of beauty: the work of otherwise known as “the Nail Pimp” – is one of the most Ntswembu and her peers allows people to understand, express and imaginative such artists in the country today. Their approaches and celebrate themselves. aesthetics are all totally different, but each is playing an important For Foyin Og, inclusivity is at the heart of it. Her viral “7 Days 7 role in removing the red tape around who gets to access the world Faces” challenge was her Covid escape, presenting prompts for a fantastical yet attainable look every day. It spawned thousands of beauty. They’re an integral part of the fast-growing African beauty industry – at last count in 2020 it was projected to be worth of interpretations, from aspiring professionals to people picking up a palette for the first time. “I was very enthusiastic about anyone over €12 billion, according to Beauty Africa. And while commerce is not necessarily their focus, each is acutely aware of the power who got involved. People wanted that support and I reposted, of the industry to change perceptions. shared and encouraged everyone – the notifications were crazy but it meant a lot to me. It was important to make people feel really “I’m never super-focused on how much I’m getting paid versus welcome – whether you’re doing the challenge or just wanted to see how much I work and my ability to show up exactly as I am. Instead of people guessing what a femme body doing make-up might be, the creations and joy from others,” she explains. or jumping to conclusions, I’m there representing it. I mean the It also highlights beauty’s potential for self-care. While most misgendering – oh my God, it’s constant – but I’m learning when to participants have no interest in being the next Pat McGrath, this speak up and when to protect my peace, and at the end of the day was a form of self-expression that might, perhaps, previously have seemed daunting. The challenge recalled the experiences of my work speaks for itself,” says Mheli.

In many ancient civilisations across the continent, gender fluidity Chloe Valentino Toscano, a young amputee and disability advocate was embraced, and much of the gender binary around make-up is in the US who transformed her self-image by putting make-up on the effect of patriarchal, colonial practices. So, while modern South her scars and decorating herself with temporary tattoos – the African society is still very much about the idea that make-up is for point being it’s not necessarily about whether your look is “good”, women, Mhleli arguably represents a more complete picture. but much more about whether you feel good doing it.

“During lockdown we were all so low, we needed something to “People still look at me when I walk down the street and try to make spark a light in us. There were no stakes and no pressure, and for me uncomfortable, but as long as they’re looking I have the opportunity to show them who I am. And I think sometimes people me as an influencer, it gave me the opportunity to go back to the art need exposure, and me living my true self exposes that to them. of make-up, rather than the content and engagement side of things.

I see people changing and thinking differently,” they say.

I think that’s why people joined over and over again – we created a But this isn’t just a gender issue, it’s about race and class too. really solid community,” she says.

While Sista Ntswembu’s ostentatious acrylic-nail art is all the rage And community is at the heart of these shifts. Many South now, Black women have long fought against beauty stereotypes.

African creators share work, collaborate and experiment to create From American Olympic athlete Florence Griffith Joyner being new audience spaces. So, whether that’s someone asking for a accused of cheapening the sport with her nail extensions, to “bad bitch set” from Ntswembu, trying a bolder make-up look with South African singer Thembi Seete’s Nineties-era nails being seen Foyin OG, or seeing Mhleli turn out a picture-perfect face for a TV as provocative and racy, Black women’s grooming choices are ad, these artists are flexing the beauty boundaries.

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Production BINWE ADEBAYO, Art direction KHUMO MOROJELE, Photography assistance LUKE NCUBE, Production assistance JESS WILLIAMS

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FOYIN OG

Moses wears MUGLER jacket and trousers.

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MOSES SUMNEY

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MOSES SUMNEY

OBJECTIFICATION. IMMORTALITY. FAIL-SAFE BEAUTY RITUALS. THE INDIE DARLING OPENS UP NATAAL

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“I’M BLONDE. I’M SIX FOOT FOUR. I’M INCREDIBLY DARK-SKINNED. THERE’S NOWHERE THAT I CAN GO IN THE WORLD WHERE I DON’T STAND OUT, NOT EVEN IN AFRICA”

MOSES SUMNEY

Words LOLA OGUNNAIKE Photography KENNY GERMÉ Styling EDEM DOSSOU

Since his auspicious debut EP, 2014’s Mid City Island, Moses Sumney has been wooing music lovers with his singular falsetto and ethereal, genre-defying elegies. Critics have described him as “master of the forlorn epic” and celebrated his “polymathic musical acuity”.

His most recent release, the 20-track double album Grae, has been hailed as an experimental tour de force, and his dynamic, transcendental performances have established him as one of the most compelling artists of his generation. He talks to Lola Ogunnaike about new music, the power of beauty, Black masculinity and more.

Your spring show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music was an acclaimed visual and sonic feast. You declared it perhaps the best show you’ve ever played. What made that evening so special? moses sumney: I think the stakes are just so much higher now for me after two years of being at home and not playing shows. There are a couple of ways to approach it. You either just want to go out and do everything that you missed, or you want to be really selective and make the moments matter. I’m doing the latter right now.

I hadn’t played a headline show in New York for almost five years.

The band was so locked in, so meticulously vetted and rehearsed.

They really brought such a beautiful spirit and drive to the show.

The audience was immaculate; quiet when you needed them to be and loud when you needed them to be. They were grateful for me being there. I was grateful for them. We did a damn good job.

We fucking killed it! lola ogunnaike: You were sporting custom Burberry by Ricardo Tisci for that performance and for part of the evening, your face was obscured by a giant circular headpiece. A floor-length cape, fingerless gloves, sheer blouses and latex cargo pants were in the mix as well. How would you describe your aesthetic and is your music inextricably linked to your visual presentation? moses sumney: That’s a great question. My being is intrinsically linked to my visual presentation so I try to bring all foremost aspects of my being to the stage, really trying to externalise what’s internal. Clothes are a great way to tell the story in ways that words lola ogunnaike:

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cannot, and music cannot. How would I describe the style language?

Gothic, incredibly romantic, monastic, vampiric. I’m obsessed with vampires. Having grown up in the church, I also love the vibe of priestly robes. It’s like, how do we have a priestly robe, but make it sexy? lola ogunnaike: What about vampires appeals to you? moses sumney: Well, immortality, but also the idea of immortality as both a strength and a weakness, immortality as a prison. The vampire – this nocturnal figure that can only exist in the shadows and needs people for sustenance, but is also an incredibly alienated figure – is a great metaphor for the artist. lola ogunnaike: You’ve dressed exclusively in black for several years. What prompted this? Is it the efficiency of black, the anonymity that it offers, or the safety in knowing that you can never really go wrong? moses sumney: It’s all those things. At the time when I decided to switch, I needed something to help me take myself more seriously.

It’s a decision I made before my first album came out. I wanted to arrive with people understanding there’s a level of depth within me.

It started with just wearing black on stage. As the years have gone on my stage and my everyday persona have really blended so now my daily life is not terribly dissimilar to how I present on stage.

I also wanted to learn more about fashion, and wearing exclusively black for years has really helped me understand fabric, shape, silhouette, texture. If I was also wearing colour it would be too much for me. lola ogunnaike: In the worlds of figurative art and portraiture there has been a celebration – and some would argue fetishisation – of hyper-saturated Black skin in recent years. Some of the work that is doing brisk business is produced by your fellow Ghanaian countrymen, painters such as Amoako Boafo, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe and Kwesi Botchway. I know that you once feared being “too Black” in your youth, but how has the ubiquity of dark skin in fine art impacted your relationship with your own skin? moses sumney: I don’t have an incredibly deep relationship with fine art or figurative painting. So, in terms of my own self-perception NATAAL

Moses wears BOTTEGA VENETA coat, 2C NEXUS trousers, MAISON MARGIELA shoes.

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MOSES SUMNEY

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(Above) Moses wears RICK OWENS coat and top, LEVI’S jeans, BALENCIAGA boots.

(Opposite) Moses wears BOTTER T-shirt and jumper, EYTIS trousers.

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MOSES SUMNEY

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and self-esteem, I feel pretty unaffected by this boom. For survival I needed to develop a sense of self so much sooner than that boom happened. I’ve always responded more to photography than painting. Maybe it’s because I’m a basic bitch, but that’s what resonates with me. lola ogunnaike: You are anything but basic, my friend. moses sumney: Thank you. I’ve always wanted to complicate or add layers to the narrative when it comes to how we see Black people or how Black beauty is depicted in the media. lola ogunnaike: You said for survival, you had to accept your own skin tone. By survival, what do you mean exactly? moses sumney: Growing up as a dark-skinned person, I was taught to hate myself and it’s hard to survive when you hate yourself.

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I had to find my own sense of beauty before it was reflected, before it was the thing in fashion, before it was the thing in art. That’s what I mean by survival. I had to figure out how to love myself as a dark-skinned person. lola ogunnaike: How did you go about doing that? moses sumney: As a teenager, listening to India Arie was huge for me.

Remember that song Brown Skin? That was my jam. Apart from that, I’m not totally sure honestly. I did a lot of work, particularly in my teens, to regard myself as beautiful, both externally and internally. Becoming a writer was part of that process, knowing that my thoughts and being were worthy of documentation and selfreflection. Doing that internal work affected me externally. lola ogunnaike: Do you now consider yourself beautiful?

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moses sumney: I do. I think I’m stunning, but not consistently.

I have my days when I’m like, I’m a little crusty and dusty, but overall, yeah, I do think I’m beautiful inside and out for sure. lola ogunnaike: Is it easier to think you’re beautiful when the world at large consistently tells you that you’re beautiful? moses sumney: This is actually one of my favourite topics because I spent the first half of my life having the world tell me that I was ugly and both explicitly and implicitly telling me that I did not matter, that I was worthless and that I was not desirable. At some point I was like, okay, cool. I get it. Y’all ain’t fucking with me. Let me figure out my own self-love situation. Then when I entered my twenties, I’m not entirely sure what happened. It was as if blackness became in vogue, or I just moved away from people who had small

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mentalities. I moved to the city, suddenly people were telling me that I was attractive, and it didn’t even register. Then it reached a point where I could no longer embrace the self-denial. As an artist, you always want to be the underdog. ‘Everybody hates me. I’m disgusting. I have all this pain that I can hold on to and it informs my art.’ I didn’t want to accept that people were telling me that I was beautiful or handsome or hot. lola ogunnaike: Who me? Gorgeous? No. moses sumney: Exactly. Someone gives you a compliment and you’re like, ‘Oh no, I’m trash’. That’s annoying. My older sister, for example, is very beautiful and has been beautiful her whole life.

I saw how the world treated her, and what was available to her as a beautiful woman. I always understood that people who were 95

96 wears SACAI windbreaker, BIANCA SAUNDERS dress, BURBERRY boots.

Moses MOSES SUMNEY

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“THE VAMPIRE – THIS NOCTURNAL FIGURE THAT EXISTS IN THE SHADOWS AND NEEDS PEOPLE FOR SUSTENANCE, BUT IS ALSO AN INCREDIBLY ALIENATED FIGURE – IS A GREAT METAPHOR FOR THE ARTIST”

perceived as beautiful had a certain privilege and access that others did not. For me, it wasn’t until the past couple of years that I had to really realise that there’s more available to me now. I can walk in a fashion show. Oh, interesting! I also recognise that most people, when they’re calling me beautiful, don’t actually know what beauty is. It is the superficial, it is the external, it is the shell that they are responding to. So often how they respond is informed heavily by their own socialisation and upbringing, or they’re responding to what’s around them. Those same people would not have seen my so-called beauty five, six, or 10 years ago. lola ogunnaike: Who are your beauty icons? moses sumney: Grace Jones. Grace Jones. Grace Jones and then Grace Jones. lola ogunnaike: Did you mention Grace Jones? moses sumney: [Laughs.] I don’t know if I’ve talked yet about Grace Jones. I also love Malcolm X. I share a birthday with Grace Jones and Malcolm X. When I think of just life, ideology and phenotype, those are my parents. lola ogunnaike: Do you arrive at your beauty through ritual? In my research, I saw references to an extensive skincare routine. And it’s clear that you exercise. There is a weight that has been lifted and there is an ab that has been crunched. moses sumney: That’s hilarious. lola ogunnaike: Walk me through the ritual and be specific.

You know that this will be the thing that readers zero in on. How to achieve stellar skin like Moses Sumney. moses sumney: Well, I do a skin routine in the morning and at night.

