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I and We

Gallery 206 and 207

In our daily interactions, design provides an effective tool to communicate about ourselves, to demonstrate belonging but also to set ourselves apart from others. Social media, blogs and YouTube are used as a stage for self-expression by a young generation of Africans who regard themselves quite naturally as part of a global culture. Partying and having fun thus take on a political dimension, much as they did some fifty years ago when most countries on the continent gained independence and photographers such as Malick Sidibé or Seydou Keïta captured the sentiments of a new era.

Social and cultural developments in Africa are not simply a matter of copying worldwide trends, as demonstrated by flourishing subcultures like Botswana’s heavy metal scene or the sapeurs in the Republic of Congo. Both groups avail themselves of western styling: either studded leather or dapper suits and panama hats. Yet the aesthetic codes are reinterpreted until a new, unique and distinctly African cultural form emerges. Fashion is also employed as a vehicle for exploring the boundaries between the sexes – from seduction to gender roles – and it supplies a means of expression for sexual minorities.