Benin’s Amazing Technicolor Voodoo Cloaks

Voodoo has gotten a bad rap. Typically associated with the fear of someone sticking needles into a tiny doll that looks like you, it is widely stereotyped as a black magic cult. But did you know that in the West African country of Benin, believed to be its place of origin, voodoo has been recognised as…

Made in Holland: The Chanel of Africa

A small town factory in the Netherlands might not seem like the obvious birthplace for African haute couture. Helmond is a place most people (Dutch or African) wouldn’t be able to point out on a map and yet, this unassuming little town is where one of the most iconic fashion brands of West and Central Africa was created. As the main…

The Ethiopian Fashion Tribe that turns Nature into Haute Couture

Remember when you tried to get creative and bejewel your jean shorts or decorate your new tennis shoes with a Sharpie pen? Well this is not that. In the Omo Valley of southern Ethiopia, the Surma and Mursi people don’t have glue guns, sewing machines, sequins or Sharpies to accessorise with. Inspired by the tools and textiles…

Congo High, Class of ’72

I still cringe when I look back (usually against my will) at my high school yearbook pictures. It’s probably because I can see how utterly lost I was at that age, in every sense of the word. But these school portraits, taken at a Protestant secondary school in Mbandaka, Congo in 1972, are in another league from your…

Documenting Africa’s Old Cinemas

Sneaking around old art deco cinemas is something we like to do quite often on this site as you know, but today I came across something a little further afield. Starting in Angloa, Germany’s cultural Goethe-Institut is putting together a fascinating website dedicated entirely to documenting the architecture of Africa’s old cinemas; photographing them, mapping them and…

I Dream of a Farm in Africa

There are a few places on this earth where you just know, okay, this is it, this is the place. Whether you’re getting married, looking for an unforgettable place to celebrate a 50th birthday, milestone anniversary or simply in search of paradise on earth in its purest form, perhaps you might consider South Africa’s Babylonstoren…

And now, a Catalogue of Crazy Customized Coffins

Someone is selling this Airstream coffin on eBay for $4,500. It comes from Ghana where it was made in a workshop in 1995 by Nii Anum, a disciple of Kane Kwei, a carpenter born in the 1920s who made a name for himself making custom fantasy casket in his hometown of Accra. Kwei first began…

The Braided Rapunzels of Africa & other Tribal Trends

My early weekday nights are typically spent wandering the depths of Pinterest. On this occasion, I found a rather hypnotising pin board called Fashion Around the World, where I discovered these incredible African Rapunzels… The hairstyle currently making you do a double-take is known as Eembuvi Braids, worn by women of the Mbalantu tribes from the Namibia. It’s…

The Deadly Art of Train Surfing in South Africa

There are not many places in the world where you could get away with something like this, but South Africa seems to be one of them. And for too many, the risk is far greater than prison time. They call it ‘staff riding’, a scarily common sport for dare-devil thrill-seekers which involves jumping aboard moving…

A Wedding Story in Namibia

I‘m not a wedding day dreamer so much as I am a dreamer of finding pretty much any excuse to throw that one and truly memorable party; an occasion that challenges me to squeeze every last drop of imagination I have into creating a story in a unique little place. For Alex and Lisl, their story…