Wash my face, apply toner, use some clindamycin for spot treatment – it’s a pharmacist-prescribed chemical that zaps away any bumps or pimples trying to sneak through. I use a vitamin C serum in the morning, and in the winter and colder parts of the year I will also add a Fenty serum with niacinamide at night. One should be using sunscreen every day. I use a combo sunscreen and moisturiser called Black Girl sunscreen. I live by it. It’s amazing.

In the evening I wash my face, tone again, spot treatment again if needed. I might use an LED mask. I swear by retinol as well. I love NATAAL

it so much. I like to moisturise. I like to go to bed shiny as hell. I lay on my back. We don’t put the moisture all up in the pillow. We don’t get the pillow lines on the face. I also drink a gallon of water every day and I exercise five times a week, usually about 45 minutes to an hour. I’m not one of those people that was born with perfect skin.

I had to really work on it. lola ogunnaike: In the Virile video, you present yourself on meat hooks, surrounded by slabs of beef. This felt like a commentary on the objectification of the Black male body. But you’re playing that game as well. You’ve got the chiseled abs, pecks and biceps on full display. You’re participating in your own objectification. moses sumney: It’s true. The artist is an object, the public figure is an object. You must decide for yourself whether you’re going to acknowledge that and play into it. I don’t have a choice. I walk down the street and I’m an object. Even if I wasn’t a public figure, people look at me, say things to me. I would walk down the street in Ghana when I had locks and people would yell at me from their cars. lola ogunnaike: What would they yell? moses sumney: Rasta, Rasta, or Jamaica, Jamaica or America, America, and now that I’m blonde that’s another thing. I’m six foot four. I’m incredibly dark skinned. There’s nowhere that I can go in the world where I don’t stand out, not even in Africa. Even before I entered any kind of public thing, I understood that almost in a double-consciousness way. There’s how I see myself in this body, how other people consume me and whether or not I participate, I will be consumed. When I went into making Virile, that was around the time I realised that I could be attractive – and actually more specifically that people were treating me differently because of how they saw me. I decided to really go for it. Ahead of that video, I went on this diet for a year. I changed everything about my life in order to make that one music video. lola ogunnaike: Really? What did you change? moses sumney: I went on a no-sugar diet, essentially where I took out all sugars, including natural sugars. I stopped eating fruit.

I stopped eating rice. Imagine not eating rice by the way… lola ogunnaike: As an African? No! 97

(Opposite) Moses wears RICK OWENS jumpers, overall and boots.

(Below) Moses wears BOTTER t-shirt, EYTIS trousers.

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MOSES SUMNEY

NATAAL

NATAAL MOSES SUMNEY

MOSES SUMNEY

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“NOW I HAVE MORE EXPERIENCE AND HAVE ESTABLISHED MYSELF, I’M INTERESTED IN PLAYING AROUND WITH THE MAINSTREAM A LITTLE BIT MORE”

moses sumney: Yeah, exactly. Thankfully I was not living in Ghana at the time. I was in North Carolina in semi-isolation. I got a trainer and started working out for the first time in my life. I drank celery juice every day. What did that do for me? Unclear, but I did it for nine months.

I was really interested in this idea of the objectification of the Black male body. I wanted to talk about masculinity and virility, but also about femininity. Whereas the meat hooks and the meat are a metaphor for the Black body as this consumable object, at the end of the video, I’m consumed by ladybugs. I’m oscillating between this masculine and feminine world. That is represented in my music a lot. How soft it is may sometimes seem antithetical to the presentation of my physical body. lola ogunnaike: Shot over two days in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, your concert film, Blackalachia, which you directed, features songs from your albums Aromanticism and Grae and it opens with an exquisite long shot of you running across verdant hills. Scenes of you running and dancing figure prominently in your work. Why do you return to this imagery? moses sumney: I love to move. It’s how I express myself when there are no words. All of the movement that I have expressed on screen is about freedom. The sensation of the body moving swiftly is about the search for freedom and trying to free myself from the shackles of masculinity. In Blackalachia, I was trying to find the freedom of nature and reintegrating the Black body with nature. All of it is about freedom – especially the freedom of true unfiltered self-expression. lola ogunnaike: You are the middle child of two Ghanaian pastors, and you grew up between Southern California and Greater Accra.

I’m guessing their dreams for you did not involve a life in the arts.

What did they make of your decision to become a performer? moses sumney: Well, they weren’t surprised. That’s the thing they dreaded all my life, because I threatened it from a very young age.

They were dismayed, but not surprised. I’m not totally sure what they think of it now. As immigrants, they wanted stability for their child,

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maybe a traditional route that would impress their friends. When you’re at home African parents are like, ‘Why aren’t you studying?

What’s wrong with you? Your grades are so bad.’ Then when they go out, they’re like, ‘Oh my daughter has straight As. We are so proud of her. She has done well in school. She was accepted to all the top universities…’ [Laughs] lola ogunnaike: I feel like you just read from the script of my life.

This has been quite the busy few years for you. You released an album, directed a concert film, opened a photography exhibition in NYC, thrilled audiences in Brooklyn. You also run Tuntum, a recording label, production company and creative agency. What’s next for you? moses sumney: You should have a talk show. I see that for you. We’re going to manifest that. lola ogunnaike: Thank you. I’m claiming that. moses sumney: What’s next for me? I would like to continue exploring film, photography, self-portraiture and cinematic arts.

I also want to return to my roots as a writer. That’s where I started. lola ogunnaike: Do you care about mainstream success? Is that something that you aspire to achieve? moses sumney: Yes, it is something I care about. It is not something I cared about my whole career. It’s something I avoided actually and did not want for most of my career because it was more important for me to make work that felt honest, that was pushing boundaries, breaking barriers sonically. I was very invested in the truth and it’s hard to tell the truth when you have mainstream success. It’s also hard to have career longevity when you come out the gate of the mainstream playground. Now that I have a bit more experience and I’ve established myself as a true artist, I’m interested in playing around with the mainstream a little bit more. What’s nice is that I have stability. The interest doesn’t come from a place of desperation. It comes from a place of expansiveness and wanting to see, can I be my weird self in this place…?

Photography KENNY GERMÉ at TOTAL WORLD, Styling EDEM DOSSOU at TOTAL WORLD, Creative production RAY OKUDZETO, Grooming CASSANDRA SCALIA, Production assistance BLESSING BORODE, Digital technician LUKE BENNETT, First assist PETROS POYIATGI, Second assist BENEDICT MOORE, STUDIO INDRA STUDIOS, Lighting BLUNDELL STUDIOS, Retouching STUDIO PRIVATE, Thanks to Polaroid who supplied the Polaroid Now+ i-Type Instant Camera and film.

NATAAL

Moses wears BURBERRY top, apron and trousers.

NATAAL

MOSES SUMNEY

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A LITTLE MAGIC

Photography EKUA KING

Make-up MEGUMI MATSUNO

When it comes to matchy-matchy, Emolyne has it covered. The cult beauty brand by Uganda-born, UK-based entrepreneur Emolyne Ramlov offers a truly inclusive range of vegan lipsticks, lip liners and nail lacquers in 30 co-ordinated nudes and reds to suit every skin tone. And what we love is that each of these pigment-rich shades is named after an African country or destination. Now comes the new Gloss Lip in Emolyne’s six most sought-after hues – Cairo (peach), Luxor (coral), Marrakech (rose), Casablanca (scarlet orange), Port Elizabeth (candy red) and Zanzibar (poppy). So, immerse yourself in our dreamy story exploring the empowerment felt from a luxe lip.

Destiny wears GUCCI earring.

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Valentine wears ALIGHIERI earrings.

Creative Director MARIE GOMIS-TREZISE, Styling BARBARA AYOZIE FU SAFIRA, Hair SHAMARA ROPER at FUTURE REP, Nails KAREN LOUISE, Models DESTINY at CHAPTER MANAGEMENT, ARUAL and BLISS at MILK MODELS, DALEYA at CRUMB AGENCY, AWUT at XDIRECTN, VALENTINE at SQUAD MANAGEMENT, Production NORTHWOOD INTERNATIONAL, Executive production TONIA ARAPOVIC, Creative production RAY OKUDZETO, Casting MC BARNES, Make-up assistance KATARZYNA POSTAREMCZAK, Hair assistance DONICA CAMPBELL, Photography assistance ARTHUR COMELY, Production assistance BELLA MEYER, Digital technician MONIQUE WATSON, DOP ROY BRANDYS, Retouching Studio RM.

Arual wears Z/CH JEWELLERY facepiece.

MOKORO

Artists and talents JOAN OTIENO and members of WAREMBO WASANII ART STUDIO: NZELANI, RISPER, LOURINE, MARION, BARBARA, ROSE (BRENDA, IDAH, VERO, AMINA, WANJA, NANCY, PHANICE, EMMA), Photography and video KRISTIN LEE-MOOLMAN, Art direction and styling LOUISE FORD, Hair YANN TURCHI, Creative direction KRISTIN LEE-MOOLMAN, LOUISE FORD, Curation SOPHIE STROBELE and EMMANUELLE ATLAN, Support and production FARAGO PROJECTS, Presented by ERE FOUNDATION, Words WANJERI GAKURU In collaboration with the WAREMBO WASANII in Korogocho, Nairobi, Kenya.

The Warembo Wasanii art studio in Nairobi’s Korogocho area is a visual riot. Hanging off the walls and beams in various states of completion are headpieces made from drinking straws and beer cans, a bouquet of daffodils formed of plastic cups, a green pleated skirt made from homespun gunny bags, flattened bottle tops, wild tendrils of charging cables, potted plants and many other odds and ends. Yet it is supremely ordered chaos and a sanctuary for Kenyan artist Joan Otieno and the young women in her community.

For the past four years, Otieno has taught her students how to use plastic sourced from landfills in the informal settlements of Kariobangi and Dandora to make artwork and garments. The labour involved is self-evident, as is the talent. In the hands of these artists, substances destined for slow degradation become exceptional pieces expertly crafted and infused with life-affirming whimsy.

“I don’t see these things as waste material. To me, plastic is a gift. It is available and I view it this way with a passion,” explains Otieno, who started out as a wildlife painter in her hometown of Mombasa before turning to upcycling. “In my process, I consider how I want people to look at this material from a different perspective and with respect. I want it to spark a conversation.”

Twenty-five of her students’ garments are the subject of Mokoro, a multimedia exhibition that debuted in June at Gallery Mercier et Associés in Paris that celebrates self-empowerment, creativity and sisterhood. The women of Warembo Wasanii are both its creators and subjects and are showcased in collaboration with stylist Louise Ford, photographer Kristin-Lee Moolman and hairstylist Yann Turchi, as well as curators Emmanuelle Atlan of Farago Projects and Sophie Strobele, co-founder of ERE Foundation.

The idea formed in 2019 when Ford and Moolman went to Kenya to produce 28 Hats For Lamu which documented the Shela Hat Contest, a biannual event in which entrants create hats from material that would otherwise be thrown away. The pair quickly fell in love with Warembo Wasanii’s work, then spent a year marshalling resources and assembling collaborators to bring Mokoro to life. ERE Foundation, a French philanthropic organisation that calls for accountability from fashion industry creatives, was a natural fit. “We favour projects that are impactful and positive while being creatively convincing. And Mokoro united all of that,” Strobele says.

“It was a true team collaboration,” says Ford. “Kristin scouted the spots that would provide the best setting for the pictures. Yann took his time to address the outfits and understand how each girl felt about her hair. The girls were always closely escorted by Joan, making sure they felt comfortable and confident. And Emmanuelle and Sophie interviewed Joan and the girls to tell the story in all its beauty and strength.”

Following the Paris show, Mokoro will be shown in Nairobi and at the V&A Museum during London Design Festival (17-25 September) in association with Nataal. ERE Foundation and Farago Projects will continue to supply long-term support and exposure to Warembo Wasanii, helping them develop their skills and laying the groundwork for future projects.

BARBARA wears halter-neck top made from shredded plastic bags.

