The Ivory Coast Princess; The Nigerian who dressed Michelle Obama | See the top 27 artists we are rooting for in 2018

Despite prevailing socio-economic hardships down this way and a horrible name in first world countries, Africans are doing their darndest to banish stereotypes and exalt the image of the black man in their various fields of endeavour. We’ve consistently given you 100 Most Inspiring Women and Class of the outgoing year; special features mostly centred around Nigeria.  This time we turn the attention to artists- visual, literary and designers- in West Africa doing marvellous things with their talents.

See below:

1. Laetitia Ky

From the Ivory Coast, this young woman is making statements with her hair. Not in the slay queen stereotypical way women are famous for, no. From body issues to social issues to simple lighthearted fun, Laetitia contorts her hair into unique artistic expressions that will leave you astounded. She really is the queen of hair! And having secured that front, she’s moving on to fashion. What can we say: Vera Wang, beware, the African Queen is coming?

Really, with Laetitia’s chops, anything is possible.

 

2. Chibundu Onuzo

They say Nigerians don’t read. Chibundu begs to differ. After selling out a whole suitcase of books at TEDx Euston, she knows what she’s talking about. Her Instagram bio blares unapologetically: Christian. Writer. Singer; all three things Chibundu is quite successful at. Her debut novel, The Spider King’s Daughter, won a Betty Trask Award in 2013 and was shortlisted for the 2012 Dylan Thomas Prize and the Commonwealth Book Prize. She followed that up with Welcome To Lagos also published by Faber and Faber. The first edition copies of her novel are already sold out.

If you’re the ‘gram, look for the girl with the big smile and big hair.

3. Lesley Nneka Arimah

Lesley Nneka Arimah is an award-winning writer. Her first short story anthology “What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky” made so many waves, it picked up the Caine and Commonwealth prizes.

Her successes don’t stop there. Who Will Greet You At Home? has been optioned by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, renowned Hollywood Director.

4. Mamadou Diallo

Diallo is a Senegalese writer and journalist. He is the publisher of the literary magazine Recidive, the editor of Vives-Voix, and the Francophone facilitator of Writivism’s workshop on fiction and non-fiction in Darkar, Senegal. Diallo pcked up Ake Prize for Proze in 2015.

5. Tomi Adeyemi

A graduate of Harvard, Tomi Adeyemi is a Nigerian-American writer whose debut novel Children of Blood and Bone made #1 on the NYT Young Adult Hardcover Bestseller List and has been picked up by Fox Studios for a film adaptation in what has been reported as “one of the biggest YA debut novel publishing deals ever.”

Children of Blood and Bone is a young adult fantasy novel set in West Africa;  the first in a trilogy to be published by Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.

6. Ainehi Edoro

Ainehi is the founder and editor of Brittle Paper. She holds doctorate degree holder from Duke University and considers Achebe one of her foremost literary influencers. Edoro has been published in The Guardian, OkayAfrica, Chimurenga Chronic, Africa Is a Country to mention a few.

7. Fiona Worlanyo Ansa

The Ghanaian director loves film because it’s one of the best ways she can express herself.   Fiona has several productions that bear her stamp: like An African City, One More Day, and the award-winning Dear Valentine.

8. Akosua Adoma

Born of dual heritage, Akosua Adoma’s films go against the grain, effectively addressing gender stereotypes. She has produced award-winning films like Reluctantly Queer and Kwaku Ananse, which received the 2013 Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Short Film. Her most notable work was adapting Chimamanda’s The Thing Around Your Neck last year.

9. Francis Yushau Brown

Francis Yushau Brown is the creative director of Animaxfyb. He fell in love with art at a tender age, leading him to become an art apprentice at the age of eleven in Ghana. His animated short film Agorkoli won Best International Film at the 2016 Africa International Film Festival’s Globe Award.

10. Wami Aluko

Since Wami’s dad got her first camera in secondary school, Wami Aluko hasn’t stopped taking pictures. She tends towards documentary-style photography, telling stories of artists, drawn from her love of music and fashion. At 19, she featured Mr Eazi, Idris King, Lady Donli and others in her docu-series ‘For Those Who Listen’. She also did a fashion editorial for the online magazine, morebranches.com.

An artist, photographer and filmmaker, Wami is a bundle of creativity.

11. Nadine Ijewere

Nadine is a Nigerian-Jamaican fashion & portrait photographer born and bred in the U.K who likes to mess with the rules. She scorns at gender norms and representation of beauty. With each picture, Nadine seeks to celebrate diversity.

