{"id":23101,"date":"2016-09-21T18:54:52","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T16:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.grapheine.com\/en\/?p=23101"},"modified":"2022-06-15T14:30:14","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T12:30:14","slug":"africa-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grapheine.com\/en\/graphic-design-en\/africa-design","title":{"rendered":"When Africa meets design"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"afropolis_african_renaissance\"<\/p>\n

Making a good impression<\/h3>\n

At first glance, graphic design is rarely related\u00a0to Africa. For\u00a0cultural and historical reasons. The importance of the oral tradition and the recent dominance of European languages by colonialism led to the idea that African languages as a whole had no written forms or that they had been\u00a0designed very recently.<\/span><\/p>\n

We usually associate the origin of graphic design with the discovery of Gutenberg printing process <\/b>back\u00a0in the fifteenth century. Lacking sufficient printing and industrial structures, the printed materials were\u00a0never really able to bloom in Africa. Therefore, the Roman alphabet and with it the entire Western graphics have been spread in African cities through advertising.<\/span><\/p>\n

From Ghana's Adinkra symbols that are centuries old, to geometric decorations painted on the walls of houses by South African women\u2026 through the alphabets designed in the early twentieth century in Guinea to the patterns\u00a0of wax fabrics\u00a0worn in West Africa, the African continent is actually filled with writing systems and designs of its own<\/b>. A new generation is emerging thanks to this graphic legacy and the impulse of Saki Mafundikwa. For the record, we took the opportunity to talk about his TED conference in\u00a0our\u00a0\"Say Africa\"<\/span><\/a>\u00a0playlist.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Evolve or die !<\/h3>\n

In 1997, Saki Mafundikwa puts an\u00a0end to\u00a0his brilliant career as a designer in New York and flies back to his native Zimbabwe to open the first graphic design school and new media of the country: <\/span>\u00a0ZIVA<\/a>\u00a0(Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts).\u00a0Clearly underlined by the slogan \"Evolve or die\" on the\u00a0school site home page, his ambition is nothing less than to initiate an \"African renaissance\". As he recounts in detail in his book Afrikan alphabets (check out his\u00a0<\/span>TED<\/a>\u00a0conference, on the ingenuity and elegance of the ancient African characters), the African continent is full of alphabetical scripts, syllabic hieroglyphics, ideograms, either very old or newer. <\/span><\/p>\n

We know better where we go when we know where we come from<\/i><\/b>. It is probably with this saying in mind that the Zimbabwean designer crossed Africa from East to West, in search of those records. He followed the footsteps of the African diaspora beyond the Atlantic, to Cuba and South America. Some alphabets he transcribed are very old, such as the Tifinagh of the Tuareg people.
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\"Couverture<\/p>\n

Above:<\/strong>\u00a0Afrikan alphabets<\/i> book cover - Graphic design of the music album \"Proud to be afrikan\" by\u00a0Saki Mafundikwa.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Page<\/a><\/p>\n

Above:<\/strong> ZIVA School's website home page. The school was founded by\u00a0Saki Mafundikwa.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Saki_Mafundikwa_Afrikan_alphabets\"<\/p>\n

To learn more about\u00a0Saki Mafundikwa and his practice of typography, check out\u00a0his\u00a0interview on\u00a0Another Africa<\/a>.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Here's a chosen extract: <\/span><\/p>\n

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\"I see Afrikan alphabets offering a breath of fresh air that can rescue the Roman alphabet from the vagaries of style and trends. As a typographer, and more importantly as a designer, I am in the business of the creation and peddling of 'Beauty'.\u00a0[...] Afrikan alphabets offer a more aesthetically pleasing perspective and alternative. The deconstructionists could care less about 'legibility' instead they care more about the \u201cexpressive\u201d nature of typography. Afrikan alphabets straddle those two extremes comfortably.\"
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And here are\u00a0some examples of alphabets transcribed by Saki Mafundikwa in his book Afrikan alphabets:<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

T for Tuaregs and Tifinagh<\/b><\/h2>\n

Tifinagh is an ancient form of Berber script used by the Tuareg from Algeria and Libya, to write the Tamashek language. Originally composed of consonants only, vowels were lately added. Written words follow each others without spaces in-between, and can be read either vertically or horizontally. Their geometric outline allows them to be set in stone or secretly\u00a0drawn in a hand\u00a0palm. From one region to another, the Tifinagh characters are slightly different, each group using specific characters. The text below was written by Aboubacar Allal, a goldsmith Tuareg from Niger that Mafundikwa met in New York.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"alphabet<\/a><\/p>\n

For a deeper approach,\u00a0the French typographer Pierre Di Sciullo designed\u00a0between 1995 and 2003 four fonts that allow to\u00a0transcribe\u00a0Tifinagh: the\u00a0Amanar<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Bambara alphabet<\/b><\/h2>\n