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(Left to right) MARION A wears potato sack hat, top, skirt and shoes embellished with plastic cup flowers. EMMA and LOURINE wear full toothpaste packet looks, bracelet made from computer keys. PHANICE wears hat, dress, handbag and shoes made from laundry detergent labels. BRENDA wears headpiece, dress and shoes made from rice packets. SHARON wears hat, dress and shoes made from rice packets. NANCY wears hat, dress, handbag and shoes made from milk labels.

MARION wears top, skirt and shoes made from diaper sacks embellished with margarine pot lids.

(Left to right) MARION wears top, skirt and shoes made from diaper sacks embellished with margarine pot lids. LOURINE wears headpiece, top, skirt and cuff made from plastic bottles with a potato sack base, bracelets made from cowry shells, aluminium can piercers and computer keys. AMINA wears headpiece, top, bracelet and skirt made from diaper packets. RISPA wears headpiece, choker, top, bracelet and skirt made from plastic pegs. NZILANI wears headpiece, dress and shoes made from diaper packets, bracelet made from aluminium can piercers and WANJA wears hat, top and skirt made from rice packets.

IDAH wears hat, top, braces and bloomers made from laundry powder packets.

MARION wears top embellished with margarine pot lids.

(Above) MARION wears hat and dress made from plastic food containers with plastic cup embellishments, bracelet made from computer keys. (Right) MARION wears denim hat, corset top, jeans and shoes embellished with aluminium can lids.

(Above) MARION A wears potato sack hat, top, skirt and shoes embellished with plastic cup flowers. (Left to right) ROSE wears hat, top and trousers made from diaper packets. RISPER wears headpiece, choker, bandeau top, arm cuffs, skirt and shoes made from laundry powder packets. MARION wears denim hat, corset top, jeans and shoes embellished with aluminium can tops. LOURINE wears headpiece, bra, handbag, skirt and shoes made from plastic straws.

SHEILA wears hat and dress made from plastic food containers with plastic cup embellishments, bracelet made from computer keys.

DAKAR DREAMS

Photography MALICK BODIAN

Styling FELIX PARADZA

Casting PIOTR CHAMIER AT STREETERS, Models KATHIA and GORA at AMY MANAGEMENT, PAPE and FATOU at RN MANAGEMENT

Gora wears DOLCE & GABBANA shirt, own necklace.

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(Opposite) Kathia wears MOSCHINO jacket, own accessories.

(Above) Pape wears SAINT LAURENT vest, stylist’s own shirt.

(Above) Fatou wears FERRARI headpiece, MOSCHINO shirt.

(Opposite) Fatou wears SAINT LAURENT jacket, KATHIA wears FENDI jacket.

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Photography MICHELLE MARSHALL

Styling CYNTHIA LAURENCE-JOHN

Hair LAUREN BELL, Make-up PHOEBE WALTERS, Models RITA & RACHEL, Photography assistance TOBI IBIKUNLE

(Left to right) Rachel wears AHLUWALIA top. Rita wears AHLUWALIA jacket.

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(Opposite) Rachel wears PREEN jacket and dress, PARIAH shoes. (Above) Rachel wears PREEN dress, PARIAH shoes.

(Left to right) Rita wears NEEDLES tracksuit, LABRUM jacket. Rachel wears NICHOLAS DALEY tracksuit.

(Left to right) Rita wears PARIAH coat and shoes, NEEDLES tracksuit. Rachel wears as before.

(Left to right) Rita wears AHLUWALIA tracksuit top, PARIAH shoes. Rachel wears BIANCA SAUNDERS suit, PARIAH shoes.

(Left to right) Rachel wears AHLUWALIA denim jacket, PER GOTESSON jeans, PARIAH shoes.

Rita wears PRONOUNCE jeans, PARIAH shoes.

SLOANE RANGERS

Photography and styling STÉPHANE GABOUÉ

Hair JACOB KAJRUP, Make-up CLAIRE LAUGEOIS, Models MATY NDIAYE at GIRL, JOSUE COMOE at BANANAS, MARIAME at STUDIO PARIS AGENCY, LAURENS and PAPE AT MARILYN AGENCY, LYNSHA at COVER MODELS, KEVIN, DEBRAH AKE, Special thanks to ORIANE HOUDAYER and CHRISTIAN KIMENA

(Opposite top) Lynsha wears COOL™ top, LEE jeans. Josué wears GANT shirt, LEVI’S jeans. (Opposite bottom) Maty wears BARBOUR shirt, LEVI’S jeans, LAPERRUQUE bag. (Above top) Pape wears BARBOUR coat and shirt. (Above middle) Lynsha wears DOHREK dress, CHARLES JOURDAN shoes. (Above bottom) Josué wears BARBOUR jacket, GANT shirt, LEVI’S jeans.

Laurens wears BARBOUR jacket and shirt, LEVI’S jeans.

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(Above top) Josué wears BARBOUR sweater, GANT shirt, LEVI’S jeans. (Above middle) Mariame wears COOL™ top, LEVI’S jeans, vintage shoes. (Bottom left to right) Mariame wears SEIDENSTICKER shirt, LEVI’S jeans, LAPERRUQUE bag. Maty wears AIGLE shirt, LEVI’S jeans, LAPERRUQUE bag, JM WESTON shoes. Debrah wears SEIDENSTICKER shirt, LEVI’S jeans, LAPERRUQUE bag, vintage shoes.

(Left to right) Laurens wears BARBOUR shirt, own trousers, NIKE shoes. Pape wears BARBOUR shirt, NIKE shoes. Mariame wears SEIDENSTICKER shirt, LEVI’S jeans, LAPERRUQUE bag, vintage shoes. Maty wears AIGLE shirt, LEVI’S jeans, LAPERRUQUE bag, J.M. WESTON shoes. Debrah wears SEIDENSTICKER shirt, LEVI’S jeans, LAPERRUQUE bag, vintage shoes. Josué wears BARBOUR sweater, GANT shirt, LEVI’S jeans, vintage shoes. Kevin wears COOL™ shirt, LEVI'S jeans, NEW BALANCE trainers.

J’AI DEUX AMOURS

Photography AXLE JOZEPH

Styling COREY WINSTON

Hair YUMIKO HAKIGE, Make-up KENYA VALLET, Models NYANDERI DENG at SELECT PARIS, ROSHNI SHARMA at WOMEN 360 PARIS, Hair assistance GWEN JONCOUR, Casting OLIVIER DUPERRIN

(Left to right) Nyanderi wears VERSACE top and skirt, MARINE SERRE boots.

Roshni wears VERSACE dress, OLIVIER THEYSKENS gloves, VERSACE bag, PRADA shoes.

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(Left to right) Roshni wears VERSACE dress, OLIVIER THEYSKENS gloves, VERSACE bag. Nyanderi wears VERSACE top and skirt.

Nyanderi wears OLIVIER THEYSKENS dress, ANN DEMEULEMEESTER jacket.

Nyanderi wears ANN DEMEULEMEESTER dress.

(Left to right) Roshni wears ANN DEMEULEMEESTER dress and hat. Nyanderi wears ANN DEMEULEMEESTER dress and shoes.

(Left to right) Nyanderi wears LANVIN top, PRADA shorts, MARINE SERRE boots.

Roshni wears MARINE SERRE shirt, smock, trousers and necklace.

HEAD START

Hair CHARLOTTE MENSAH Photography and creative direction STEPHEN TAYO “When Stephen and I started working on this project we had one goal in mind: to create a story of simplicity, texture, graphic shapes and movement," says renowned hair artist Charlotte Mensah about this hair story from Accra. "It was these points that informed not only the models and team we collaborated with but our wider ways of working. My career has taken me all over the world and the biggest lesson I’ve learnt is that we all rely on each other. A team does not have to be full of people I’ve known for years, but rather people who share a vision and principles."

She continues: "It felt right to pour into my existing network in Accra, especially those who I’ve worked with as part of my charity, the Love Naa Densua Foundation. We put together a mix of experience, familiarity and talent. Some people were mature in their styling, others only beginning to spread their wings. Some I’d only just met and yet offered a new perspective on aesthetic and hair that challenged me to push the boundaries. Above all, our team reflected the principles that guided us: closeness, community, dynamism, embrace and support. This is what shines so brightly in our story.”

(Left to Right) Laira wears JERMAINE BLEU dress, stylist’s own earrings.

Oumie wears stylist’s own dress, PALMWINE ICECREAM earrings.

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(Above) Oumie wears LOKKO HOUSE dress.

(Left) Herbert wears PALMWINE ICECREAM blazer.

Welbert wears LARRY JAY trousers.

(Opposite) Nuerki wears JERMAINE BLEU top, stylist’s own earrings.

(Opposite) Oumie wears stylist’s own bodysuit and trousers.

(Right) Herbert wears LARRY JAY shirt. Welbert wears LARRY JAY blazer.

(Below) Oumie wears stylist’s own bodysuit. Laira wears THREADED TRIBES dress.

Herbert and Welbert wear stylist’s own clothing and accessories.

TRAVESIA MELODIA

Photography OLGA DE LA IGLESIA

Styling LORENA MAZA

Hair ITZIAR NZANG, MELISSA MORENA, Make-up CATALINA SARTOR, Models SORAYA YASMIN GARTOUA ZILATI (CUENTOS ROSALES), BADREDDINE BEN MESSAOUD, NAJWA CHARKI at ISLA MANAGEMENT, SALAHDDIN TARKI at TALENT MODEL MANAGEMENT, AHLAM MEDDANE and AMANII MEDDANE at FIFTH ARTISTS, IKRAM BOULOUM at DOBLE CUERPO, INTY EL MESKINE at EVE LEON CASTING, Set design RŪMU STUDIO, MARIONA DEN TUINDER, Styling assistance SAMMY CULLIS, 158 NATAAL Photography assistance ALEX ZUAZOLA, MONICA LLONCH

(Opposite) Inty wears LECAVALIER dress.

(Above) Soraya wears SORCHA O’RAGHALLAIGH wig, LURLINE dress.

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Badreddine wears LICONG GONG hat, jacket and shirt.

Salahddin wears LICONG GONG shirt.

Badreddine wears AMESH vest and trousers.

Soraya wears GUCCI dress, gloves and shoes.

Salahddin wears MOTOGUO shirt.

Soraya wears ASHISH dress and trousers, vintage shoes.

Soraya wears JORDANLUCA dress.

Inty wears LECAVALIER dress.

CHAOS THEORY

Photography AHMED CHREDIY

Styling and art direction AARTTHIE MAHAKUPERAN

Hair RYO NARUSHIMA, Make-up MATTIE WHITE, Models SIENNA KING at TESS MANAGEMENT, LAUREN TURNER at IMG, Styling assistance CONNIE NG, Hair assistance MAKOTO TSUNODA, Make-up assistance LOUISE DONE, Production DIANE VINCENT, Studio management GEORGIA KUHN

(Opposite) Lauren wears A-JANE top. (Above) Sienna wears A-JANE dress.

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(Above) Sienna wears MAISON BENT suit. (Opposite) Sienna wears PETER PETROV dress.

(Clockwise from top left) Lauren wears PALMER//HARDING dress. Lauren wears HOUSE OF DAGMAR dress.

Sienna wears A-JANE dress. Lauren wears WOLFORD tights. Lauren wears A-JANE dress. Sienna wears PRADA skirt and top.

Lauren wears BOTTEGA VENETA suit.

EAST LOS

Photography and casting STIG DE BLOCK

Styling and casting EDDIE LOPEZ BAUTISTA

Models SARAH FERNÁNDEZ, JULISSA AARON, JESSE MARIA NAKWISI GOMEZ-VILLEDA A.K.A CHATA, COLBY WILLIAMS, DANIEL GUERRERO, ELÍSEO EQUIHUA, ANTHONY CORTES, GABRIEL EPHRAÍM RONDÓN, GABRIELA ALANIZ, DESTINEE ROSE. Locations STIG DE BLOCK.

Gabriel wears DICKIES pants, NIKE belt.

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(Left to right) Daniel wears CALVIN KLEIN tank, DICKIES trousers, own necklace. Sarah wears BABY PHAT vintage top, BEBE vintage sunglasses, DIESEL trousers, own jewellery. Colby wears CALVIN KLEIN top, PRO CLUB boxers, GIRBAUD JEANS jeans. Chata wears DICKIES trousers, E L.A. DODGERS vintage jacket.

