Design Week Lagos Turns 10, Orchestra Baobab Return, Okiki Akinfe Wins Frieze Prize

Welcome to Vol 209 of the Spread!

Hello and welcome back to the Spread, your weekly edit of all the best stories and global news about Africans shaping mainstream culture.

Lagos has been bubbly this season, and this week especially. I went to Design Week Lagos this weekend and saw some really interesting work, from stools and lamps to designs considering the everyday lives of market women, the conical houses of South Africa, and the objects Moroccan nomadic communities use to signal safety. So many fascinating ideas about how people live and the things they make. Although I will say, one struggle I have with exhibitions is that you don't always get the full context behind the work. Sometimes I want the whole story, not just a paragraph on the wall. I have questions!

From there, I went to The Screen in Transit, a film club, where we watched Akinola Davies Jr.'s Lizard, Muyiwa Awosika's Harmattan, Jenrola's Cynthia is a fxxking bxtch (the show), and Rungano Nyoni's I Am Not a Witch. Such a lovely selection of films, and I've not stopped thinking about them since.

Anyway, it's been a good weekend of seeing what people are making, and I'm looking forward to more of it. There's still so much happening across the continent and beyond, so let's get into it.

Omotola x

Now on to the real peel 👇