The Bambara\u00a0alphabet was transcribed by Woyo Couloubay around\u00a01930. This language is spoken by more than 3 million people in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Print\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nsibidi alphabet (South Nigeria)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Dating back from\u00a0the eighteenth century, the Nsibidi script\u00a0was originally invented by Ejagham people from\u00a0south\u00a0Nigeria. This\u00a0language has been developed prior to\u00a0the \"Ekpe men\"\u00a0or \"Leopard\" secret societies. The signs are engraved on objects or painted\u00a0on clothing using the bogolan\u00a0technique (dyeing technique based on a decoction of birch leaves, mp\u00e9cou bark, fermented mud\u00a0and a mixture of soap and chlorine).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"alphabet_nsibidi\"<\/p>\n

Syllabic Loma alphabet<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

This alphabet, meant to be read\u00a0from left to right, was created in the 30s by Wido Zobo Liberia.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"alphabet_loma\"<\/h2>\n

Va\u00ef\u00a0alphabet\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

Listed in 1820 by Dualu Bukele, it is based on signs used by the elderly\u00a0added to different pictograms used in certain rituals. The\u00a0Va\u00ef alphabet comes from Liberia and Sierra Leone regions. It contains 190 phonemes (a phoneme is the smallest sound unit of a language spoken). On a side note, transcripts of the Bible and the Koran into Va\u00ef have allowed the diffusion \/ assimilation of new monotheistic religions throughout Liberia, that are today practiced by around 105 000 Va\u00ef people.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"VaiAlphabet_3\"<\/p>\n

Bantu \/ Nd\u00e9l\u00e9l\u00e9 alphabet<\/h2>\n

The pictorial writing system of the Ndebele is quite similar to the Bantu alphabet, and come from Southern Africa<\/span>.\u00a0Ndel\u00e9l\u00e9 women are known to use this system to\u00a0skillfully decorate their house walls<\/span>, mixing highly colorful symbols and geometric patterns. Their houses and by extension their culture, is now classified cultural heritage by UNESCO.<\/p>\n

\"syboles_bantou\"<\/p>\n

Recently these patterns have been\u00a0declined on all types of contemporary objects or have been\u00a0used\u00a0as graphical object to\u00a0create visual identities. <\/span><\/p>\n

These non-profit objects reflect a willingness to adapt symbols assigned to a specific culture into a kind of graphic quote for\u00a0new contemporary media.<\/p>\n

\"logos_niousha_bantoo\"<\/p>\n

Above:<\/strong> Creation of the visual identity for beauty products line by\u00a0C\u00e9cile Johanet<\/a> : \"I wanted to graphically dig this track and I proposed a young entrepreneur who makes\u00a0natural cosmetics for Afro hair and skins to integrate these symbols in the visual identity of the brand<\/em>.\"<\/p>\n

Adinkra alphabet (Western Africa)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Some\u00a0Adinkra\u00a0ideograms were discovered engraved on tiny gold weight used by the Ashanti, long before colonization, making it\u00a0difficult to put a date on their\u00a0origins.<\/p>\n

Still used today, these signs are associated with proverbs, sayings, recommendations, which constitute the cornerstone\u00a0of the Ashanti culture. These can be: advice on education, sustainability (how to use the long-term natural resources), politics with the definition of democracy or the sharing of wealth. Symbols are classified according to their graphic meanings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"planche<\/p>\n

\"vodafone_adinkra_pattern\"<\/p>\n

In Ghana, Vodafone borrows local traditional signs by decorating sim cards and shops using Adinkra symbols.<\/span>
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Facebook post from Vodafone Ghana, inviting locals to answer a quizz on Adinkras. Doesn't this symbol remind you of the Carrefour logo ?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"vodafone_facebook_adinkra_motherearth\"<\/p>\n

Today, African designers readapt these symbols to create local business logos.<\/b> Conversely, international firms use these cultural landmarks as decorative trim on their products to meet the local market. This usurpation of traditional symbols by multinationals engages some rising resistance from local people ...<\/span><\/p>\n

In big cities and small villages in Ghana, some companies allow themselves to use the walls of private homes and community spaces for their own advertising. In many cases, they vaguely promise of small amount of money or free mobile phones to the families.
\n<\/span>The public space, once belonging to communities and families, is now privatized with logos that significantly alter the urban landscape.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Re-Painting the Red<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Charlie Michael<\/a> took action in this context. He stamped once again over a home facade with a series of Adinkra symbols\u00a0<\/span><\/span>in an arrangement that imitates\u00a0the Vodafone logo. This subversive act claims ownership of private\u00a0space by the inhabitants.<\/span>
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\"repainted_the_red_vodafone\"<\/p>\n

Re-Painting the Red,\u00a0<\/em>from the\u00a0Curio Kiosk project during\u00a0the\u00a0Kumasi Symposium<\/em>, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Kumasi, Ghana, July\u00a02009.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n