(Left to right) Sarah wears BARRAGÁN top, PRO CLUB boxers, DIESEL jeans, own jewellery. Julissa wears MOM AND DAD vintage top and jeans. Jesse wears CALVIN KLEIN tank top, PRO CLUB boxers, DICKIES trousers, own jewellery.

Daniel wears as before, DICKIES trousers. Chata wears PRO CLUB tank, DICKIES trousers.

Eliseo wears own clothing, own jewellery.

Anthony wears OAKLEY glasses, NEW ERA baseball hat.

Jesse wears MOM AND DAD vintage cami top, PRO CLUB boxers, DICKIES trousers, own jewellery.

(Opposite) Destinee wears own clothing and jewellery. (Above) Eliseo wears own clothing, own jewellery.

(Above) Julissa wears WILLY CHAVARRIA top, own jewellery. (Right) Colby wears LOCS sunglasses, WILLY CHAVARRIA jacket and trousers, NIKE trainers.

(Opposite) Gabriela wears DODGERS vintage shirt, LEVI’S vintage jeans, SKIMS bralette and boxers, own jewellery.

TOGO YEYE

Photography DELALI AYIVI

Casting and production MALAÏKA NABILAH

Creative direction TOGO YEYE, Make-up AURÉLIA FELLEY, Models CLAUDIA, MARLINE, PRUDENCE, Photography assistance NEIL KWESSI BAKAR

(Opposite) Marline wears COMFORT KORIKO top, TOGO YEYE archival shoes.

(Above) Marline wears ​​MYRIAM MENSAH dress.

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Claudia wears GLADYS HOUNHANOU dress, TOGO YEYE archival shoes.

Prudence wears bags from ASSIGAMAÉ MARKET, TOGO YEYE archival fabric, own jeans.

Claudia wears RAHINA FOUSSENI dress and wings.

Claudia wears JOSÉE-MATHILDE DISSIRAMA dress.

Marline wears SANDRINE AGOUNKE dress.

Prudence wears balloons, hat and skirt from ASSIGAMAÉ MARKET,, own jeans and shoes.

Marline wears vintage dress, ASSIGAMAÉ MARKET hearts.

Prudence wears RAHINA FOUSSENI wings, TOGO YEYE archival trousers, own boxers.

OH MOTHER CITY

Photography NICK VAN TIEM

Styling SUZE KUIT

Models OBIAZI, MICHAELYN and TRE at MY FRIEND NED, SHAKES at BOSS MODELS, ANDILE, LOHANDA, SINDISO, MZWANDILE, COLE, BINO, LAMA, SLOLO, CARL AND BRADLEY, Photography assistance CARL VAN DER LINDEIMAGE, Retouching SHERIFF PROJECTS

(Left to right) Slolo wears VINTAGE suit, DR. MARTENS shoes.

Lama wears EXTREME CASHMERE dress, DR. MARTENS shoes.

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(Above) Shakes wears MMUSO MAXWELL top from MERCHANTS ON LONG, PAUL SMITH trousers.

(Right) Michaelyn wears CRYSTAL BIRCH hat, LUKHANYO MDINGI dress from MERCHANTS ON LONG.

Obiazi wears WANDA LEPHOTO sweater, 1/OFF PARIS dress, YENTSÉ trousers, stylist’s own shoes.

(Above) Tre wears YENTSE cardigan and trousers.

(Right) Michaelyn wears BAMBI KNITS cardigan, bra and hat, FRUCHÉ skirt.

(Opposite left) Mzwandile wears NEW AMSTERDAM SURF ASSOCIATION vest, BROKE WEAR shorts, DR. MARTENS shoes.

(Opposite right) Sindiso wears EXTREME CASHMERE top, PAUL SMITH trousers.

(Above) Cole wears own t-shirt and jeans, EXTREME CASHMERE gloves.

(Opposite) Lama wears EXTREME CASHMERE dress, DR. MARTENS shoes.

(Above) Lohanda wears 1/OFF PARIS top and trousers.

FOLIA DE REIS

Photography and creative direction GLEESON PAULINO

Styling ZAZÁ PACEGO

Art Direction RAPHAEL TEPEDINO, Hair and make-up IAN RIBEIRO, Models DUDA BORGES, SAMIRE SANTANA, ADRIANA CRUZ, ISRAEL QUEIROZ, ENRICO CARDOSO, Executive production YASMIN PORTO, GUSTAVO GROTA, Photography assistance LUANA LORENA, Styling assistance MAYCON FELIX, Hair and make-up assistance CAÍQUE MARCIANO, Production assistance ADRIANO SALUSTINO, ALESSANDRA GOMES, Art direction assistance RAFAEL PAIVA, LUCCA SAAD, Props CASSIANO REIS, Paintings TATIANA CHALHOUB, Treatment NICHOLAS LEITE, Thanks to BLOCO DE PEDRA

Israel wears MINHA VÓ TINHA’S archival hat, JOÃO PIMENTA blazer.

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Israel wears JOÃO PIMENTA top, cloak and trousers.

Duda wears stylist’s own clothing.

Enrico wears JOÃO PIMENTA headpiece and bodysuit.

(Left to right) Adriana wears MARCELA LUZ dress, JOÃO PIMENTA sleeves.

Duda wears JOÃO PIMENTA top, vest and trousers. Israel wears JOÃO PIMENTA waistcoat and trousers.

Enrico and Israel wear JOÃO PIMENTA trousers and balaclavas, stylist’s own glasses.

Models wear JOÃO PIMENTA tops, trousers and balaclavas, MINHA AVÓ TINHA archival tights.

(Left to right) Duda wears JOÃO PIMENTA balaclava, top. Adriana wears MARCELA LUZ sleeves.

Model wears MINHA AVÓ TINHA archival top and skirt, ALTAIR JOSÉ headpiece.

AFRICA FASHION AT THE V&A MUSEUM

AFRICA FASHION AT THE V&A MUSEUM

Dr Christine Checinska photographed by Lakin Ogunbanwo

“CATCHING A FLOWING RIVER IN A CALABASH” Dr Christine Checinska, Senior Curator African and Diaspora: Textiles and Fashion, reflects on the creative journey of making the Africa Fashion exhibition

Forty-five designers. Twenty countries.

250 objects. Hundreds of conversations.

Curating the V&A’s first-ever show about the African fashion scene has been like “trying to catch a flowing river in a calabash”, to borrow the words of writer, activist and advocate of Black creativity Margaret Busby. The summer of 2020 saw me swapping my pencils for a laptop and fabric swatches for acid-free paper as I moved from the fashion industry to the museum world. It was the summer of Covid regulations, homeworking and the brutal killing of George Floyd. My life changed.

All our lives changed.

Prior to joining the V&A, I was a designer, creating collections for high fashion and high street brands, losing myself in an industry where I seldom saw other Black creatives.

Unbeknown to colleagues, I had written and published many articles about the relationship between fashion, culture and race, and the pigeon-holing of African creativity. I had applied my designer’s eye to exhibitions that visually explored the same concerns. From London to Chicago, Vienna to Johannesburg, I had spoken about the theatre of fashion and its ability to unlock stories upon stories about the richness of African histories and cultures. These radically differing experiences came together during those months as I set about writing the curatorial narrative for Africa Fashion. There are many stories to be told about the contemporary African fashion scene and many ways to tell them. I knew that the story we needed to share was one of agency, abundance and unbounded creativity.

Africa Fashion consciously celebrates the continent's irresistible contemporary NATAAL

creativity and unstoppable global impact.

My use of the word “consciously” is deliberate. For me it invokes memories of the “conscious music” that I listened to as a teenager; music that challenged the dominant cultural and political consensus, music that raised myself and my friends up, music that reminded us that we mattered even though British society at large tried to tell us we did not. So, Africa Fashion is, in a sense, a form of elegant activism. Our guiding principle has been to centre Africa.

Our narrative focuses on abundance rather than lack and is strategic in its aim to give audiences a glimpse of the glamour and the politics of a scene that is always changing, always resisting definition. Like the lyrics in conscious music, our story is designed not only to inspire, but also to shake assumptions and expectations.

There is dignity in being able to tell your story in your own words. But collaboration has its own particular beauty. Myself and the curatorial team – Sunny Dolat of The Nest Collective and project curator Elisabeth Murray, alongside Connie Karol Burks, Stephanie Wood and Jessica Harpley – spent months talking with designers, photographers, stylists and industry leaders. I have always thought good conversation is as much about listening as it is about speaking, so between us we have done a lot of listening. We wanted to hear how people defined themselves and their work, how they wanted to be represented in the show. The ordering of the pieces around aesthetics and type – Artisanal, Minimalist, Mixologist, Afrotopia, Adornment, Co-Creation, Through the Photographers’ Lens, Global Africa – came from these conversations.

Words CHRISTINE CHECINSKA

We also met with young creatives of African diaspora heritage living in and around London, alongside an intergenerational community panel and our own V&A staff group for people of colour, the Global Narratives Network. It is usual to meet with one’s peers in the arts and academia when creating an exhibition of this scale. For us it was important to have a diversity of voices within such peer discussions. The curatorial narrative developed organically and was finessed by what we learnt along the way through these multiple encounters. The importance of collaboration and collective power also plays out in an exhibition design created for us by West Port Architects that cleverly makes use of our circular gallery to literally wrap the visitor in the world of African fashions.

When the team and I started researching the scene we had a sense of its indefinability; that there were multiple ways to be Black, African and fashionable, that its fashion creatives produce works that are as diverse as the continent itself. But nothing prepared us for the breadth of what we went on to find. There have been surprises and eureka moments, challenges and bumps we had to work through. One of the first conversations we had was with the couturier Imane Ayissi. Hearing his reaction to our ambitions and early plans for the exhibition was affirming. He understood that the story we wanted to tell had to begin with the African independence era and the groundswell of creativity that culminated in its cultural renaissance, which was echoed across the Caribbean and the Civil Rights Movement and its aftermath in America.

This timeframe has particular significance 227

Golden Illusions, styled and photographed by Gouled Ahmed.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2019

for the global African diasporas since it marks a moment of visibility, of pride in being Black and African.

We spoke with Ayissi about the cosmopolitan style of the presidents and first ladies of those fledgling African nations. He shared his vision for not only the place of African expertise within the global fashion arena, but also his thoughts on the centrality of cultural exchange to today’s contemporary moment, alongside the kaleidoscopic nature of African fashions. There was a real synergy between our ways of thinking. It seems to me that Ayissi is something of a griot; a storyteller referencing the past but heralding a future where African creativity is not just coveted; it is respected, esteemed. So, the exhibition begins on the ground floor with a luxurious silk and raffia look by him.

The intimate ground-floor level, with its maze of display cases, lends itself to the historical component of the exhibition. One of our concerns was not knowing what, if anything, we would find to represent the work of the vanguard designers who came of age during the 1960s, such as “Shade” Thomas-Fahm, Alphadi and Chris Seydou.

Luckily our search proved fruitful. One highlight was meeting the late Professor Lalage Bown, formerly of the University of Ibadan, who was a client of Thomas-Fahm, as well as a frequent visitor to local tailors and dressmakers, who would make her examples of then-fashionable styles.

Among the star looks in the show is an emerald-green embroidered organza grand boubou that Professor Bown wore to the opening of the second International Congress of Africanists in 1967, hosted by 228

President Léopold Senghor. It is a particular favourite piece of mine. I feel personally connected to it since my grandmother was a local dressmaker in Green Hill, Jamaica, where my parents grew up. My mother would embellish the garments she made with hand-embroidered patterns. I am sure that items such as Professor Bown’s will evoke similar memories in those who see it.

Curating during the pandemic meant that we were unable to travel to the continent to do studio visits with practitioners. On pre-lockdown visits for previous projects, I would sometimes spot something out of the corner of my eye that would then spark a great conversation leading to an unexpected but welcome new direction.

This to me is one of the joys of curating.

Yet it could not happen on Africa Fashion.

Instead, we conducted virtual visits to practitioners’ showrooms and exchanged images of shortlisted ensembles via email and WhatsApp. Most of the objects in the exhibition were seen by me and the team for the first time when they arrived at the museum. There have been some wonderful surprises and sighs of relief. For example, we had not realised how heavily beaded the Lisa Folawiyo trousers were. And the Selly Raby Kane dress was even more quilted than we had imagined, whereas the Iamisigo fringed raffia coat appeared more fluid, particularly when mounted in display.