She was tapped for fashion heavyweight Stella McCartney’s #StellaBy series, which she titled The Misrepresentation of Representation. Nadine’s work has been featured in international media and exhibited in The Tate Britain Generation exhibition and more recently at Unseen Amsterdam and Lagos Photo Festival in 2017, to mention a few.

12. Ruth Ossai

Unlike her contemporaries whose forte is wedding/glamour photography, Ruth Ossai takes the road less travelled, capturing people and moments from her hometown of Nsukka, Nigerian. Her photography celebrates Nigerian beauty, identity and culture, as she believes it is up to Africans to tell their own stories, to prevent stereotyping.

Ruth’s Instagram feed is an almanack of Eastern culture, starring everyone from church aunties and uncles to family members, displaying black beauty in its glory.

13. Kayinsola Onalaja

A graduate of Istituto Marangon, Kanyinsola’s successes include Best Fashion Collection for the Academic year 2013-14 at Istituto Marangoni 2014 and Istituto Marangoni FDA Young Designer of the Year Award.

14. Ejiro Amos-Tafiri

Ejiro’s success story is even more impressive because it does not follow the usual script of educated in the abroad like most Nigerian fashion designers. A science student in secondary school, Ejiro shocked her parents still when she told them she wanted to study fashion. And study fashion she did at Yaba College of Technology (Yaba Tech), which had to change the rules to allow a science student study art. Ejiro said thank you by emerging the best student. She has come a long way since then, making a name for herself with her eponymous fashion label among the elite and celebs of Nigeria.

She also established the Ejiro Amos Tafiri School of Design, where she trains aspiring designers.

15. Amaka Osakwe

Not many homegrown fashion designers can boast of celebs of Lupita Nyong’o and Solange’s ilk donning their clothes. Fewer still can boast of meeting a sitting First Lady of the United States and having that First Lady as a proud customer. Amaka Osakwe can. In 2014, Amaka was a guest of the White House at the invitation of Michelle Obama herself!

Her fashion label, Maki Oh with its African-inspired prints and collection titles, tells the everyday day Nigerian story with each stitch. In fact, Amaka Osakwe cannot design a cloth without going through the elaborate process of imagining life in Nigeria. No wonder she’s a hit from West Africa to the West Coast.

This one’s torchlight cannot dim.

16. Ada Umeofia

You’d be hard-pressed to find any Nigerian child tell you point blank that they want to be a carpenter. That only happens as a last resort, usually in the absence of funds to study professional courses etc. Ada Umeofia has no such insecurities. Armed with an Architecture degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture, Umeofia enjoys building with her hands and working with wood just as much as she enjoys designing spaces.

In 2012, confronted with the problem of butchers using inefficient stalls, Ada came up with a bi-table unit design which she distributed to markets across Nigeria using the prize money(how much?) from the Challenge: Future Competition. She followed that up with carry go portable chair, table and canopy unit and then the shack T1.

Umeofia won the Google Zeitgeist Young Minds award in and is a founder of The OS Space.

17. Nonso Amadi

Music tugged at Nonso Amadi’s heartstrings while he was still an undergraduate at Covenant University, studying Chemical engineering. and he followed its rhythm, wholly, churning out soulful music one after the other. Like Simi, Nonso is one of the few who self-produce their music. And to think he’s self-taught. Nonso Amadi has to his credit singles ‘Tonight’, ‘Radio’, ‘Long Live The Queen’, and EP ‘Alone’.

He’s also collaborated with Banky W and Tomi Agape, but his dream won’t be fulfilled until he makes music together with Jon Bellion, his idol.

 

18.Shatta Wale

Charles Nii Armah Mensah Jr popularly known by his moniker Shatta Wale is Ghana’s dancehall king. A singer and producer, his song Dancehall King shot him to fame. Since his return from a 10-year hiatus, Shatta Wale has released a string of hit songs and enjoyed a host of award nominations for his music. Popular songs include Wine Ya Waist, featuring Davido, Taking Over and Ayoo.

 

19. Master Soumy

Malian artiste, Ismaïla Doucourë, aka Master Soumy pioneered the Malian hip hop movement. His debut album Tounkaranke sold 5000 copies sold in its few weeks of release. His awards include Best Lyricist and Best rap artiste.

19. Sona Jobarteh

Her Instagram bio proclaims: “1st Female Kora Player Virtuoso from Griot Family”. Sona has reason to splash that information all over her social media because the instrument she plays, which is the kora, is traditionally only played by male griots or hereditary musicians, never women. Sona broke that rule.

With an English mother and Gambian father, Jobarteh musical style is eclectic.

Jobarteh is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and vocalist.

