For centuries, the relationship between blacks inside and outside the African continent has been very complicated, and a history full of pain, slavery, separation and sometimes suspicion has closely linked them. However, this relationship is also developing in a positive direction. In 1964, Malcolm X visited Ghana and gave a speech at a university. At that time, he said, "I don’t feel like a tourist in Ghana or anywhere in Africa. It feels like home to me. It has been 400 years since I left this land, but this is not my intention or my wish. "
Nowadays, the connection between Africa’s growing young population and the black diaspora has become more direct. Driven by a lot of creative attempts and social media platforms such as TikTok, they inspired each other and their inspiration collided with each other. There are many such examples: Black Panther and other films have resonated, but artists such as KehindeWiley and Omar Victor Diop have created spectacular portraits of people, and Nigerian hilarious popular movies are popular in Europe and the Caribbean. There are also African pop songs by Kenyan band Sauti Sol and African beats by singers Tems, Burna Boy and Mr Eazi-in 2022 alone, African beat musicians played more than 13 billion times on Spotify.
The writer Nnedi Okorafor told us: "I will not distinguish the black diaspora from the black people on the African continent. What I am telling is the story of black people, the story of black people all over the world, and the story of this group of black people. Over the years, my personal definition of black expatriates living abroad is: every black person on earth. "
The mixed-race singer and model from Congo and China has 1.6 million fans on Weibo.
??Johnny Chiang
In a country that pays attention to "integration into the collective", Zhong Feifei stands out. The singer and model said in her home in Shanghai: "The world often tells mixed-race people that our existence is’ 50-50 split’-we are incomplete, or incomplete enough. But I feel that I am 100% Congolese and 100% Chinese. As long as you handle your own identity, any hybrid can have great power. "
In recent decades, millions of China workers have moved to the African continent, and about 500,000 African immigrants live in China. Zhong Feifei is 28 years old, her mother is Chinese, and her late father is Congolese. As a new generation in this global economic trend, she spent her childhood in two different countries. After being born in Guangzhou, she spent the first few years in the Republic of Congo. Due to the civil war in Congo, when Zhong Feifei was 5 years old, her parents sent her to Shanghai and raised her by her "very traditional grandmother in China".
At the age of 14, Zhong Feifei left China to live with her mother in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. There, she fell in love with African beat musicians such as Burna Boy and Davido and the music of TPOK Jazz. In 2014, at the age of 18, she went to Boston University to study. After the outbreak of COVID-19, she returned to China, studied online and obtained a master’s degree in global security studies from Johns Hopkins University. At the same time, she participated in the popular reality show "Creation Camp 2020". Zhong Feifei didn’t make her debut as a group in the end, but as the first mixed-race black player, her appearance caused a storm on social media and gained the attention of 1.6 million users in Weibo.
Zhong Feifei said: "I used to want to work in a non-governmental organization, but now I think I can play a greater role in the field of pop culture as a representative of’ black Asian’, whether in China or elsewhere-even in Hollywood."
Nkuli Mlangeni-Berg, a South African textile designer
??Patricia Reyes for The New York Times
Nine years ago, when Nkuli Mlangeni-Berg, a South African textile designer, went to South America to study fabrics, he found the imprint from the motherland. She met Mario Quispe, an indigenous craftsman in Lima, Peru. Quespe shared with her his Quechua subculture weaving technology: the geometric patterns woven by weft and warp on the hand loom are very similar to the colorful textiles that Ndebele people like to place at home, and M Langini-Berg is also the descendant of Ndebele people.
After Langini Berg returned to South Africa, he decided to continue their cross-cultural communication.
In search of handmade textiles, she trekked across southern Africa and finally came to a small town on the edge of the Karoo Desert in South Africa. There are a group of women in that small town who, like Quespee, still retain the technology handed down from their ancestors. Langini-Berg brought their works to The Nine Vites, a cooperative studio she founded in 2012, which mainly produces carpets, blankets, pillows, artworks and ceramics. Most of the design of the studio is hand-woven by Peruvian and South African craftsmen with Angora goat hair, alpaca hair and wool. One of their earliest works, Sankara Carpet, was selected as "the most beautiful thing" in South Africa by Design Indaba (a global event held in South Africa every year) in 2017.
Langini-Berg often travels to mansker Raal, where her great-grandmother used to be a traditional psychotherapist in the Ndebele community. Langini-Berg said, "Textiles play a very important role in every ceremony in our family. For example, you will get a blanket when you are born, a blanket when you reach a certain age or adulthood, and the coffin will be wrapped in a blanket after you die. "
Top: carpets made by the Ninevites.
