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This time, Afrimaxx shows everyone that the African continent was not built on sand. Meet creative minds who see sand as a building material: from sandcastles and beachcombers to rammed earth.
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00:00In this episode, Afrimex shows everyone that the African continent was not built on sand.
00:13At least these creative minds understand and appreciate it as a material, from sandcastles
00:19to seacomers whose works can be seen and found right here at Sugarbush, Lusaka, Zambia.
00:25But first...
00:28Check out how Elizabeth Natonenge uses sand for ceramic art, which she teaches children in Kenya.
00:35Stay tuned as a handful of women tend the famous beaches of Likoma Island Snow White by creating decorative items from Floatsam.
00:44Then, see how Fatia Dien Maza builds her structures in Senegal, not on sand, but on rammed earth.
00:52I'm Kafula Salamba, and you are watching Afrimex.
00:58With just his hands, a few twos, and his imagination, La Nele Klava transforms Cape Town's beaches into a work of art.
01:18Let's meet the man who sculpts the whole world with just sand.
01:23The shore is his canvas, but the Cape winds and high tide storms are his nemesis.
01:29But sand sculptor La Nele Klava returns again and again to turn the Cape's white sands into a beautiful, if impermanent, gallery.
01:37They give you that good energy, you can feel like, yo, this is a place I can call home.
01:49La Nele Klava went to Cape Town in 2019 looking for work.
01:54He had no formal art training, so why did he start sculpting sand to make a living?
01:59I realised my grandma is getting old, so now I need to pick up my socks and to quit school and to start to focus now.
02:12And then I started working.
02:13As it was a rural area, it was a hard place to survive.
02:18And everyone is struggling there and everyone is trying to survive.
02:22So I had to come to Cape Town.
02:25He first saw sand sculptures online, unaware that many were AI fakes.
02:32But the spark of inspiration was real.
02:36It was a hard work, it was a lot of journey, making something, I make a horse.
02:42And people are like, yo, what a beautiful dragon.
02:44And then I'll be still here, like, inside.
02:47Or maybe when I make a human, and they're like, yo, what a nice octopus.
02:51And I'm like, oh, why people like me like this?
02:55But then I had to deal with it.
02:57I'm until I teach myself.
03:00The beach is a blank canvas.
03:03And sand costs nothing, except patience and creativity.
03:07La Nele could wipe it clean, begin again, and slowly discover what drew the crown.
03:11Sand sculpting the Big Five has become the newest trademark.
03:40But behind the beauty lies four days of painstaking work.
03:46How do I decide what to make?
03:49So the picture comes when there is sand, when there is a pileup of sand.
03:54So I create with my eyes, just by looking.
03:57Oh, this can be an elephant.
03:59Oh, this can be a human.
04:01And then I'll be built according to the shape of the sand.
04:06The beach is a dream.
04:09Cape Town, one of South Africa's top tourist destinations, has become La Nele's open air gallery.
04:15Are some beaches better than others?
04:18Fishhook, I can say, is one of the beautiful, peaceful places I have ever been.
04:25Here people, they are so friendly, they are so supportive.
04:29they make sure each and every month I'm ready to pay my rent.
04:35While the Fish Hook locals have stood up for Lanile,
04:38the Cape's strong winds and high tides have stood against him.
04:42So why does he keep coming back despite the relentless weather?
04:48When I'm at the beach, I feel fresh.
04:51And this is a place where I feel safe without worrying or without looking.
04:56Oh, what is going on in the back?
04:58So here, I can talk to different kind of people.
05:02I feel joy when I'm at the beach, I'm not going live.
05:11Still only 25, Lanile has proved that with creativity, grit and a lot of sand,
05:17you can build a life from almost nothing.
05:19And in South Africa, where youth unemployment is rampant,
05:22it's a testament to his strength of character.
05:28When the water is like this, it gives me a headache.
05:35But yeah, at least I'm feeling artistic, you know.
05:41I might just keep on working on it.
05:44With neither adverse weather, unfriendly people,
05:49or poor employment prospects holding him back,
05:52what does Lanile hope to achieve with sand sculptures?
05:56I can say, yeah, it's much important to make something emotional,
06:03because people, they walk at the beach with a lot of luggage in their hearts.
06:09So when I make something that makes you smile,
06:12and then it also makes me happy.
06:15That inspires me to keep on doing something beautiful for the community.
06:30Every great place starts with a vision, like here at Sugarbush Farm.
06:34I'm here with founder Gillie Lightfoot to find out more.
06:38Hi.
06:39Such a lovely place you have here.
06:41Thank you so much.
06:42Right.
06:43So describe Sugarbush in three words.
06:45Creative, productive, inspirational.
