Ogojiii Newsletter #15
Greetings
Context is defined as "the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood." In 1996 Bill Gates wrote an essay in which he said 'Content is king' and that has been the rallying cry for many since but, in my view, without context, content is simply noise, especially today when massive amounts of content is released into the world daily. Content may be king but context is everything. And context is about reference points we use to create content, about the relevance of the narrative that we are pursuing. In a way, that's what I try to do with this newsletter, approaching art, design, culture, innovation and everything in between from an African (broad as it is) context.
I have always struggled with the narrative that Africans are an oral people with only an oral history. When I was involved in the poetry scene, this was emphasised by the label 'spoken word artist'. While other were poets, we were spoken word artist. I have been following African History Extra for some time and enjoy the way Isaac Samuel frames history especially in A brief note on Africa's intellectual history, which starts with the following sentence, "Writing has been a fundamental part of African history since antiquity." In a previous post, When Africans wrote their own history; A catalogue of African historiography written by African scribes from antiquity until the eve of colonialism , one gets a snapshot of some of this writing. Across the continent, there continues to be discussion around what will become of ancient libraries and manuscripts, for example, Mauritania's ancient libraries could be lost to the expanding desert.
In Why 'Diversifying Design' Is More Crucial Than 'Designing For Diversity', Ogojiii founder Jens Martin Skibsted writes, "Even when we try to design for greater diversity from within these monocultures, we fail, because we don't just need to design for diversity, we need to acknowledge and enable a diversity of design approaches."
Once again, the reference points for design, the monocultures that Skibsted writes about, are from a European perspective which will always cloud African approach to design that doesn't adhere to or imitate a European/Western approach.
Headquarted in Stockholm, Sweden, Afripedia was established to provide African creatives with access to opportunities. Their next project is the launch of Afripedia Art which sets out to reshape the Nordic art scene by selling print of art from creatives of African descent.
Some years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Musée de l'Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire / IFAN Museum of African Arts in Dakar and Senegal and was struck by how some of the clothing pieces on display felt like the origins of certain design choices in contemporary fashion. Africa has, for centuries, influenced art, design and culture globally, even when it was looked down upon as lesser as explored in African Influences in Modern Art.
While Africa continues to be viewed, from the outside, as homogenous, we are far from it. This lens takes away from the richness and diversity of the many ethnic groups from whom there is a wealth of inspiration and approaches to design and art. Please stop using the term 'African Decor'
If you enjoyed this edition of the Ogojiii newsletter, please do share with others who you feel would enjoy it as well. We look forward to your comments, input and contributions.
Till next time.
Kojo