Bottom: the Ninevites cooperative studio members take a group photo.
??the Ninevites
Her design refers to the geometric patterns of Ndebele culture, the traditional beads and fabrics of Swati, and the innovation of her parents’ generation-they decorated their houses with homemade straw mats during apartheid in South Africa and cut their old clothes themselves. Tim Langini-Berg pointed out: "At home, design is to make full use of what you have."
Langini-Berg moved to Sweden in 2020, where she continued her textile research as a master student. She paid special attention to how the African-American art movement in the 20th century pursued its connection with Africa. She said: "I really want to know, apart from the common suffering, what binds us as a nation."
Langini-Berg is now highly sought after by the international market. Despite this, she still focuses on developing new cooperation with Africa. The Ninevites cooperated with Algerian artist Walid Bouchouchi to design two carpets for Swedish home improvement brand Svenskt Tenn. In addition, the pattern designed by Langini Berg has appeared on the cover of the novel Glory by Zimbabwean writer Nova Hollette bulawayo.
Looking back on her journey across the mainland and her creative practice, Ms. Langini-Berg said: "We need to heal ourselves. All the ideas and feelings we received when we grew up, as well as those things that we must identify with as black artists, are stained with strong colonial colors, and now we want to erase them."
The Senegalese photographer reshaped the world’s imagination of Africa through the lens.
??Cédrine Scheidig for The New York Times
Senegalese photographer Omar Victor Diop has a famous portrait selfie. In this photo, he is wearing a suit and a luxurious paisley bow tie, ready to blow a yellow plastic whistle. This well-designed photo can easily arouse people’s memories of Frederick Douglass.
Diop is good at depicting the pain and hope of black people all over the world. He integrated history and costume elements into his works, focusing on the important role of blacks and Africans in world history; Praise the lofty dignity of African immigrants and refugees; The history of black protests from Selma March to Soweto Uprising in South Africa is skillfully woven together. And explore the impact of climate change on Africa and the southern part of the world. Through bold images, Diop interweaves the past and the present, and explores how African life and overseas diaspora experience interact.
One of Diop’s series works "Project Diaspora" (above) imitates the portrait of Frederick Douglass (below). Douglas was an important abolitionist, activist, writer and speaker in the 19th century. He was a fugitive slave and the first African-American to be nominated as the vice president of the United States.
??Omar Victor Diop
Today, Diop lives and works in Dakar and Paris. He said: "Everything African-Americans do is still African, but they may not realize it themselves. I am very surprised and fascinated by this. Sometimes when you see an African-American on a reality TV show, it’s like seeing your sister or aunt-because their way of speaking is just like speaking Wolof in Dakar, only translated into English. "
Diop is keen on creating connections and building communities with his works, and is willing to bridge the experience generation gap between different generations of African-American groups through history. He believes: "There are many inspiring stories on the African continent, which can resonate strongly at home, and they can bring the same effect in other places. We must create more exchanges and interactions, and we don’t know each other well enough. "
Born in Dakar in 1980, Diop studied finance in Senegal and France, and worked in corporate communication departments in Dakar, Nairobi and Lagos for several years. He became a full-time artist more than ten years ago. He inherited the strong tradition of portrait photography in West African studios by artists such as Mama Casset (Senegal), Malick Sidibé (Mali) and Samuel Fosso (Nigeria), but he was not limited to this: whenever he started a project, Diop would read the relevant information of the subject crazily, talk to historians and even try to recreate the theme.
Diop hopes to show how the inspirational stories of black people in different centuries and continents are interrelated and influenced each other. He said: "The fashionable visual experience and symbolic language are my tools to sneak into the audience’s heart. Those eye-catching appearances can help me cover up the heaviness of the topic, and they are also a way for me to actively praise these memories."
Nidi Okolaf is good at finding creative inspiration from African heritage, history and mythology.
??Chanell Stone for The New York Times
In early 2023, Nnedi Okorafor signed a seven-figure contract for her latest novel The Africanfuturist, realizing a dream that had been brewing for 30 years. The book is scheduled to be published in 2025, which is the type of story that 49-year-old Okolaf has always wanted to try. She said that when she first started writing in the early 2000s, it was impossible to sell such stories. At that time, American publishers were at a loss about her stories, because many of them combined African folklore with science fiction, fantasy novels and magical realism. They repeatedly rejected Okolaf’s works on the grounds that they might confuse readers or fail to arouse understanding and resonance.