06:50Tell me about the vision that you had for this place.
06:53What was your vision when you started?
06:55My vision was really to find a platform for myself,
07:00my own creativity, and working alongside artisans,
07:05and bringing all these ideas into light.
07:10So interiors, paintings, furniture.
07:16Do you mind showing me around?
07:17Sure.
07:18Yeah.
07:19So these are some of the interior pieces that we do.
07:21We make the sofas and ottomans and the chairs,
07:24everything bespoke here in the workshop.
07:27And then our clients come in and they decide colours, combinations,
07:31and we'll work with them to just get how the feel could be in their home.
07:46Well, thank you so much.
07:48Thank you for having us.
07:49Thanks for coming.
07:50In the heart of Nairobi, an artist is turning clay into something beautiful and meaningful.
07:57Let's meet the woman behind the wheel.
07:59Can clay unlock creativity, confidence, and even design skills?
08:06Meet Elizabeth Nenge, a Kenyan ceramist turning earth into empowerment.
08:13I think you can say I come from a cultural heritage where people like to do things with their hands.
08:20It's very common.
08:21And clay is a very tactile material.
08:23So being able to use it to create functional items or aesthetic items, right,
08:30from the feeling and the touch is what I would say is very inspiring.
08:35In the heart of Nairobi's Karibangi Estate, where skyscrapers meet street art,
08:41Elizabeth is building a movement.
08:43Through her company and ceramics, she is helping kids around Nairobi mould more than caps and bowls.
08:52They are shaping identity, imagination, and a future rooted in African heritage.
09:00I made a bow, a cup, I don't know, it's a pot for plants to grow.
09:06I made a cup for my mum, and a plate for my brother, and a box for my dad.
09:10Her pottery classes bring together over 170 kids from all backgrounds to explore who they are through clay.
09:19Elizabeth's classes encourage curiosity, hands-on learning, and self-expression.
09:25It's not just art, it's a new way of thinking.
09:29I think it was in my second year of uni that I needed to get work placement.
09:36I ended up picking work placement as a ceramics teacher.
09:40It was in New York for, I guess, kids who didn't have too much.
09:44It was a charity organisation.
09:46The approach of teaching had to be very different.
09:49They had to feel like they were in charge, which is true, especially when it comes to art.
09:54They had to feel like they could create whatever they wanted.
09:56That's how I got into teaching.
09:58The most important things for me are, are they carmine class?
10:03Can they sit for longer periods of time after several pottery classes?
10:07What are the benefits they're getting from a term of just ceramics?
10:12And you find that the teachers in other classes say, ah, this guy has improved in his motor skills.
10:17Or he's improved in his imagination.
10:20Or he's become better at sitting down and being more patient with things.
10:25Or he's become more persistent with his work, with his math, with his, you know.
10:29Because like pottery is about practice and repetition of the processes.
10:34And I guess that can translate also into different skills in life.
10:37It's important for me because it's, it keeps me connected to the community around me.
10:43I think it's important also because they inspire me, to be honest.
10:48And also some of the cups they make are actually really great designs that actually have never been made.
10:53Elizabeth's journey began far from home at Central Saint Martins in London.
10:58But her heart was always in Africa.
11:02After graduation, she returned to Kenya to revive ceramics tradition and build a local market for handmade designs.
11:11The technical side of using the machines, the technical side of recipes, adjusting those,
11:17I would say those are all the things I came back home with.
11:21So now if I meet a problematic clay body or I meet a problematic glaze,
11:27I now know how to test to get the results I want.
11:31Together with her team, they are crafting pieces for individual clients, corporates and even restaurants.
11:40Most ceramics in Kenya are important, but she is changing that.
11:45It is good because when you talk to people outside here, they say they would love to come and see what we do.
11:53And even by our product.
11:56So I started creating awareness on the material through the classes.
12:02I started doing pop-ups everywhere in the city.
12:06And that made people now start understanding, oh, this is clay.
12:11We can do this with it.
12:12You know, like, it can be used for this.
12:14Could Kenya become the ceramics capital of Sub-Saharan Africa?
12:18So whatever I design, I have to make sure I put an African twist to it.
12:23It could be patterns like the kangas, right?
12:28It could be words of affirmation in Swahili.
12:31It could be anything that ties me back into my culture.
12:34Because for me as an artist, success is selling to my African people.
12:38It's not selling to people in Europe.
12:40If that was success to me, then I would be there.
12:42My measure of success is if my president buys my mug.
12:46You know, that to me is impactful.
12:48And given that Kenya is a growing economy currently, we can say in the next 20 years, right?
12:55Or less, we can say that the market for ceramics in Kenya will be much bigger.