And the yards upon yards of feather-light cotton mousseline used to create Patience Torlowei’s Irene dress looked exquisite in real life.

Amongst the most inspiring contemporary works are those created by the adornment

The Trench, designed by Maison ArtC, Morocco, 2021. Image courtesy @M.A.Roock, model Abdul

designers. In some ways this was the area that we knew least about when we began the process of scoping out the exhibition. It soon became clear that “jewellery” was somehow too inadequate a word to define these works.

“Adornment” was the term the designers themselves were using, reframing the word to describe pieces at the crossroads of fashion and art. The sculptural works that we selected with them span a broad range of aesthetics and come to life when worn, expanding expectations of what jewellery is and what body ornament from the African continent might be. Worn next to the skin but there to be seen, the pieces are both intimate and public. Each is a reminder that African adornments often beautify the whole body.

Selecting a few examples to share here is quite difficult since all seven designers in this section have something unique to say.

Ami Doshi Shah’s salt necklace is especially striking. Doshi Shah is enamored with the storytelling ability of materials drawn from nature, even in their rawest form. Her piece consists of large sisal twist to which crystals of borax salt have been applied.

When worn, it spirals organically around the neck as though caught in motion. I also love the way that K’Tsobe’s brace and copper Albert Smith bracelet embraces the wrist. Both Doshi Shah and Sarah Legrand at K’Tsobe show such mastery of their materials, something that always speaks to my fascination with the way that objects are made.

The inclusion of photography and film gives an essential dynamism to the show.

I have always been inspired by the theatre of fashion, the performativity of it. To me, it NATAAL

Je Vais Décoller, Sanlé Sory, 1977. © Sanlé Sory Tezeta, courtesy David Hill Gallery

is as much about movement and gesture as it is about the garment and the adornment or accessory. The way that something is worn creates a sense of style. That’s important.

A show like Africa Fashion, with its focus on Africanness and Blackness in all their varied, multiple and conflicting forms is necessarily also about representation, or perhaps more accurately self-representation, since we foreground fashion from African perspectives. Style is seen through the lenses of African film makers and photographers.

Contemporary films such as the piece by Sunny Dolat literally show fashion in motion as well as artfully revealing deeper stories about cultures and histories. And Lakin Ogunbanwo’s film Who Dey Shake, created in collaboration with V&A and Nataal, captures the joy of performing for the camera and showing off in your finest clothes.

Photography such as the studio portraits taken by Sanlé Sory, Lazhar Mansouri and James Barnor, and the family portraits shared with us through our public call-out for objects, animate the outfits worn at a particular point in time. Many of us growing up in the diaspora have family albums NATAAL

bursting with snapshots of stylish aunties and dapper uncles from back home. In my case, several of the names are now forgotten, but these fading images do not only tell stories of changing fashions, they also visually express an aspirational modernity and cosmopolitanism that connects the continent to its diasporas.

But the power of fashion and photography as tools of self-making and selfrepresentation comes through most strongly in Stephen Tayo’s What If series taken during lockdown. Through it, Tayo and his sitters call into being an egalitarian future, one in which there is no struggle for equity, one where people can just be.

Tayo’s What If brings me back to the story I felt needed to be told and the way in which myself and the team have chosen to tell it.

Equity and the refusal to be bound by society’s invisible borders rooted in hierarchies of value, or in negative readings of gendered, racial and cultural difference, has always been central to my creative practice, and this is what I have brought to Africa Fashion. That and a firm belief in the power of creativity to transform. It is as though the

contributors to the show are saying “I am” through their work. By simply being, by taking up space on one’s own terms, telling one’s story through one’s own aesthetics and vocabularies, assumptions about the continent, its cultural expressions and its histories shift. It is my hope that, just as Africa’s creatives are changing the way that we “do” fashion, Africa Fashion will change the way that we understand it. Politically, these are challenging times that require wisdom and diplomacy to navigate.

Creatively applying what we have learnt through conversation, collaboration and storytelling, I think it is possible for art museums like ours to have deeper relevance to people across all cultures, all sectors of society, all perspectives. But, like the act of “trying to catch a flowing river in a calabash”, this is something that must be done again and again, since any insights are temporary, bounded by the particular moment we find ourselves in.

Africa Fashion is at the V&A in London from 2 July 2022 to 16 April 2023. The book accompanying the exhibition is available now.

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WHO DEY SHAKE

Who Dey Shake is a short film and photographic story by Lagos-based artist Lakin Ogunbanwo. The idea was sparked by curator Dr Christine Checinska’s interest in the culture of movement and how clothing and adornment relates to identity through the performance of style. “The concept made me think of ‘cultural day’ in Nigerian primary school and the energetic performance that always happens then. I also thought about the Bata dance stemming from Yoruba drumming traditions,” Ogunbanwo explains. “This story captures the joys of performing to the camera while showing off your finest African fashions. With sometimes ordinary, sometimes extravagant movements, the dancers communicate a feeling of confidence, satisfaction and elegance. And the magic of the moment is that, if you look closely, the clothes might just be dancing on their own.”

See the film at the Africa Fashion exhibition as well on Nataal and the V&A’s digital channels 230

Photography LAKIN OGUNBANWO

Styling NATHAN KLEIN

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(Opposite) Desiree wears RICH MNISI top, skirt and leggings, NKWO dress, ADELE DEJAK ring. (Above) Caroline wears MAISON ARTC robe, ADELE DEJAK necklace.

(Top) Ayo wears ORANGE CULTURE blazer, shirt and trousers, IAMISIGO dress. (Bottom) Tanatswa wears FRUCHÉ dress, QUAZI DESIGNS earrings,

(Opposite top) King wears MOSHIONS shirt, blazer and shorts, ORANGE CULTURE trousers. (Opposite bottom) Tanatswa wears CHRISTIE BROWN dress, QUAZI DESIGNS earrings, INZUKI necklaces. (Above) Webster wears THEBE MAGUGU blazer, scarf and tie, MMUSO MAXWELL shirt, ADELE DEJAK jewellery.

(Above) Salomé wears FRUCHÉ dress.

(Opposite) Seyon wears ORANGE CULTURE top, MMUSO MAXWELL blazer, skirt and trousers, CHRISTIE BROWN belt, QUAZI DESIGNS earrings, ADELE DEJAK bracelet.

(Opposite) Webster wears MOSHIONS blazer, shirt and trousers, MAISON ARTC headpiece and scarf. (Below) Malaurie wears ANDREA IYAMAH top, CHRISTIE BROWN trousers.

Creative direction MARIE GOMIS-TRESIZE at NATAAL, Styling NATHAN KLEIN at CLM, Movement direction AYO BABATOPE (TABOO), Set design KING OWUSU, Hair CHARLOTTE MENSAH, Make-up MATA MARIELLE at CLM, Manicure KAREN LOUISE, Cast CAROLINE DANIELS, SALOMÉ GOMIS-TREZISE, MALAURIE ACCROMBESSI, TANATSWA GUMBWA, WEBSTER OJARA, DESSIREÉ, SEYON AMOSU, AYO BABATOPE, KING OWUSU, Music FALANA, Styling assistance NAOMI KAJI, JAHNVI SHARMA, COLIN SCANAGATTA, Tailoring ELEANOR WILLIAMS, Hair assistance KACEY AMOO, Make-up assistance MARIE REITNER, TAHIYAH ALI, Set design assistance CHARLOTTE COOK, SAM STOREY, LORELLA BIANCO, Photography first assistance FREDERICK STISTED, Digital tech GEORGE ZENKO, Retouching JUSTINE FOORD at Masque, Film editing ROY BRANDYS, Colour JAMIE NOBLE at Studio RM, Post production TOMAS KATTER at Studio RM, Production NORTHWOOD INTERNATIONAL, Executive production TONIA ARAPOVIC, Production management ANYA DEFRIES, Production assistance TOBY NORMAN, Running RONITA AWOONOR-GORDON, DOP JOEL HONEYWELL at WPA, First assistance direction AMAL SOLOMONS, Gaffer ROMAINE FOSTER, First AC EMMA FRIEND, Sparks ARCHIE CARTER, HARRY BUCK, Thank you NATASHA at BIG SKY STUDIOS, SET POD LIGHTING, MXC FILMS.

THE FRAME GAME

FOUR PHOTOGRAPHERS GET UNDER THE SKIN OF MODERN GHANA

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Words YAA ADDAE

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David Nana Opoku Ansah, Brother's Keeper, 2019

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“I feel like research and process are almost more important than the final work” DAVID NANA OPOKU ANSAH

David Nana Opoku Ansah, Untitled, 2020

Performance rituals in search of beauty have always been central to Ghanaian culture, from royal public displays immortalised by 19th-century daguerreotypes to the stylised Sunday-best parades at Accra’s modern-day churches.

This rich visual language is now explored by Ghana’s young photographers for whom an image captures not only a delicately crafted pose, but also speaks to everything that’s contributed to creating the image on the other side of the camera. For them, one is both made and undone in an image, every click of the shutter an opportunity for another self to surface.

Academic Saidiya Hartman writes, “Beauty is not a luxury, rather it is a way of creating possibility in the space of enclosure, a radical act of subsistence, an embrace of our terribleness, a transfiguration of the given. It is a will to adorn, a proclivity for the baroque, and the love of too much”. With this framework in mind, what histories sit behind these practitioners’ work and how do they drive new ideas and ideals?

Nana Yaw Oduro and David Nana Opoku Ansah met at art collective Artermatis in 2018. They had been following each other on Instagram and bonded over a shared love of Viviane Sassen’s fashion-meets-fine-art abstractions, Tyler Mitchell’s intimate portraits and the seminal work of James Barnor, who established the trailblazing Ever Young Studio in Accra in the 1950s.

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“Big photographers like James Barnor and Felicia Abban paved the way for us” NANA YAW ODURO

Nana Yaw Oduro, Happy Eid, 2019

“I think the whole goal is to make something that’s true to us, and aside from that, something exciting, but not done here in Ghana. Sometimes we use inspirations or references from the past and make it look new, but it still holds that value,” Ansah says. “When it comes to artistry, we are more on the commercial side rather than doing something that will stand the test of time,” he says. “But I feel like research and having a process is almost more important than the final work.”

As the pair bonded they frequently exchanged ideas and images. With access to online archives such as Awa Konaté’s Culture Art Society and Amy Sall’s Sunu Journal, they uncovered early Ghanaian image-makers. “I discovered James Barnor through David. I had already seen some works but I didn't know his name. I didn’t know we had big photographers in the past. I also recently discovered Felicia Abban, Ghana’s first professional female photographer, and I was amazed,” Oduro says. “I think they paved the way for us.”

Ansah’s work won PHmuseum’s New Generation Prize in 2020 for his coming-of-age series Area Boys & Brotherhood.

He continued the theme in a collaboration with Gucci in 2021. Meanwhile Oduro continues to craft a type of visual poetry, in delicate portraits that explore self-acceptance and boyhood, inspired by his own memories of growing up in suburban Accra.

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“I’m holding the camera, but I also rely on the information that others give me” SACKITEY TESA

Sackitey Tesa, No Points for Good Behaviour Under the Sun, 2021

Fashion photographer Sackitey Tesa is a frequent collaborator of both Oduro and Ansah, and draws from a similar repository of archives and cultural landscape. “I don’t just rely on my own ideas. I ask my mum, who is a fashion and costume designer, and I ask my sister, a graphic designer, about their perspectives on my work. Yes, I may be holding the camera, but I also rely on the information others give me.”

His image-making is fuelled by the decorative: a makeshift crown adorns the head of a model shot against an exuberant floral background; a football player wears a patterned shirt that mimics the geometry of the football he holds on his shoulder; two young boys are seen with daisies seemingly sprouting from their chests.

Tesa is also concerned with sustainability and has collaborated with The OR Foundation, an environmentaljustice group, on a series highlighting the social impact of the exportation of secondhand clothing from the West to Ghana. He developed the theme in a project for WePresent that focused on the alchemy of the tailors of Accra’s vast Kantamanto market, who repurpose discarded fabrics into new and strikingly original pieces.

