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Nearly a third of Zambia is protected wilderness, but it also hosts a large private art collection. Today Afrimaxx meets creatives who take responsibility for their heritage to flip it into something new.
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00:07nearly a third of zambia is protected wilderness but right here is one of the largest private
00:14art collection on the continent africa isn't a museum it's remixing and rebuilding identity
00:20in real time today we meet creatives who take heritage and flip it into something
00:25broadly new here's what's coming up can african craftsmanship compete globally without losing its
00:32soul this kenyan designer believes it can we need a south african artist to stitches a tabo into
00:39rebellion challenging how identity is policed and in the drc fashion becomes therapy young designers
00:47turning instability into creativity my name is kafala and you are watching afrimax
01:07tradition survives when it evolves negros to moria took greek refuge melodies and mixed them with
01:14african identity and trap let's listen one beats two worlds greek rapper negros to moria is turning
01:30his reality into a sound all his own this is trabetico
01:39my music blends two identities greek and ghanian the way i sing is sometimes reminiscent of certain
01:47scales from african or ghanian songs i sing in greek but at the same time i am black african afro
01:55greek
01:57he tells stories of discrimination and violence
02:07life was hard poverty violence i've lived it all
02:18born in athens in 1991 to guineaan parents kevin sans ansong grew up in the working class
02:25migrant district of kypseli his music carves out a space in a society that has often turned its
02:32back on him his sound blends hip-hop with rebetico the music of greek refugees who fled anatolia in the
02:391920s the songs also spoke of poverty and exclusion i like rebetico because it's the hip-hop of the past
02:50it too carries social messages of pain and longing trabetico is a combination of the traditional greek
02:59sound rabbetico and today's music the word traba means to exchange and exchange between these two sounds
03:09could these songs reshape greece's music scene his producer oridouz thinks it's quite possible
03:19we're building this sound together it's our sound i don't know if anyone else will try making
03:27something similar but if they do that would be brilliant a 2017 performance in castle germany sparked the
03:39international breakthrough may 2025 saw the release of his eighth album mavri elada black greece
03:56his popularity in greece is long-standing he released his first album in 2012 and now boasts 94 000
04:04instagram followers and over 87 million spotify streams but not everyone is a fan far-right groups
04:11attack him for being too greek his very name seen as a provocation the name refers to yeros tumoriya
04:18a legendary 19th century freedom fighter on stage and in videos negros tumoriya often wears the uniform
04:26of greece's presidential guard despite backlash he refuses to back down
04:36when i was a kid wearing this uniform everyone said oh how cute the little african kid in uniform
04:49but when you're an adult wearing it they say our heroes died for us
04:54and now this black guy is wearing the uniform we were given these uniforms as children
05:06i like them and respect them as a symbol of identity
05:12by asserting his greek identity the rapper empowers second and third generation immigrants across greece
05:20when i first heard him i was so happy i could see myself he's even from my neighborhood
05:29he uses his art to express the country's problems
05:34connecting that with our musical heritage is really interesting especially since he isn't the typical greek
05:45he says what needs to be said what we've had to go through our experiences and what we've learned
05:51from them he's putting it all out there there's this common belief among greeks that we aren't racist
05:59i can't really judge if that's true myself but i think it's important to have someone reporting on
06:05their own experiences firsthand negros tumoria is embracing greek culture on his own terms
06:14his trabetico is the sound of a young generation finally finding its voice
06:23the story of this real estate isn't outside it's on the walls the chaminuka collection is one of
06:30the africa's largest private archive of zambian art mapping decades of creative evolution i'm joined
06:37by art manager chansa nondo what's that piece that screams this is zamio today in this room and what's
06:46the story behind it we have a series of a presidential series uh on my left hand side and they
06:53speak a
06:54lot about zambia from the time zambia got its independence to the time zambia
06:59is currently right now what's one cliche you wish zambians would let go of um concerning art