13:02Elizabeth's work is more than pottery.
13:05It's a space where culture, creativity, and confidence collide.
13:11Her dream, to inspire a generation of young Africans to become makers, thinkers, and storytellers.
13:20One lump of clay at a time.
13:25You can't visit Sugarbush Farm without eating anything from their infamous menu.
13:30Let's see what this chef is cooking today.
13:36How are you doing this?
13:37I'm doing this.
13:38I'm doing this.
13:39I'm doing this.
13:40I'm doing this.
13:41Yeah.
13:42I'm seeing activity happening here.
13:44I love food.
13:45I'm a foodie.
13:46So being here makes me very happy.
13:48So what are we doing today?
13:49What is this that we're making?
13:51Today, we are making meatballs.
13:54So first thing, we are going to the garden to get some herbs.
13:59Fresh coriander, parsley.
14:01Which is this?
14:02Yes.
14:03I'm already chopped it.
14:04Yes.
14:05So what's the one dish that screams Sugarbush?
14:09It's lasagna.
14:11Lasagna.
14:12Lasagna is the best.
14:14People that are coming far away from Lusaka just follow lasagna.
14:19Right.
14:20Apart from lasagna, what meal makes people come back to Sugarbush?
14:24Carrot cake, chocolate cake, loco buns.
14:29Yeah.
14:30What ingredients are in this?
14:32These are mixed fruits, dried mixed fruits.
14:36Thank you so very much, Mr. Mtafela.
14:38Lakoma Island is one of Malawi's most isolated region and known for its beaches.
14:51Here, waste management is a local problem.
14:55But can you truly make something valuable out of junk?
14:59Let's find out.
15:00The beautiful shores of Lakoma Island were once quietly threatened by an invisible problem.
15:07No plan for waste disposal.
15:09But what if the island's trash wasn't a problem, but its most valuable raw material?
15:14Trash and the potential in the island.
15:18It is not just the waste.
15:20It's our opportunity to employ the single-malers that can tell us a new story.
15:27Increasing tourism brought income, but also waste.
15:31On Lakoma Island, discarded bottles, broken windows, fishing nets, and both parts threatened the lake's fragile ecosystem.
15:40Here we are the Katundu storage, where we store our waste products.
15:47The reason why we start here, Katundu, is to correct these wine bottles in the island and the tin cans.
15:56If we are not correcting these, it can go in the lake.
16:00This is one of the chandeliers that we make here at Katundu workshop.
16:05It's a big chandelier, as you can see, made up of recycled grass wine bottles and even the broken glass windows.
16:12And it's also mixed up with a copper that we get it from the old geysers, where we cut them into different shapes and mix up into these chandeliers to make them look nice.
16:24And the most interesting things also is here at Katundu, we make these mats like the ladies doing here, made from maize cob.
16:33Katundu's breakthrough? A tumbler that smooths glass using sand and water.
16:39No kilns, no emissions, just African ingenuity.
16:43So the process of polishing, we broke these bottles into like small pieces that we put inside the tube with sand and water.
16:53Then we switch on the electricity. In a day, we finish, tumble the pieces of glass.
16:59Africans, we are able to make everything with our own sources.
17:04Apart from recycled grass wine bottles and the gray seeds, we also use these gray beads.
17:11They came from gray soil.
17:13So we have to give the order to the people in the village to make us these beads.
17:19And then here, we just paint them into different colors.
17:22As you can see, black, white, aqua.
17:25And then we make these chandeliers.
17:27This lady here, she's making the strands using the natural gray seeds that grow most around the river banks and they do have holes already.
17:37After that, we are going to make the curtains like these ones, the chandeliers.
17:42So we also have this lady here.
17:45She's making strands using seed pods from jackalanda trees.
17:50So we have different types of seed pods.
17:53Some they like natural, some they like painted.
17:57So these are natural ones and these are painted ones.
18:00At the heart of Katundu are women artisans.
18:03They sort, polish and design, turning trash into chandeliers, beads and stories.
18:09They started with textiles and now craft lighting and decor.
18:13The store of Katundu, as we said, we must work with the women as part of supporting them.
18:19We work together in peace and love.
18:23We make sure our lykoma is clean and we turn garbage into arts.
18:28That makes lykoma beautiful.
18:30The workers don't just clean the beach.
18:32They also receive support from local businesses.
18:35So we save all our empty wine bottles and all our empty spirit bottles.
18:39Any bottles we can't recycle, we donate them to Katundu to the workshop.
18:43And then they break them up into the shapes they need.
18:46And then they make these beautiful lampshades, which of course we support.
18:51And there's one right here.
18:52Katundu doesn't just sell products.