However, it turns out that as long as the right audience is found, Okolaf’s works will make people want to stop. Under her guidance, a new generation of African-American writers began to seek creative inspiration from their African heritage, history and mythology.
Okolaf, who lives in Phoenix, Arizona, has always regarded himself as a bridge between two cultures. She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to Nigerian parents. Her parents insisted, "We are Americans, but we will always be Nigerians, and we want to keep this bond forever."
Mami Wata is a good and evil African mythological figure, which means "water god" or "mother of water". The picture shows Mami Wata written by Senegalese artist Zoumana Sane.
Photo by ??Zoumana Sane/Don Cole
From the sci-fi fantasy novel Who Fears Death set in the end of Africa to Marvel Comics’s Panther trilogy, this fetter has always been the core of Kaulaf’s works. She has done extensive research for every book, and rooted her fantasy stories in traditional West African myths: for example, her "Akata" trilogy tells the story of a Nigerian-American albino girl with magical power, and the mermaid-like mythological characters Mami Wata, Oded, trickster Ekwensu and Nsibidi appear in the book.
As more and more publishers begin to accept the artistic and commercial value of African stories, this island, which once lost Okolaf and similar writers, has now become beautiful and lively. Okolav said: "Although my body has been separated from the African continent, I still have close ties with this land. This fetter may be unstable and difficult to grasp; And it is not so clear, but this roundabout and complicated emotion is very powerful. "
Eber’s twin sisters draw inspiration from multi-cultures.
??Ricardo Nagaoka for The New York Times
In Adama Ebo and Adamma Ebo and Adanne Ebo’s first feature film, they aimed at the black church-specifically, the southern black church. In the vibrant cultural and spiritual expression of the church, the twin sisters unexpectedly found that this has an amazing connection with their father’s native Nigeria.
Adama said in a recent interview: "People always say, write what you know." She is the writer and director of Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul, and her twin sister Adan is the producer of this film. Horn for Jesus, Save Your Soul, starring Sterling K. Brown K. Brown and Regina Hall. Brown plays the fallen priest of a super-large church in Atlanta, and Hull plays his pious and powerful wife. While making people laugh, this satirical mockumentary also conveys sympathy and reflection on the church community and the invisible female labor behind it.
Horn for Jesus, Save Your Soul is full of satire on the large church. Screenshot of the movie.
??Steve Swisher/Focus Features
Adama commented on Nigeria and the southern United States in this way: "There are many differences in culture between the two places, but there are also many similarities." "The church is one of them (similar culture)." She added. The Ebo sisters’ mother is American and their father is Nigerian. They grew up in Atlanta, so they were influenced by the black culture in the southern United States, and at the same time they carried the cultural background of Nigeria.
Adama and Adan fell in love with movies because of the classic animation Kiki’s Delivery Service and the film they called "the classic of African-American community". Like their mothers, they graduated from a black university with a long history in the southern United States. Although they have never been to Nigeria and can’t speak their father’s native language, Igbo, it is undeniable that they grew up in a family full of Nigerian culture. Adama said: "We grew up as African children, but in the eyes of our Nigerian compatriots, we are definitely not’ Africa’."
The Michelin chef always has French, West African and Japanese flavors on his menu.
??Felipe Romero Beltrán for The New York Times
Mory Sacko’s Michelin-starred restaurant MoSuke is located in Paris. The menu includes steamed tea bowls, Attié ?ké poisson (a classic Ivorian fish dish with fermented cassava flour), plantain with foie gras (albufera) and caviar. Although the diners are located in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, they don’t know that the perfect balance of salt, acid, fat and distinctive African elements in the mouth will soon lead them to start a wonderful taste journey-this is the characteristic of this French chef Sacco who claims to be of Malian origin and deeply loves Japanese culture. He said: "When you taste all the dishes on the menu, it’s like completing a trip."
So-the reservation for ——MoSuke restaurant has been arranged for several months. In the first year of its opening in 2020, this restaurant won the first Michelin star of French cuisine in West Africa and Central Africa. In 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron invited Sacco to cook a banquet for African leaders, and his cooking shone brilliantly in the diplomatic field. Sacco is also a frequent visitor to French TV programs: he participated in the French version of "master chef" as a contestant and also appeared in "Cuisine Ouverte" as a host.
Pépé soup produced by Mori Sacco.