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“I travel and meet other Black youth – there are differences, but the similarities are really close” KWABENA SEKYI APPIAH-NTI

Kwabena Sekyi Appiah-nti, The New Originals, 2022

Amsterdam-based, Ghanaian-Belgian photographer Kwabena Sekyi Appiah-nti first visited Ghana in 2019. In his 2021 photobook Sika Kokoo (‘red money’ in Twi), he documented his initial encounter with the country, having immersed himself in everything from Adinkra symbols to early photographers such as Kwame Brathwaite and Philip Kwame Apagya. But it was capturing his peers on film that really moved him.

He tenderly reveals the unifying connections between his subjects, wherever they are. “I’ve noticed that the more I travel and meet other Black youth, there are cultural differences, but the similarities are really close,” he says.

“What we do and what we like is kind of the same. Curiosity and adventure are very present in my approach.”

He subsequently explored the theme in Brazil and Suriname and hopes to expand the project to Jamaica, Senegal and Cuba. “When I last showed my work people said that they couldn’t always tell which country the images were shot. You don’t necessarily see where it is and it also shouldn’t matter,” he says. In this way, his photography comments on Black diasporic visual culture using the universal experience of boyhood.

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AFROTOPIA EKOW ESHUN, SELLY RABY KANE AND SUNNY DOLAT DISCUSS AFROFUTURISM IN FASHION

“Afrotopia is an active utopia that takes as its task the cultivation of vast and open spaces of bountiful possibles in order to help them flourish. The challenge thus resides in articulating a thought that bears on the fate of the African continent… by identifying the site where new practices and discourses have already begun to express themselves, where this future Africa can come into view.”

Felwine Sarr’s meditations in Afrotopia – the landmark book by the Senegalese economist and philosopher –inspired Dr Christine Checinksa to explore how African designers and creatives are imagining the future. Africa Fashion is not concerned with Afrofuturist visions of rocketing into outer space. Rather, it is about rediscovering the continent’s pre-colonial histories, mythologies, cultural and spiritual traditions, in order to heal and reach beyond traumas of the more recent past, and ultimately to create a future in which Africa is centred, self-actualised and free.

Senegalese fashion designer and filmmaker Selly Raby Kane, British-Ghanaian author and curator Ekow Eshun, and Kenyan creative director and stylist Sunny Dolat have devoted their practices to this work; Dr Checinksa believes they are already “shifting the geographies of fashion”. Nataal brought them together for a roundtable, during which they discussed their ideas of Afrotopia through a fashion lens. Accompanying their discussion is a visual odyssey, First Three: A Visit From Time, by Nigerian photographer Ruby Okoro.

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Words CHRISTINE AJUDUA

Photography RUBY OKORO

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(Left to right) Francis wears TURFAH robe and scarf from ALARA, MONIES earrings and choker from ALARA, own shoes. Ewaoluwa wears URFAH robe and scarf from ALARA, PEET DULLAERT earrings from ALARA, MONIES necklace and bangle from ALARA, PICHULIK necklace from ALARA, GEORGE LAMONDELLI bangle from ALARA, ZANGER shoes.

Ayorinde wears TURFAH robe and scarf from ALARA, MERCEDES SALAZAR earrings from ALARA, MONIES bracelet from ALARA, KKERELE shoes.

(Left to right) Francis wears DELIRIOUS COMMUNION top, own trousers and shoes. Ewaoluwa wears DELIRIOUS COMMUNION top, own skirt, ZANGER shoes.

Ayorinde wears DELIRIOUS COMMUNION top, own trousers, KKERELE shoes.

A SHIFTING OF GAZE

in Senegal are today feeling a bit constricted by the label. I feel like there’s something else.

You know, we’re all in different countries, on different continents.

And from my position here in Britain, sitting at the historic heart of Empire, it’s an uncomfortable place to be in all sorts of ways.

I think of the 1950s, which was the start of mass immigration to Britain – chiefly from the Caribbean, but also from the Commonwealth, so parts of Africa as well – and the many people that came off the ships were actively critiqued on the basis of the cut and colour of their clothes. These clothes were regarded as too flamboyant, too somehow “unserious” for a British mentality. And it’s a clash from the 1950s onwards, about whether the wearing of bright clothes – say, a woman in a red dress, a man in a purple zoot suit – in a way disallows or excludes African or Caribbean people from being truly British.

Yeah. I worry that Afrofuturism is heavily influenced by the Global North, that our explorations and even framework of Afrofuturism are still pegged on its aspirations for the future. For instance, it’s completely understandable that one kind of futurism would be around Africans in space, but I wonder if that’s because of all the movies that you see of, like, Americans and Russians going to space.

Sometimes I wonder if Africans actually do want to go to space.

ekow eshun

sunny dolat

Kenya was a settler colony, and so the British strategy here and in, for instance, Nigeria was completely different. The way the British colonised us was culturally, and one of the places that you see that very clearly is in dress. I would say that Kenyans are among the most conservative dressers on the continent, even just in terms of colour when you’re walking through Nairobi. We gravitate toward navy and grays and whites and black, and we drink tea at 4pm, you know?

You want to look good, but you don’t want to look too good. There’s always this idea of, like, if you’re dressing up, you’re dressing up for someone or for something, it’s never quite for yourself. Whereas when you look around at the countries that either were not colonised by the British, or the British had a different strategy, you see such a wealth and such a pride around dress. selly raby kane

As a Senegalese brand wanting to be sold throughout the world, you have an expectation of what your creations should be, of what the textile you use should be, of your silhouettes – what you are and what you are supposed to create as a human being is predefined and preconceived in the gaze of the people that are concerned.

I think all of that might be quite heavy for a creative in any country in the world. Those are the things that need to be set aside. ekow eshun

I’m completely nodding when you say that. I mean, ultimately you have to try and see beyond it, or reach beyond it. If I look at your work – to make fashion, to make films, to create a way of presenting and a way of seeing that reaches beyond the kind of presentations that come from the West – I think about a sort of shifting of gaze. And crucially, I think the process of de-colonisation is a kind of process of imagination; it’s not that one is dismantling an economic system, but it’s about saying, 'To see ourselves, we have to imagine ourselves outside this given template'. We have to imagine ourselves anew.

LOOKING BEYOND AFROFUTURISM

sunny dolat

ekow eshun

What’s happened with that term ‘Afrofuturism’ is it’s kind of devolved into clichés: pyramids, flying saucers, Sun Ra. It’s all fun, but also, it’s slightly problematic. Essentially, look: part of it is actually predicated on an idea of African under-development.

So, the notion of this sort of shock of Black people and technology is supposed to be a juxtaposition rather than a symmetry, and that’s part of the problem. sunny dolat

I think one of the things that would be useful for Afrofuturism is absolute freedom to decide and determine what it wants to be and what it wants to do, without having to align itself to any sort of other future ambitions from anywhere else in the world. And if the idea of Afrofuturism is this return to land and complete abandonment of technology, then so be it. And that makes complete sense. ekow eshun

That’s why I’ve been playing with a term like the ‘Black Fantastic’ as a more capacious, more open territory, which allows us to think back in time, as well as into the future. It’s not really about the relationship to technology per se; it’s about how we have always had to think about our place in the world, had to invent and keep reinventing our place in the world, and about how, as a consequence, we’re allowed to draw on these histories and heritages, these belief systems that can go way back in time.

These, it turns out, are still radical positions. As you say, they allow us to think about time not as linear. And why that is important is because again, you look from a Western perspective, the notion of historical development always places Africa as either outside that history, outside the trajectory of development and progress and future, or else, at its very base. Africa is always the beginning point. You always have to leave Africa to get to the future, you know?

But, as we know otherwise, so much of African culture is about thinking about the future as a circular territory that can be visited in a number of different ways. And to put it grandly, I think part of our search for liberation has to be beyond some of these linearities, some of these historical constrictions. And Afrofuturism, for all of its imagistic possibilities, at least partly fits into this trope.

The concept can’t hold the depth and the breadth of creative imagination that we see playing out within Africa and or in the diaspora. Things are much more inspiring than some of that concept now allows for. selly raby kane

selly raby kane

I have to say I’m struggling a bit with Afrofuturism lately. The first time that I came across Afrofuturic works was around 2012, and I felt like I found a family and an aesthetic. But the more I went through them, the more I felt like I was witnessing some type of impossibility.

The juxtaposition of Black bodies and Western technology, and not seeing enough Black people creating the technology, that was very difficult for me.

Also, there’s a really interesting approach to time that I found here in Senegal. I started to read on immaterial heritage and on esotericism and I realised that in my culture, people didn’t approach time as a linear thing. It was something that was fractals of loops, and each loop could access the other; rather than backwards or forwards, there was access to all those capsules of time. Once I understood that, the notion of ‘the future’ became rigid. There’s something beyond Afrofuturism that is happening here. Many other creatives that were in the Afrofuturistic movement NATAAL

Exactly. It’s very interesting. And, you know, not every African that thinks about the future in their creative practice is an Afrofuturist. ekow eshun

We have to think deeper than that. We have to think about cultural heritages and what we have to draw from as a way to build into the future. Because again, I feel like we’ve often been taught that these cultural practices or spiritual beliefs are somehow primitive. selly raby kane

We have been taught that [laughs]. ekow eshun

But, you know, I would suggest one aspect of our shared heritage is the ability to be able to wander, to find and locate, and bring together.

And in that respect, looking back in time is a wholly legitimate way of thinking further about how we build a future, how we walk into a future. In a way, not to do that is the strange thing. The idea somehow that that’s a disqualifying practice, that’s the thing to be sceptical of.

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BACK TO THE (PRE-COLONIAL) FUTURE sunny dolat

I hope that the metaverse allows people to engage with African fashion beyond just looking at it. Perhaps that’ll be the next way for African designers to start to get their work seen, and to skip the nonsense of logistics, so that you’re able to buy, like, metaverse Orange Culture and wear it on your metaverse body.

But I’m still here with textiles [laughs]. Kenya doesn’t have a strong textile history, unlike other parts of the continent. The shuka was introduced to the Masai by Scottish missionaries, which is why it looks so much like tartan. And then we also have kikoi, which is based on an Omani textile, and kanga, which is based on a Portuguese textile. And while these are widely used and loved throughout the country, I think there’s also a curiosity around indigenous textile heritage, because you know, the colonialists sabotaged any kind of local manufacturing.

I’m interested in at what point heritage is established. Just because it’s 2022, does that mean that it’s not possible to establish a textile heritage? For me, a large part of the future – a lot of my work and thoughts and experiments around textile development – is actually in looking back. The making processes in Kenya were inherently sustainable. All the dyes and materials were organic and most importantly, there’s always been this very deep, respectful relationship with nature, where people knew just how much to take.

Their relationship with the land was so clear. selly raby kane

to be our modern-day talismans, which, when you think about it, yeah they are, not for what they represent, but for what they hold. I think in the future, anything could be a talisman. ekow eshun

I’ve been curating an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London called In the Black Fantastic (29 June-18 September), and it’s about works with visual artists, but it’s exactly about this realm of the possible, this realm of new dreaming, and new thinking about how Blackness, and an interrogation of Blackness, opens us up to these deep histories, elements of spiritual practice, but also these interpretations or imaginations of potential futures. And for me, this territory is part of a kind of contemporary lingua franca, at the moment, for Black creatives. It’s this thing of reaching beyond and challenging the quotidian and the ordinary and the apparently real.

This returns to these set expectations that come out of a colonial system, about how we should be, how we should conduct ourselves, what we should wear. Partly this is about saying, we don’t need to be constrained in those terms, at all. We can think into the fantastic, into the magical, and for that not to be an escape, but for that to be deepening our exploration of how we live and of who we are.

FASHIONING AFROTOPIA ekow eshun

Selly, right now I’m looking at you, and I’m looking at this amazing, gorgeous… what is that? How do you describe what you’re wearing?