07:06the zambia should actually learn more about the zambian culture when it comes to art and i welcome
07:13the zambians to come to chaminuka to see the private collection it's not only for the tourists but it's
07:20also for the heritage or for the knowledge for the zambian indigenous people to know more about their
07:25art or know more about their history through the paintings that have captured those spectacular moments
07:35in a world of ai copies fast cheap imports she chose craftsmanship kenya's cherry kihato is redefining what
07:44real luxury looks like
07:53can kenyan design take on cheap imports and ai inside sherry's bold furniture revolution kenya's furniture
08:01industry is booming but faces cheap imports and ai generated designs can local craftsmanship fight back
08:11you know the feeling sending out your 47th cv and hearing nothing sherry kihato lived that nightmare in
08:202018. broke desperate and honestly running out of hope that night she wrote one sentence that changed
08:32everything i was just doing my journaling and then the idea came or the thought came you're gonna start
08:39a furniture brand it's gonna be called savannah space and it's gonna be made in kenya honestly my family was
08:45extremely supportive so i may have not gotten monetary help but i had a home somewhere to sleep food to
08:55eat
08:56there was no worry about if i use these savings i'm not going to eat the next day it was
09:01like you want
09:02to do this if you take it seriously then go ahead she had 200 and a dream no carpentry skills
09:09no safety net
09:11would you risk it all for an idea the initial business model was it was going to be a platform
09:18where carpenters and people in the arts can sell their things so i went walking all along gong road
09:25telling these fundis i'm starting this thing this website please join me you know and get you sales
09:32all of them said no except one it was scary because again i didn't even know the different types of
09:38wood
09:38i knew nothing about carpentry but i had that vision in my head and genuinely nothing was going to stop
09:46me
09:47so the thing that changed our business model was actually trying to do it i learned about more fundis
09:54more carpenters more people in the the furniture sector and i approached them and i said i'm building
09:59this platform and i quickly noticed that they don't have time to go on their computers take pictures
10:05speak to clients organize deliveries all of that they don't have time and also make furniture so i
10:11quickly learned that that model can't work and that's when i pivoted and i said you know what instead
10:15of that let me have my own retail space produce my own furniture
10:22we look at the quality of our products for example the joinery we make sure each department is
10:30keen from initial stage to finishing
10:37and it's only after we are all satisfied that we approve it to be delivered to the client
10:47in kenya most furniture workshops are run by men shiri walked in and changed the rules no overnight success
10:57here just posts after post order after order from two artisans to 41 and now the challenge isn't finding
11:07clients it's keeping up when i changed the business model from a platform to actually making and selling
11:14furniture i spoke with someone who he's sort of like a mentor kind of and he asked me where do
11:23you want to
11:23position yourself in the market in terms of who do you want to compete with and i didn't really know
11:27so i just said i don't know and his advice was you are never going to be able to compete
11:32with asia on
11:33pricing you will never produce as cheap as asia particularly china so that shouldn't be the way
11:39you compete you should never compete on pricing find another way that sets you apart and it was at that
11:44moment where i thought okay if i can't compete with price i can compete with quality i can compete with
11:48unique designs i can compete with heritage storytelling so that's what sets us apart from
11:55i'd say importers or mass producers it's the fact that our focus is on extremely high quality
12:03and extremely unique pieces as well we're living in the age of conscious consumerism yes as much as
12:09ai and technology and 3d printing are growing consumers mindsets are also changing in the fact that they
12:15want to know where their pieces are coming from who's made their pieces is it sustainably sourced
12:20is it ethically made more and more people especially young people want to know this about the products
12:24some days she probably questioned everything but piece by piece literally her design studio became
12:32impossible to ignore this one's called a braided bar because the patterns look like
12:37you know when your hair is braided they look like a braiding pattern so when you open it it's a
12:43home bar