??Felipe Romero Beltrán for The New York Times
Sacco, 32, grew up in the suburbs of Paris. He is the sixth child in his family and the first child born in France. But his snacks are still West African dishes from Mali, C? te d ‘Ivoire, Senegal, Guinea and Gabon. He said: "I was born and raised in France. I am a the French, but I also have my roots." In childhood, Sacco found another hobby of his own: Japanese comics. Soon, he discovered his favorite characters’ favorite foods, which were quite exotic to him as a teenager. Attracted by Japanese cooking techniques and traditional cooking norms, 14-year-old Sacco entered cooking school. The name of MoSuke restaurant combines Sacco’s name "Mory Mori" with the name "Yasuke Misuke", the only African-American warrior in Japanese history.
After working in major restaurants in Paris for ten years, Sacco began to think about how to present his identity with food. France has a long tradition of food, and he hopes to record the food in West Africa in the same way. He tried to recreate his mother’s Mali maafé stew, a beef dish simmered in peanut butter with peppers, tomatoes and other vegetables. Unexpectedly, it was not until he added an ingredient that obviously did not belong to Africa-miso, that this dish finally showed his own flavor. Sacco is reluctant to use the term "fusion". He said: "I tend to use more subtle expressions, such as’ communication and dialogue between different cultures’."
Loko hopes to convey through the exhibition that "creativity is not the privilege of the northern hemisphere."
??Ronan McKenzie for The New York Times
Venice is an ancient city with a classical temperament, but the Architecture Biennale in 2023 invited the audience to a "future lab". This is the first time that the Venice Architecture Biennale has focused on African and black expatriates in the past 40 years. The curator of this Biennale is Lesley Lokko, a Scottish architect, scholar and novelist of Ghanaian origin. She is also the first African-American curator of the Venice Architecture Biennale.
Rocco, 61, is the founder of African Futures Institute. African Futures Institute is an architectural institution integrating teaching, research and public activities in Accra, Ghana. Rocco has taught in South Africa, Britain and the United States, and is committed to promoting western institutions to think about African, racial and cultural identities and their relationship with physical space. Rocco said that the core topic around which she planned the Venice Biennale was: What does it mean to be a meaningful change agent in the 21st century?
Loko pointed out: "At present, the mainstream narrative often ignores the perspective from the southern part of the world and regards imagination and creativity as the privilege of the northern world. However, despite the enormous challenges brought by the natural environment, Africa is still a fertile ground full of creativity. This makes Africa an important fulcrum of our research, which helps us to further explore climate, social changes, new forms of governance and many other key issues that will dominate social development in the next century. "
In 2021, only one third of the exhibitors of Venice Architecture Biennale came from outside Europe and the United States. In 2023, from South Africa and Burkina Faso to Nigeria and Rwanda, more than half of the 89 exhibitors came from Africa or were black expatriates. Rocco said that many participants in the Venice Architecture Biennale have one thing in common, that is, they have the ability to "transform"-they can adapt to different cultures and backgrounds and extend the traditional definition of architecture.
She Loko will also "transform". Her childhood was spent in Dundee, Scotland, England and Accra, Ghana: "Scotland makes me tremble with cold, while Ghana is extremely hot." After becoming an architect, she finally had the opportunity to find her own position in the cross-cultural confusion of her childhood. Now, she regards her teaching work as a happy "comfort zone". Loko is full of expectations for the continuous progress in the field of architecture, and in the future, the change will no longer be limited to a binary opposition of the West or the North. She pointed out: "Now the world needs to realize that creativity driven by demand has immeasurable value."
Ruth E. Carter introduced African futurism into mainstream fashion.
?? Gioncarlo Valentine for The New York Times
Ruth E. Ruth E. Carter said: "Fashion designers are storytellers first." Carter is 64 years old. The film Black Panther in 2018 made her the first black man to win the Oscar for Best Fashion Design. In March, 2023, she won the second Oscar again with Panther 2, becoming the first fashion designer to win both the original film and its sequel.
The Wa Kanda world in Black Panther is a fictional African kingdom that has never experienced colonization. Carter’s design draws lessons from indigenous cultures all over the African continent: before making, she collected various tribal cultural relics, including the masks of the Maridogon, the crowns of the Simba people in Namibia, the beadwork of the Masai people in Kenya and the necklaces worn by the Ndebele women in South Africa. Carter also drew inspiration from the ideas of contemporary African fashion designers such as Laduma Ngsocorro, founder of South African knitting brand MaXhosa Africa, and Ozwald Boateng, a Ghanaian-born British tailor. He also went to the African Punk Music Festival in Johannesburg to inspect street clothes and learn about the latest trends with his eyes.