I see as well a true return to the systems of ancestral beliefs, to the selly raby kane myths, to the healing approaches – a return to studying those and to It's a kimono, but the patchwork is typical of the Sufi brotherhood here – the Baye Fall, a branch of the Mouride. They used to make them tools to build the future, or to build today and, you know, just speculate on what tomorrow might be. If we have some patchwork their garments, and were always recycling what they had. type of conversation of what used to be, it makes a firm basis for So, this is a kimono embroidered with hair extensions and leather how we want to live today and how we want to project ourselves. cutouts [laughs], because I'm a playful person. ekow eshun Reading Amadou Hampâté Bâ has been fundamental for me, and Yeah, but if we’re talking about what it means to create from an the Peul Fulani mythology on the creation of the universe. And I’m fascinated by talismanic writing for healing and protection – where African perspective, it’s exactly this: it’s an ability to draw from African cultural heritage or traditions, but it’s also, I think, an the spoken word and the written word become active and have an absolute awareness that part of the birthright of African creativity effect on the body and how it moves within its environment. It has is cosmopolitanism. So, it’s never just, here’s one thing; it’s about been my obsession for quite a bit of time now.

I see many creatives here in Dakar – fashion designers, shoemakers, how we borrow and match and bring together. comic book illustrators – operating a type of return to have the tools You know, from the West, there’s some sort of notion of African to heal, to face the world. And I think there’s a realisation of the essentialism, African purities, but actually when you’re on the ground equal dignity of all of the archives of this world, all the means to heal. in Dakar or in Accra, where my family comes from, what you see is sunny dolat absolutely this kind of melding of histories and traditions; what you I’m very interested in this space in which spirituality and fashion see is a heritage that’s based always on looking outward, gathering in, intersect. I’ve been interested in the land and the sea as living, and collecting and patchworking and bricolaging, and all sorts of breathing entities. Again, it’s such a historical thing – if you look at things. And I see this absolutely in what you’re wearing right now, Selly. selly raby kane many African cultures, there’s equal parts fear and admiration of Definitely. I think one of the things we mustn’t forget as trans-African the ocean, and similarly with the land. I’ve been negotiating my interaction with both of them, and just curious about the power that creatives is our right to be as incremental as we wish to be. You can take from anywhere. Trying to maintain some type of purity, it’s just a lies in them. And so, I created a ritual textile, hand-woven from way to put a mirror in front of all the aggressions that you can receive. cotton and silk, stained by being buried in the earth over a couple of days. Looking at the textile, what you’re really looking at is an So, in that sense, I feel I have erased many boundaries in my imprint, a memory of the land. work. My process while creating collections has, since 2012, always I’ve also been thinking about talismans, and clothing and jewellery started with a short story because I felt like I needed a world as protection. I found this phenomenal cloak from Niger that had all inhabited by people that I wanted to dress. So I wrote them, and the of these talismans sewn onto it. I’m still so bummed that I didn’t get stories were 99 per cent about Dakar, about how I was benefiting it – it was a bit scary looking [laughs]. But what it reminded me of is from this city, from the communities of artists, the alternative that in many parts of the continent, there’s deep intention attached collective that I had the chance to be a part of since the starting my career. It gave me the courage of trying as many mediums as to items like this – everything has meaning. possible, the freedom of going from discipline to discipline.

If you look at Kenya, we might not have a deep textile heritage, I feel very free to take my core intention and translate it into the but what we do have is a phenomenal heritage of adornment. And so, the thing that Kenyans completely understand is jewellery. There medium that will have the most longevity. So, when fashion is too narrow for discourse, I take it up a notch in film, and/or in creative tech, is something called a hirizi that you find on the coast – it’s a sort of or in anything that can share a vision of how the imaginary is such locket which is hollow on the inside, and usually it contains a scroll, a strategic space for me, and such an important one for our youth. like a prayer or a verse from the Koran, that you’re able to slide out. sunny dolat Creatively, I’m interested in that ability to contain something.

I think one of the things that has become very clear to me over the I’ve been wondering if there’s a way to explore talismans for this years is that my work isn’t so much focused on medium, but more day and age. I was speaking to a couple of friends and it was funny because what came out of that conversation was that phones appear on curiosity. And then the way in which that curiosity manifests 250

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“The term ‘Afrofuturism’ has devolved into clichés: pyramids, flying saucers, Sun Ra. It’s all fun, but also, it’s slightly problematic” EKOW ESHUN

will dictate the medium. A major curiosity for me has always been expanding on what African fashion means; what it means to be Black, queer and Kenyan. And in some sense, everything that I’m currently developing is actually working towards realising some sort of Afrotopia. I’m a bit optimistic and think it can only be a real utopia where phobias and biases and violence cannot exist. ekow eshun

What’s interesting to me, here in Britain, is often the very first sight I have of the fashion coming out of Africa isn’t through the pieces of clothing themselves, but visually through some other medium. And in that sense, I don’t make that much distinction between an item of clothing, a set of photographs, a fashion film or a piece of music. And, in a way, one of the interesting things that’s happened in the last number of years is a fluidness with which creatives work.

It’s easier to work that way; it’s easier to disseminate work that way as well. And to that extent, the kind of imaginative possibilities NATAAL

that you’re talking about – about how you tell this story; or how you draw from histories, even how you posit possible futures or new ways of seeing or parallel realities – all of these things become easier to realise, almost. I think about fashion less about an item of clothing, and more about, well, what’s the vision that is unfolding here? And that’s been so inspiring because these visions are kind of bold. selly raby kane

We have so many deep archives that we can share with the world through our arts. And that’s a gift for ourselves to revolutionise the imaginary and to get out of those polluted relations with others, but as well to be mindful that what we bring to the table is something that is precious, valuable, radically original. And it’s not romantic, what I’m saying – it’s the truth. When you go through the history of Africa, the depth of heritage that hasn’t been touched yet is immense. And at some point on this planet – in the far future, or whatever – I’m sure it will be needed to see how we saw the world.

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Styling ABIGAIL OGHENE, YOSA NOSA, Hair BRAIDERS CLUB, Make-up EDIMA WILLIE, Models FRANCIS EMMANUEL, AYORINDE OLABAMIJI, EWAOLUWA ONILENLA, Production OLACHUKWU OFFOR, Lighting and assistance OKOLI ISAAC.

DREAM WEAVERS

FROM REINVIGORATING ANCIENT TEXTILES TO INVENTING RADICAL NEW FABRICS, AFRICA IS CRAFTING FORWARD

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Words KAREN CHUNG

Illustrations RENDANI NEMAKHAVHANI AKA PR$DNT HONEY

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“Many African fashion brands draw on indigenous knowledge of textile manufacturing processes that respect the environment and people” EMANUELA GREGORIO

Mastering a skill takes 10,000 hours, it’s said, so imagine the knowledge passed from mother to daughter, father to son, when the application of those skills is measured not in hours but generations of meticulous evolution and refinement. Textiles have signified wealth and status in Africa for millennia thanks to the craftspeople who have woven, dyed, cut, spun, sewn, beaded, crocheted and embroidered these stunning materials. In Ghana, kente – perhaps the most globally recognised of the continent’s textiles – is woven on hand looms, where rich symbolism and storytelling is embedded in the warp and weft. In Ethiopia, finely wrought Amhara embroidery brings the minimal shapes of cotton clothing to new heights. And in Mali, deep, inky-blue fingernails indicate the hands of expert dyers of its centuries-old indigo pits.

Thousands of miles away, petite mains – “little hands” – have passed precious skills through families in the haute couture ateliers of Europe’s fashion capitals. It’s an alignment not lost on South African designer Thebe Magugu, who in his first collection for the late Alber Albaz’s AZ this year, told Vogue: “The things that make up luxury, the idea of time spent creating something, the storytelling, passing something on from generation to generation – are really the same as you find in African craft.”

We’re on the cusp of a textiles revolution and in a time of ethical reckoning for the fashion industry – a timely pick-up from a movement that was kickstarted decades ago. Aso oke – “prestige cloth” or “top cloth” – was popularised by powerhouse “Shade” Thomas-Fahm, often dubbed “Nigeria’s first modern fashion designer”, whose Lagos store, Shade’s Boutique, embodied and NATAAL

championed the pan-African post-independence spirit with her use of this exquisite hand-woven Yoruba fabric in contemporary styles. European familiarity with the complex, mesmerising motifs of bògòlanfini is thanks in large part to Chris Seydou, the Malian fashion pioneer who made this stunning clay-dyed cotton his signature in the 1960s and 1970s. Fast forward to 2012 and Suzy Menkes, then of the International Herald Tribute, cited an emerging redefinition of what the word luxury means in the 21st century, saying: “Consumers, particularly in the Western hemisphere, are beginning to prize objects touched by human hands – and the handwork in Africa is exceptional.”

Now a young generation of designers is at the vanguard of a multitude of fresh approaches to textiles – creating new networks of artisans and specialists, eschewing the traditional fashion system to set up ateliers in their home countries or running hybrid studios across continents. These include Lagos-based Kenneth Ize, whose pre-pandemic Paris Fashion Week debut featured Naomi Campbell; he produces most of his collection from aso oke and tie-dye-inspired textiles made in a factory he established in Nigeria. In Abuja, Nkwo Onwuka of Nkwo developed dakala cloth from upcycled denim, end-of-line fabrics and cutting-table waste, named for the repetitive, clicking sound of the loom used in its manufacture. Emmanuel Okoro of Emmy Kesbit, who won the inaugural annual showcase Africa Fashion Up with Balenciaga last year, champions akwete, a cloth so significant it birthed an industry, bestowing its name to the town whose entrance features a monumental statue of Dada Nwakwata, the 19th-century master weaver who invented it.

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“I remember the first time I saw a loom. It set me off on a journey. Now, I will make a new piece every year, and each one will be something precious to hand down to my children” LORELLE ABOAGYE

Other creatives revolutionising fabrics in intriguing ways and revitalising small-scale, age-old techniques and manufacturing include Adeju Thompson of Lagos Space Program, who innovates with what he terms “post-adire” – the application of the ancient indigo-dying technique to knitwear. And Cameroon-born, Parisbased Imane Ayissi, whose red-carpet pieces have been worn by Zendaya and Angela Bassett, was a guest designer on the haute couture schedule in Paris for the first time in 2020. He has used kente as well as obom (bark cloth) and ndop (Cameroonian indigo cloth) and told Vogue: “It’s my mission to show how hugely diverse our cultures are: in Cameroon alone we have over 200 dialects; there is a profound complexity that I want to celebrate.”

London-based textile artist Lorelle Aboagye explored and expanded the symbolic language of kente in her Origins collection, which documented her family history by interlocking woven cloth, wire and oxidised washers – her response to seeing Asante gold weights in the V& A and an homage to metalcraft, practised by her grandfather. She is deeply inspired by the storytelling potential of textiles, explaining how she integrated Indian silk into one of her cloths to evoke the criss-cross of the continent’s trade routes. She studied illustration but switched to textiles when she realised their powerful narrative potential. “I remember the first time I saw a loom.

I didn’t even know what it was! It set me off on a unique journey. Now, I imagine I will make a new piece every year, and each one will be something precious to hand down to my children and grandchildren.”

In recent years a sea change has swept through the fashion industry, and the dirty truth about the level of its polluting and 256

exploitative practices is out. The pandemic was also a wake-up call for the necessity and benefits of strengthening local supply chains, as well as questioning working patterns and the cut-throat seasonality of the fashion calendar. Garment retail sales are estimated to be worth around $1.3 trillion, but fashion is also a key contributor to global warming, accounting for up to 10 per cent of global carbon emissions.

As such, all eyes are now on Africa, the continent with the youngest demographic in the world, with 70 per cent of its population under 30. Here, proponents of the new vanguard frequently define themselves as designer-activists, with a generational refusal to do business as usual that’s at the forefront of the sustainability movement. South African Lukhanyo Mdingi, joint winner of the LVMH Karl Lagerfeld Prize 2021, underlines that fashion is a way for his peers to make a social impact. For his latest collection he sourced his woven textiles and knitwear from craft communities in Burkina Faso and Somalia as well as closer to home in the Eastern Cape.

Similarly, Christèle Mbosso, with her fledgling brand Maison Mbosso, is passionate about Ugandan bark cloth, on which she based her latest collection. This versatile material, harvested from the Mutuba tree, was traditionally used to preserve dead bodies, and has natural antimicrobial properties as well as providing protection against MRSA. “It’s completely sustainable because the bark has to be harvested every year for it to grow again, and it’s not just a beautiful cloth to work with – using it in reliable quantities is a way to completely revitalise the local economy,” she says. The Kenyan NATAAL

“Bark cloth is completely sustainable and is a beautiful cloth to work with – using it in reliable quantities is a way to completely revitalise the local economy” CHRISTELE MBOSSO

start-up Green Nettle won the H&M Foundation Global Change Award for its environmentally-friendly textile made from the tenacious plant in 2019. And in tandem with the Ethical Fashion Initiative, Bubu Ogisi of Iamisigo, who runs studios between Lagos, Accra and Nairobi, makes each of her considered pieces to order from fabrics weaving together plant fibres with upcycled plastic, glass and metal. “I’m not interested in mass manufacturing,” she says. “I spend time with old men in villages who pass on their weaving skills to their grandchildren because that is the only way the skills will survive.”