12:46and it's really cool because on the outside it's like this art decorative piece but then it's like
12:52functional art one of the visions i have is to put kenya at the forefront of global design people are
12:58starting to appreciate our story appreciate our furniture appreciate where we've come from and i want to be
13:03part of that tapestry of putting kenya at the forefront of design where when people hear kenya
13:09they can also hear they also understand that there's amazing designers amazing artistry that's
13:14coming out of this country you should care less about what people think or say about you i always
13:19think of sherry at 80 when most of my life is behind me will i really want to look back
13:26and think oh
13:28i shouldn't have done that because so and so was speaking about me or so and so was saying something
13:32about me you should actually make it your job to even make people talk more from 200 and a scribbled
13:40idea to a design empire rewriting kenya's story the next global brand might start where you are if you dare
13:55it doesn't just hang on wood here it walks the world i'm stepping into the bush for an exciting
14:01elephant interaction and to explore why hands-on connection is important for conservation
14:08what's one rule you never break around here uh you always have to follow what the guides tell you
14:13because they've been longer with the animals and the animals listen to the guide always follow the
14:17guides yes yeah and then how do you feel standing very close to such a huge animal it's a bit
14:26nervous
14:27because yeah this is a wild animal but it's quite an interesting feature and looking at the size and
14:32how it's flipping its ears it's uh very interesting thank you so much you're welcome
14:47what happens when an artist love of monster fantasy crashes the gates of tradition
14:55in cape town artist hanali tout does exactly that
15:01either a mother can have influence that a children turns into monsters or that
15:05children can turn their mother into a monster
15:13old family portraits watching from the walls victorian virtue meets rubber and chains
15:19it's uncomfortable to look at and that's exactly the point this is how she begins a conversation
15:24about control tradition and what women are taught to hold inside
15:32i created a dress out of hair this is my first monographic exhibition so i started
15:38i'm going to be brave and shake my head and appear in public without
15:44hair but the hair is going to be on my my address in my body and i gave myself a
15:49muzzle from rubber
15:50so it's a restraint it's timing the monster
15:59this is not about dressing up it's about holding something back let it not nibble the audience
16:06and shed hair like animals do for hanali the monster is not there to attack it's there to show what
16:14happens when control slips the work unsettles people and it also feels familiar
16:23this is one of the most exciting x machines i've seen in a while the titles as well i think
16:28they're
16:29so so clever and so fitting and very engaging way to approach it
16:36the kind of savageness the kind of feralness i really deeply appreciate it and woman's work in
16:43general but also growing that ancient motherhood
16:47hanali is afrikaans a south african ethnic group descended from dutch settlers
16:52she grew up in a culture shaped by discipline restraint and clear ideas of how a woman should behave
16:58everything neat and respectable
17:08i question the patriarchy in the african community i'm interested but with the domestic mythology so
17:16the mother is a very central part when you're young you're sort of trained stitched into your role
17:22you become a mother become a wife
17:29the taboos the tensions and the tangled legacy somehow makes it both radical and wickedly funny
17:36i think the monster is always there because a big part of hanali's work up to this point
17:41is also very much her character which is to ask hard questions but always with a twinkle
17:47in her eye and the monster is the moment when you try to unpack these heavy things the creatures and
17:54the horrors start to escape
17:59her work asks a simple question what happens to the parts of yourself that don't fit that picture
18:07but the strongest force in this exhibition is not the monster it's the mother
18:13i lost my mother when i was quite young what teaches you to become a mother if you don't have
18:20a mother
18:23that question sits at the heart of her work motherhood care fear and responsibility all stitched together
18:31when you're young you're sort of trained stitched into your role the monstrous part was interesting to
18:39bring that together with her mother
18:45for hanali monsters are not fantasy they are what happens when expectations become too heavy
18:51rubber appears again and again in her work not as a sexual symbol but as a skin protection and armor
