Courrèges, Emmanuelle. Africa: The Fashion Continent. Paris: Flammarion, 2022.

From the runway in Lagos and music festivals in Casablanca or Nairobi, to the “image makers” of Marrakech and the influencers of Dakar or Accra, a new generation of African fashion designers, photographers, bloggers, and hair and makeup artists are redefining the aesthetic contours of the continent. Audacious, humorous, disruptive, and innovative are the by words of these young creatives who, while drawing upon and reval­orizing their heritage, offer an ultra-contemporary perspective on fashion today. A creative revolution is spreading in an extension of continental revindication through cultural reappropriation and the invention of a visual language. Appliqué figures straight from Ghanaian Asafo flags seem to chant modern slogans as they march across silk dresses, traditional textile prints give power back to women, and Xhosa beaded embroidery serves as an inspiration for modern knitwear. Body-artists transform themselves into platforms for activism, and photographers—using clothing and finery—question identity, gender, and environment. This volume celebrates a creative, effervescent generation, which—by breaking the rules and rewriting the narrative of the African continent—is inventing a new and resolutely African chapter in the history of fashion that is now resonating across the globe.

[Source: Penguin Random House]

Allman, Jean. Fashioning Africa: Power and the Politics of Dress. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004.

Everywhere in the world there is a close connection between the clothes we wear and our political expression. To date, few scholars have explored what clothing means in 20th-century Africa and the diaspora. In Fashioning Africa, an international group of anthropologists, historians, and art historians bring rich and diverse perspectives to this fascinating topic. From clothing as an expression of freedom in early colonial Zanzibar to Somali women’s head-covering in inner-city Minneapolis, these essays explore the power of dress in African and pan-African settings. Nationalist and diasporic identities, as well as their histories and politics, are examined at the level of what is put on the body every day. Readers interested in fashion history, material and expressive cultures, understandings of nation-state styles, and expressions of a distinctive African modernity will be engaged by this interdisciplinary and broadly appealing volume.

[Source: Indiana University Press].

The Africa Institute. Foundations of African Cinema symposium ‘Decolonizing African Cinema: A History’. “Foundations of African Cinema.” Filmed in October 2021 at the Africa Institute, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Video,1:42:42. https://theafricainstitute.org/institute-program/week-01-foundations-of-african-cinema/

This symposium will examine the ideas that led to the emergence of ‘African cinema’. Acknowledging that ‘African cinema’ offered itself for critical global recognition in relation to issues of cultural identity, national independence movements, and Pan-African solidarity, the discussants will be encouraged to consider the declarations, articulations, and the work of those referred to as the ‘pioneers of African cinema’. These parameters will also be considered in the context of contemporary debates around filmmaking in Africa and the African diaspora; and in relation to current perspectives on cinema that incorporate concepts such as ‘Black Africa’, ‘Africa North of the Sahara’, Afrofuturism, Afrosurrealism, and the meaning of cinema in the twenty-first century.

[Source: Video description].

Sacchi, Franco. “On Nollywood, the New and Subversive Popular African Cinema.” Filmed in November 2010 at TEDxLake Como, Italy. Video, 21:59. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_7JMUR0dA0

His documentary on Nollywood portrays the emerging African film industry. It won the audience award at the Abuja International Film Festival and was broadcast in South African (SABC-1), in The UK (SKY-ARTS) and numerous other networks in Europe and America.

Ogunyemi, Dayo. “Visions of Africa’s Future, from African Filmmakers.” Filmed in August 2017 at TEDGlobal. Arusha, Tanzania. Video, 11:36. Https://www.ted.com/talks/dayo_ogunyemi_visions_of_africa_s_future_from_african_filmmakers?language=en

“As a child growing up in Nigeria, books sparked my earliest imagination, but films, films transported me to magical places with flying cars, to infinite space with whole universes of worlds to discover. And my journey of discovery has led to many places and possibilities, all linked with ideas and imagination.”

[Source: Excerpt from the video]

Kaboré, Gaston, Ngozi Onwurah, Amjad Abu Alala, and Hlumela Matika. “Visions of Africa: The Past, Present, and Future of African Cinema”. Filmed in February 2021 at the 28^th New York African Film Festival, NY, USA. Video, 1:09:22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc-j8DQUjZA

“If Africans do not tell their own stories, Africa will soon disappear.” So said Ousmane Sembène, the legendary Senegalese auteur. […] To celebrate the 28th NYAFF and Black History Month, we presented a special panel discussion on the past, present, and future of African cinema with the filmmakers Gaston Kaboré (Wend Kuuni; Buud Yam), Ngozi Onwurah (The Body Beautiful; Shoot the Messenger), Amjad Abu Alala (You Will Die at Twenty),and Hlumela Matika (Tab). Moderated by curator and scholar June Givanni.

[Source: Video description].