Carter won the Oscar for Best Fashion Design with Black Panther (2018). Her inspiration sources include the artist Romare Bearden (middle picture), whose collage influenced her creation in Spike Lee’s films, and the African Punk Music Festival (lower picture), which contributed to her conception of "Panther" films.
Screenshot of the movie Black Panther
Carter said: "African aesthetics, whether now or in the past, has never been single." Constantly exploring has almost become a habit of this designer. There is no doubt that she shaped the expression of black historical and cultural stories on the big screen. Carter, who lives in Los Angeles, said: "Representing culture and representing yourself (voice) has never been a burden, but a pleasure; I will also feel the pressure, but this’ pressure to do this well’ is more like a sense of mission. "
Carter was raised by his mother alone in Massachusetts, the youngest of eight children. In 1986, she moved to Los Angeles, where she met the director Spike Lee. The first film she participated in was School Daze in 1988, which was one of the many films she collaborated with Spike Lee.
Top: Screenshot of the movie "Do the Right Thing" directed by Spike Lee.
Bottom: Romare Bearden’s 1980 work Morning of the Rooster is famous for his collage depicting city life and the American South.
??Romare Bearden
Even when it is not designed for African futurism, Carter always looks for inspiration from African and black diaspora. When designing clothing styles for time films, she will refer to The Image of the Black in Western Art; Many of her works with Spike Lee refer to the works of the artist Romare Bearden; The costume modeling of Mo’ Better Blues focuses on the personal styles of jazz musicians such as Dexter Gordon, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis.
Carter said: "It is very important for me to draw inspiration from real people or things. I dug up those tiny humanistic details and applied them to my role. " Carter’s designs not only aggregate the characteristics of black expatriates living abroad, but also promote the African futuristic style into the mainstream fashion world through the costume modeling in Black Panther and other films. Carter said: "We respect culture, and at the same time we are pushing it forward."
Nigerian musician Mr Eazi lets more people see Africa through music.
??Rasaan Wyzard for The New York Times
"Where is home?" For Nigerian musician Mr Eazi, this is not a simple question. "On the plane." When he was interviewed by video in new york, he made a joke and then said with awe, "I think the place where my family is is home, so my home is sometimes in Accra, sometimes in London, Cotonou, Lagos and Dubai."
Mr Eazi, whose original name is Oluwatosin Oluwole Ajibade, is 32 years old and was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, but his life and career are closely related to the world outside his motherland. Mr Eazi entered the recording studio for the first time when he was in college, and his stage name "Mr Eazi" came from this. It is said that he would stop fighting in the recording studio: "Relax, don’t be nervous."
In 2016, he was invited by rapper Lauryn Hill to perform in Brooklyn. He also sang the soundtrack of The Lion King in 2019, and worked with Colombian singer J Balvin, Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, Jamaican musicians Popcaan, Nicki Minaj and Diplo. In the middle and late 2010s, Mr Eazi became popular with catchy African Afrobeats such as "Skin Tight" and "Legover".
Above: MV screenshot of Mr Eazi & Major Lazer-Legover (Remix)
Next: Mr Eazi commissioned the artist Sesse Elangwe to create the work "The Way I See It" for the single "Chop Time, No Friend".
??Sesse Elangwe/Choplife
He called his early works "Banku", which is a type of music that combines Ghanaian upper-class music and Nigerian chords. His initial success was when Nigerian musicians such as WizKid entered the western audience’s field of vision, which was partly due to social media and the recommendation of international musicians and black expatriates. Lawrence Burney wrote an article for Vice in 2016: "Many of the hottest African beat musicians use cheerful sound rhythms, and Mr Eazi gives dance music a lyrical quality with his low humming."
The African community in Britain is crucial to the early success of Mr Eazi. Mr Eazi said: "After I left Ghana, the first place to accept my music was England." Young black students were the first audience attracted by his music. He said: "These students defined’ cool’ in their minds and embraced their African identity. This is the cornerstone of the development of African diaspora music. "
Written by Abdi Latif Dahir
Veronica Chambers/Elizabeth Paton
Desiree Ibekwe/Abdi Latif Dahir
Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff
Lynsey Chutel/Precious Adesina
Editor: Yang Ruiting
Translation: Qian Gongyi @ Panda Translation Agency
