Fabric of change: Mozambican designer Wacy Zacarias fixes textiles with healing plants
When Mozambican designer Wacy Zacarias realised that most African textiles were not really African but imports from Holland and China, she shifted her focus from fashion design to reclaiming textiles for something more meaningful. “The tradition of African textiles,”...
Vanessa Nsona is designing a circular future for Malawi
Vanessa Nsona collects waste, tinkers and toys, prototypes and makes new products. Circular thinking is central to her work in Malawi. “I have always thought of waste as treasure,” she says. I spent a day with Vanessa, visiting her workshop, sourcing materials in the...
Moreblessings Moyo: A street vendor in Harare who does more with less
Makadikko, avandi Moreblessings Moyo. Mama Moreblessings is my new comic book character. Read her story here: Moreblessings Moreblessings works as a street vendor in Harare, Zimbabwe, hustling to make ends meet, while her husband does the same as an uber driver in...
Beyond the Age of Waste: Meet the designers creating a circular future in Mauritius
Mahendra Gooroochurn lives on an island that Mark Twain supposedly compared to paradise on earth. Was Twain right? In Mauritius, people of diverse cultures live in harmony, near blossoming pink sugarcane, beautiful pearly-white beaches and indigenous forests. But all...
How Joburg designer Matthew Edwards is innovating a circular materials future
Designer Matthew Edwards holds a three-dimensional cube in the palm of his hand. It is small with smoothed-over jagged sides. The deep blue and white colours dance together as if swirling in a slab of marble or like the calico shapes that pattern on a turquoise stone....
Six collaborations shaping circular design in Southern Africa
Design Futures Africa presents six stories about design and the circular economy in Southern Africa. In the first story, published on Sunday 24 January, Stefanie Jason speaks to South African industrial designer, Matthew Edwards, about his transformation of...
Meet the storytellers exploring the future of circular design in Africa
Design Futures Africa is a collaborative project between Twyg, storytellers and the British council using the power of narrative to further the reach and understanding of African designers. Storytellers were tasked with creating narratives about the journeys of six...
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