Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design

"An extraordinary in-depth view of the dynamo that is contemporary African design." –Rachel Pulfer

Over the past decade, Africa has experienced a tremendous political, economic and technological transformation. Spearheading this shift is a new generation of entrepreneurs and doers who have opened up a fresh view of this vast and diverse continent, using the Internet to make themselves visible. Developed in collaboration with renowned curator Okwui Enwezor, Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design embraces this new perspective, seeking to reveal the continent as a thinktank and investigating the intriguing possibility of a new understanding of design. It focuses on a generation of African designers, architects and artists who transcend the boundaries between design, art, photography, architecture and urbanism. Utilizing traditional techniques as comfortably as new media such as Facebook and mobile banking systems, these designers are establishing a new design identity―and thus a new future―for the continent. Making Africa examines everyday life through such items as furniture, posters, fashion garments and accessories, including J.D. Okhai Ojejkere's "Nigerian hairstyles" and Cyrus Kabiru's eyewear sculptures as well as the objects of Cheick Diallo, fashion by Buki Akib, the photographs of Mário Macilau and Okhai Ojeikere, the architecture of Francis Kéré, the animation art of Robin Rhode and many other creations of designers from different disciplines. Grounding these new movements in a larger historical context, Making Africa also takes a look at the first generation of postcolonial Africa.

Making Africa captures the extraordinary constructive energy and the impulse to innovate...it helps demolish any notions that African ingenuity is constrained by poverty or tradition. (Rachel Pulfer Azure)