18:55They clean beaches and show that sustainability starts at home.
19:00I was living in Tehu District.
19:03I moved to Lykoma Island after my husband passed away.
19:06Since I started working here, I have bought a plot where we live.
19:10I have built a house, roofed with iron sheets.
19:13And I have managed to educate my children through the same work.
19:18It's a great idea for them to spend $2 million, a $2 million, $2 million, a $2 million.
19:23Beyond the Koma Island's luxury lodges, Katundu's pieces travel around the world.
19:27Each lamp, each bead carries the story of a cleaner, fairer future.
19:33When people are seeing these chandeliers in Europe, in Africa,
19:40Africa, they need to be happy since they've seen the waste product, but we'll use it.
19:46Mostly the one who makes this is the women.
19:51The most important thing is to try until you find something you're good at.
19:56Because staying idle is not helping us.
20:00I want to encourage my fellow women, wherever they are, to try their hand in different handiwork
20:06that can benefit them, like how we have benefited.
20:11Katundu didn't just recycle glass, they recycled a problem into a promise, proving that African
20:17design can be sustainable, ethical, and unforgettable.
20:26In Senegal, an architect, Fatia Dien-Maza, proves that you don't have to choose between
20:31heritage and innovation, instead of sand, she builds with rammed earth.
20:36Before we talk about skylines and skyscrapers, meet the architect building something far more
20:45powerful, a school for brilliant kids who had no chance.
20:51This is Fatia Dien-Maza, and her story starts here.
20:56This project is a wonderful project that we've been contacted by a client who wanted to build
21:06this beautiful school project for unfortunate children, but who have been in mind.
21:13But the beautiful part that has been integrated is the landscaping as well, which will be a
21:20huge part of the education process.
21:23So yes, the children will be learning in between four walls, per se, if I was to speak in caricature,
21:31but there will be a good amount of their time, learning time, would be outside as well.
21:37In a city racing to look like Dubai or Paris, Fatia asked a bold question.
21:44Why copy when we can create?
21:47Why erase our roots when they hold the answers to living sustainably?
21:53I prefer to think in terms of responsibility rather than sustainability.
21:58I think as long as you design in a way that is responsible and thoughtful of the resources
22:06that are surrounding it, taking into account the climate, the wind, the lights, especially
22:13for us here in Senegal, and also people's traditions and, you know, way of life.
22:21Born in Dakar to an architect's father, Fatia grew up sketching dreams.
22:28After studying in the U.S. and working on global mega projects, she had everything most architects
22:34want, prestige, big budgets and international acclaim.
22:40But she walked away from skyscrapers in San Francisco to design spaces that breathe with
22:46Senegal soul.
22:48I just wanted to be part of, you know, the development of my own country and just, you
22:54know, holding on tight, I mean, arriving and it's not just about explaining what you want
23:02to do even to clients, but it's also showing what your skills are and having proof of it
23:07and what you're capable of doing.
23:09Her return wasn't easy.
23:12In a male-dominated industry, she had to fight for a seat at the table and convince clients
23:19that heritage and innovation aren't opposites.
23:23They are partners.
23:25So it gives me perspectives.
23:27Working internationally, it gives me structure, order and methodology in the way of doing things.
23:38So it's just a matter of finding the right balance between, I want to say, both heritages that
23:45I've gotten from the outside and from here and make it my own and build something out of
23:51it.
23:52Through her firm idea, Fatia began blending ancestral techniques with modern engineering,
24:00rammed earth walls, natural ventilation, and spaces that breathe with Senegal's climate not
24:08against it.
24:10Using traditional materials is not just about the heritage, it's about like the technique
24:15that they hold and re-applying those methods, taking all those advantages that they carry,
24:23that our ancestors used, and reinvent them with our modern methodologies.
24:29And it's a way of using the old and re-transforming it and building something out of it, our modern methodologies,
24:41I want to say.
24:42Today, Fatia is more than an architect.
24:45She's a mentor, a disruptor, a role model for young women who dream of shaping cities, alongside
24:54pioneers like the late Mami Tal and Zingambu.
24:58She's proving that African architecture doesn't need validation from outside.
25:03It needs vision from within.
25:04I didn't imagine if we all were following the same approach, it would be boring.
25:10They have this diversity, which is so reflective of who we are.
25:17We are not just one shade, we are so many of them.
25:20In a world obsessed with the next big thing, Fatia's journey is a reminder, sometimes the
25:26most revolutionary thing you can do is remember who you are and build from there.
25:34From the heart of Sugarbush, I hope you've enjoyed the show.
25:37Don't forget to hit us up for more stories, more makers and more gems from across Africa.
25:43Till next time.
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