18:59rubber is a domestic material it's industrial material rubber is also for me very close to skin
19:06it holds memory and a lot of people associate rubber with fetishism but it's more the culture
19:14that fetishize the rubber than the rubber itself
19:25this is not about destroying tradition it's about repairing it honestly leaving the stitches visible so
19:32maybe the monster isn't hanging on the wall maybe it's the pressure to always look fine
19:45zero clients zero orders still not quitting in goma where conflict reshapes lives daily patrick moindo
19:52rebelled his label from rabble his unisex design thread resilience peace and a new congolese identity
20:03fashion was always patrick's dream but war tore his dream apart
20:11today patrick moindo is turning rabble into runway in goma the democratic republic of congo where survival
20:19is the norm
20:21i have no other choice but to start again because i choose fashion
20:28back in 2019 patrick's studio was buzzing
20:32colico arts was the talk of goma
20:35think bold gender fluid pieces echoing congo's dandy elegans
20:42then one day everything vanished machines fabric even his clients
20:50i lost everything during the crisis
20:53i lost a lot of equipment as well
20:57so i went bankrupt during this crisis
21:01i was truly shocked
21:03i was at my week's end
21:05because it was truly terrible
21:09in goma the next day is often not assured
21:14constant conflict has left the city slow on development
21:19poverty and despair drown purpose and success
21:23but for patrick fashion has been his saving grace
21:28fashion for me is a whole life because it also gives me hope
21:33i have to create and i have to concentrate
21:37because many people think that goma is only war
21:40goma is only armed conflict and all that
21:43but when i see goma i see a whole future
21:47after standing in the ruins patrick asked himself
21:51do i give up or start from zero
21:55it took me a long time to rebuild
21:59it devastated me
22:02but i was the one who held on
22:05i think what kept me going
22:08was seeing a whole future surrounded by the people i worked with
22:13i can say that fashion was their whole life
22:17their whole future
22:18i couldn't give up because if i had i would have given up on all their dreams
22:25all their futures
22:28as relative calm returns patrick is reestablishing kuliko arts
22:34using fashion as therapy
22:37it took many steps more than five or six months
22:42to work like this without any
22:46because since the crisis there haven't been any cultural activities
22:53there haven't been any cultural centers to hold exhibitions
22:57it's starting to move forward gradually
23:02as patrick refuses to feed his come back isn't just about making fashion
23:07it's about creativity emerging from chaos
23:11and we know that losing everything we had
23:15and starting over isn't easy
23:19we say we are going to rebuild the future of young people
23:25the future of those with a passion for fashion
23:29and the future for dhc
23:31the future of africa
23:34because fashion is a whole future
23:38now patrick is straining the next generation of fashion icons
23:42and showing that creativity can outlast conflict
23:48he prefers to stay in goma
23:50because living might seem easy
23:53but staying is an act of faith
23:56in my profession
23:57the act of faith will serve me much better
24:00in my field the act of faith will be invaluable
24:04because often in eastern congo
24:07women are victims of their suffering
24:09if i can put it that way
24:11so through the fashion i'm creating
24:14i'm going to have to showcase the value of african woman
24:18i'm going to have to showcase their creativity
24:21every year patrick organizes events to sell his peers work
24:27demonstrating that fashion heals communities
24:31i'm going to show the whole world that there is talent in goma
24:36because many already think that african creators are creators from foreign countries like senegal
24:42benin other countries like nigeria
24:46but they often forget goma
24:49which also has talent
24:50in 2026
24:53i can say all my creations are just a way of paying tribute to the victims of the war
24:59to all the dead
25:00this is what will speak for my creations of 2026
25:05if we have the chance we will do an exhibition for this collection of 2026
25:13patrick muhindo lost it all
25:16but rebuilt with more than fabric
25:18he stitched resilience
25:21peace and pride
25:23in every piece
25:26from this gorgeous sanctuary
25:28we hope you enjoyed our show from the art
25:31and of course the living monument
25:33don't forget to hit us up on our socials
25:36next week we kick off an exciting series where we're invited into the finest homes in Africa
25:41till next time
25:52sthm
25:53music
25:54music
25:54music
25:54music
25:54music
25:54music
25:54music
26:06Transcription by CastingWords
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