20. Gibou Bala Gaye

Gee, as his alias goes, is the custodian of Gambian music, particularly the rap style mbalax. He is described as the Kanye West of The Gambia. Gee has a stack of noteworthy accomplishments to his name: In December 2014, the controversial rapper filled up the National Stadium a week before the annual Open Mic Festival, the first time a solo artist would do that. He also consistently featured at the Open Mic Festival for six years.

Gee also has a number of international collaborations: “Sugah and International dancehall/ reggae star Demarco from Jamaica, Wally Seck and Ida Samb from Senegal and Wizkid from Nigeria.”

21. Helio Batalha

2017 made it 10 years since Helio Batalha began his music career in Cape Verde by participating in a radio contest organized by the Ministry of Health and Praia FM. From 2010 to 2014, Batalha released three mixtapes -Stroke of Stado I,2010, Coup Stado II, 2012, Jungles of stones, 2014 that “became one of the most appreciated names of Rap Criolo”. 2016 was the musician’s turning point, however. That year, he won Revelation Artist of the Year in CABO VERDE MUSIC AWARDS, was selected for the Atlantic Music Expo and scored a spot in New York Times Cultural Notebook.He closed the year with his first album release, Karta D’Alforia, which received critical acclaim.

Helio is known as the Voice of the Ghetto and a pillar of Cape Verde’s hip hop. He also boasts a degree in social services.

22. Siaka Soppo TRAORÉ

Siaka is connected to four African countries by birth, origin and work. Siaka was born in Doula in the 80, although he comes from Burkina Faso. He grew up in Togo where he discovered artistic abilities in painting and graphics. His love for art took him to Senegal where he encountered hip hop dance and capoeira. This triggered his interest in photography. Soppo picked up a degree in civil engineering and faced art fulltime after his studies. Now, he thrives in Senegal as a digital/fashion photographer.

Siaka Soppo Traoré, burkinabè photgrapher established in Dakar. / Siaka Soppo Traoré, photographe Burkinabè établi à Dakar.

23. Ibrahim Mahama

Armed with a Bachelor’s degree in painting and a Master’s degree in painting and sculpture, Ibrahim Mahama uses an assortment of remnant materials from wood, paper, textiles and jute sacks to build spectacular art installations.  The artist works speak to economy and globalisation. Describing his influences, “I am interested in how crisis and failure are absorbed into this material with a strong reference to global transaction and how capitalist structures work,” Mahama said.

Mahama’s art has been featured in various exhibitions around the world. White Cube, London; Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, Michigan, USA; Ellis King, Dublin and of course, his home country, Ghana.

24. Neneh Ada Yang

From a modest background in Sierre Leone to celebrity status in China, Neneh’s art journey is full of surprises. A chance meeting with one of the world’s renowned landscape artists, Yan Yang set the stage. Five days after meeting Yan Yang during a dinner date in Sierre Leone, the two got hitched. Yan introduced Neneh to art and Neneh prospered in it. She is a Chinese opera singer, a painter and plays the Guqin, a seven-stringed plucked instrument, the only foreigner to become a professional. She and her husband have worked on art pieces together; she’s been one of the few women of colour to be featured on China’s television shows and magazines.

Neneh has done so well for herself, she’s referred to as China’s Black First Lady.

25. Daniel Obasi

Obasi is a 22-year-old Nigerian stylist, art director and photographer with a love for Afrofuturism. Through fashion photography, he takes the lid off controversial social issues such as sexuality and gender. His 2017 photo essay The Illegal Project addresses this taboo in the Nigerian environment.

Daniel has worked on editorials and lookbooks for publications like OxosiHunger MagazineNataal and Contributor Magazine.

26. Abdoulaye Diarrassouba

Born in Cotê d’lvoire and based in Brooklyn, Aboudia’s paintings are haunted by the memory of children. Since he witnessed the Ivorian civil war in 2011, Aboudia’s canvasses depict the horrors of war: soldiers, skulls and ghostly children- neither dead or alive. It was at the height of the armed conflict Aboudia’s work hit international audiences. Since that time, Aboudia’s multi-layered murals have been purchased by an impressive line up of art collectors such as Charles Saatchi, Jean Pigozzi and Frank Cohen. He has also exhibited in his works in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Nevada Museum, Royal Academy Summer Show 2017 and Saatchi Gallery, to mention a few.

27. Aliou Diack

Aliou found art as a ten-year-old child, while desperately trying to create memories of his village, luxuriant with green vegetation. His talents found him a place in Dakar’s École Nationale des Arts, where he polished his skill. The Galerie ATISS picked him up and the rest, as they say, is history.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

cool good eh love2 cute confused notgood numb disgusting fail