While the African luxury market is still relatively small, the trickle is set to become a roar. Africa has seen accelerated political, socio-cultural, economic and demographic changes with the rise of a thriving middle class and some of the highest-net-worth consumers of luxury brands in the world. Multi-brand e-tailers such as Industrie Africa and The Folklore have a key part to play in getting African brands to market, and Farfetch recently launched Farfetch Futures to provide business and tech support to Black designers.

Aligned with this is the fact that consumers are increasingly taking sustainability and ethics into account and it’s a perfect fashion storm. Fashionomics Africa, an African Development Bank initiative that aims to increase participation in the global textile fashion industry, believes in its immense potential. “The circular economy is already embedded in many African fashion brands, as they draw on indigenous knowledge of manufacturing processes that respect the environment and people,” said economist and spokesperson Emanuela Gregorio.

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The virtue of turning to local manufacturing, materials and supply chains is self-evident. Look to the example of MFP, a leading sustainable textiles company founded by Guinean Mariama Camara, whose pieces have been worn by Michelle Obama. From her bases in New York and Abidjan, she works with a large network of highly skilled artisans on collaborations with the likes of Ulla Johnson and Tory Burch.

This chimes with the African Fashion Foundation, Roberta Annan’s non-profit organisation, as it rethinks the issue of waste and accelerating the circular economy. Its latest design cohort includes Samuel Oteng, a former finalist at the Gucci Design Fellowship Programme, who joins a winning group of young creators repurposing textiles from secondhand markets in Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal in beautiful and unusual ways. And moving into future technology, British-Zimbabwean bio-scientist Natsai Audrey Chieza has developed a fabric dye from streptomyces – a strain of bacteria found in soil – that drastically reduces the amount of water required to dye fabric and therefore has the potential to clean up mass textile production.

Alphadi – the feted Nigerien designer and UNESCO Ambassador for Peace – launched the International Fashion Festival way back in 1998, and has long been vocal in his criticism of the lack of government efforts to promote homegrown manufacturing, conscious of the immense economic transformation an industry-wide awakening could spark. Now the new generation takes his mantle by stepping up, changing the narrative, creating couture in all but name and taking things into their own hands.

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GEN NEXT THE NEW WAVE OF STREETWEAR COMING OUT OF CAPE TOWN AND LAGOS

The global streetwear industry is estimated to reach US$551 billion by 2025, according to Global Data, and some of the most exciting new brands are emerging across Africa. Leading the way are Lagos and Cape Town with parallel movements that speak confidently to millennial and Gen Z consumers by mixing up streetwear’s hip hop and skateboarding roots with decidedly local tastes.

“Youthful, expressive and authentic,” is how British-Nigerian entrepreneur Ireti Zaccheaus defines the Lagos scene. She founded Nigeria’s first streetwear convention Street Souk in 2018. “It’s a real community and everyone is moving together as one, sharing the same vision. Exhibitors from bigger brands will wear and post about newer ones and everyone is rooting for each other,” she says. Street Souk has attracted collaborations with the likes of Off-White and Patta, alongside established local players such as Wafflesncream, Ashluxe, Vivendii and Motherlan.

Also pushing the scene forward is Homecoming, a music festival and cultural exchange founded by Grace Ladoja, alongside Native magazine, co-founded by Zaccheaus’s brother, alté musician Teezee who, with the country’s other music stars such as Burna Boy, Davido and Mayorkun, all do their part by platforming these brands internationally.

There are plenty of OTT characteristics unique to Nigerian streetwear, such as its aesthetic spin on early aughts Nollywood meets Y2K. Zaccheaus believes this extra-ness reflects the Lagos hustle, which results in a certain pressure to stand out. “There’s something about Nigerians and the way we carry ourselves – people say that we’re loud and it’s 100 percent true,” she laughs. “Being in a country of 200 million people gives you that drive and nobody wants to be left behind.”

If Lagos is the innovative youngster vying for attention, Cape Town is its older, more established sibling, thanks to brands such as Twobop, which was set up over two decades ago. One of the earliest labels on the scene, it’s now under the creative direction of Mario Ogle. “Cape Town is a melting pot of ideas and creativity, a community bubbling at the seams. It’s exciting to see the diversity and growth,” he says. “The scene has an authenticity that you can’t manufacture. This is ultimately our secret ingredient and means that there are now so many labels that each have their own signature and subculture.”

Joining Twobop have been the likes of Artclub and Friends, Good Good Good and Sol-Sol, who, like their Lagos peers, have fostered a uniquely collegiate relationship and close-knit following. And now the original coastal look and DIY approach is growing up. “The days of just screen-printing a cool design on a T-shirt are long gone,” Ogle says. “Brands are honing in much more on the business side of things. Corporates are realising the value in the industry and are spending money on carefully curated collaborations. The creativity will never die. It’s in our blood, remember, but a thriving fashion economy will be the reason the rest of the world really takes notice, and we are growing that from the streets up.”

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Words MIRIAM BOUTEBA

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Asa Sadan, Dissertation Study, photography by Hishaam Abrahams

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Pith Africa Stock Denims, artwork by Adeyinka Adeleke

PITH AFRICA “For Pith it’s about the message. We always want to put into context the fact that there are no systems in place here and everything is more difficult to hack, so we have to be a voice for the people,” says Ojemen Cosmas, one third of Lagos-based brand Pith Africa. “We’ve been able to grow because we communicate directly to African youth and are inspired by them as much as we want to inspire them with our clothes, experiences and art. Pith is bigger than us, it’s a voice of consciousness that speaks for a new age.”

Founded in 2016, each capsule collection, or “dilly”, represents a chapter in the tale of modern Nigeria. “We created Pith to tap into the essence of being young, creative and innovative right now as Africans within Africa,” says co-founder, Adedayo Laketu. “The kids are showing their individuality on a level that’s never been seen before and expressing their hearts in so many forms. Pith was born to help them navigate through this era.”

Pith Africa’s first two dillys were masterclasses in balancing minimalism with streetwear, and while a utilitarian approach remains, the designers are thinking more about the city’s environmental challenges. “During Covid we began to look at how we can tackle problems around sustainability while creating refreshing designs that still reflect our ethos,” says Laketu. “We were struck by the volume of jeans piled up at the markets, so this was the jumping-off point for the first drops.” Thrifted denim was transformed into totes, caps and jeans with striking silhouettes. “We want to reorient our community to the concept of upcycling,” says Ojemen. “It’s a message of care and preservation. We need people to understand that being a great nation begins with simple ideas.”

There’s power in numbers, and Pith Africa has teamed up with other sustainable Nigerian brands including Kkerelé and ThisIsUs for special projects, and also hosts regular parties to bring the community together. “It’s no surprise that the Lagos streetwear scene is one of the most exciting on the planet right now. It’s estimated that 70 per cent of Africa's population is under 30, making us a crucible for fashion and youth culture,” says co-founder Nez Anazodo. “It's incredible to see how different Lagosians incorporate their essence and emotions using locally sourced and affordable garments.”

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(Clockwise from top left) Andile Dlamini, Mzwandile Sithole, Simbongile Ntaka and Sindiso Tshuma photographed by Nick Van Tiem

BROKE BOYS “Ten years of good luck!” comes with every Broke Boys T-shirt, according to co-founder Andile Dlamini. But to call the creative collective a mere brand is to do them a disservice. Broke Boys is a movement that, Dalmini stresses, anyone can join. “Broke represents a family. It’s a cross-cultural clothing brand that aims to represent those regarded as misfits or rebels. We value community above all else.” There are no hard and fast rules as to what makes a Broke Boy: “Someone that’s hungry and willing to go against the odds to better the situation for themselves or others – and crazy enough to try. A Broke Boy isn’t scared to rebel because they know they’re in the right.”

Delani’s own journey into the fashion industry was one of sheer force of will and talent. He grew up in the township of Khayelitsha and got into thrifting. Through that he developed his own look and after being scouted as a model for i-D by Dutch photographer Nick Van Tiem in 2017, went on to style Tiem’s shoots whenever he was in town. All the while he was building Broke Boys with his friends Mzwandile Sithole, Simbongile Ntaka and Sindiso Tshuma; launched in 2020, they’ve since collaborated with Dutch label The New Originals.

Focusing on skater pieces – workwear-inspired jackets and roomy T-shirts – they draw on Nineties subcultures and whatever is currently popular in their Broke world, and in that sense Broke Boys offer real insight into contemporary Cape Town. “There’s no other place like Cape Town,” says Dlamini. “We inspire each other and there aren’t really any outside influences.”

They also work with even younger brands to help them grow and have set up the Broke Boys Sk8 Club. “I found out about this other movement in Khayelitsha called Ghetto Grunge. They’re skaters, which I was intrigued by because Khayelitsha isn’t a place that encourages it – there are potholes and sewage running through it, so I know that they’re going against the odds. I decided to use the resources that I have to help them. At the time I had a partnership with Converse, so I gave them my skate shoes. I‘m not promising the world and I might not be able to get them to point Z – but maybe to point B.” NATAAL

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5200 jeans photographed by Oluwaseun Akinbi Uche (USAD)

5200 “We’re just two boys from the same neighbourhood who wanted to make the hardest denim to come out of Africa,” says 5200 co-founders Onanefe Utika and Divine Dickson. The duo up-end the idea of denim being just about practicality with their handcrafted designs and refreshing take on wear and repair. Intricately embroidered, patched with mesh and strung with neon ropes, the collections are defined by a razor-sharp, look-at-me aesthetic.

“Our drops happen organically,” says Utika. “We’re always sampling and don’t even think of dropping until the pieces are right.”

The childhood friends began mocking up samples in spring 2020 and launched in October the same year. “The fact that we were designing in lockdown allowed us to tap into the artistry and hone those finer details,” reflects Dickson.

“It’s our dedication to making these pieces that sets us apart. I would describe our aesthetic as unconventional. There’s no moral principle to the craft, it’s just us striving to transcend.”

This talented pair are proud to be championing streetwear as it grows into a key part of Lagos’s fashion landscape.

“Africa’s streetwear scene has been evolving over the years and in this part of the continent it’s not yet entirely in the light – but we’re glad there’s a community now and people get to express themselves in the way they want,” says Utika.

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Asa Sadan performance cap photographed by Imran Mohamed

ASA SADAN “Luxury to me means a considered approach to design. It tells a narrative and creates representation, rather than merely meaning exorbitant price points that are out of reach,” says Imran Mohamed, founder of Asa Sadan, the contemporary luxury brand that has disrupted the scene with its thoughtful and craft-focused apparel since 2021. “In years to come, we will undoubtedly look at this period as a turning point in Cape Town’s – and South Africa’s – creative industry and its relationship with the global marketplace.”

Asa – Mohamed’s grandmother’s name – has various meanings including “beautification”, “adornment”, “might”, “power” and “capability”. The Central Saint Martins graduate uses his label to reflect on his heritage. “It tells the story of the lived experience of the Asian-African diaspora in the Cape, with garments as the primary medium.

It incorporates a contemporary design philosophy with traditional artisanal techniques.” Each exquisite piece is crisp and minimal; T-shirts and baseball caps alongside immaculately cut trousers and genderless skirts as well as military-inspired jackets.

“Our aesthetic is a take on techwear infused with tailoring,” says Mohamed. “Performance and aesthetics are our primary parameters and simplicity underpins everything. We create garments that are timeless, and use fabrication and details to achieve ‘tangible’ luxury.”

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‫كل خنفوس عند أمه غزال‬

EVERY SCARAB BEETLE IS A GAZELLE IN THE EYES OF ITS MOTHER

NORTH AFRICAN PROVERB

Luxury skincare for women of colour

eparaskincare.com

Photography AXLE JOZEPH