Aissé N’Diaye: Celebrating African Beauty Through Fashion and Design
Founder and Owner of Afrikanista
THE READERS
I FIRST MET AISSÉ ON CLUBHOUSE, THIS APP THAT NATURALLY MADE ALL OF US FEEL LESS ALONE DURING COVID WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE THE MOST TOXIC APP IN THE WORLD BECAUSE OF GROUP DYNAMICS AND LACK OF MODERATION.
I USED TO HOST ROOMS THAT WERE INTIMATELY RELATED TO BLACK WOMEN EXPERIENCES IN COLLABORATIVE WORKSPACES AS WELL AS IN THE DATING WORLD THAT ALSO INCLUDE NAVIGATING MICRO-AGGRESSIONS AND HISTORICAL DISCRIMINATION.
AISSÉ CAME TO PARTICIPATE IN A CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATION AND WE HAVE NEVER STOPPED TALKING SINCE THEN.
AN ON-GOING CONVERSATION ABOUT THE STATE OF THIS WORLD, ITS ANTI-BLACKNESS AND OUR PASSION FOR BLACK LITERATURE, ART and cinema.
I WAS ( STILL) INSPIRED BY HER CAPACITY TO EXPRESS HERSELF CLEARLY, PERSUASIVELY AND EFFECTIVELY.
SHE POSSESSES THAT ELOQUENCE, THAT AFRICAN ELOQUENCE , THE ELOQUENCE OF A WRITER. HER GRACE INVOLVES NOT ONLY HER CHOICE OF WORDS, BUT ALSO HER DELIVERY, HER TONE, HER INFLECTION.
AISSÉ'S ALLURE IS THE EPITOME OF AFRICAN BEAUTY. HER FACE APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN CRAFTED BY THE GODS OR AN EXCEPTIONALLY TALENTED SCULPTOR, GOLDEN SKIN, FULL LIPS, AND PROMINENT CHEEKBONES. HER FACIAL FEATURES HAVE BECOME SOMEWHAT OF AN OBSESSION FOR ME, AND I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF SHE HAD BEEN A MUSE FOR A PAINTER IN A PAST LIFE.
I AM CONSTANTLY INSPIRED BY AISSÉ'S PREFERENCE FOR AFRICAN TRADITIONAL HAIRSTYLES. IT'S HER WAY OF CELEBRATING AND EXPRESSING HER CULTURAL IDENTITY, AS THESE HAIRSTYLES HAVE USUALLY A RICH HISTORY AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE.
SHE IS A TALENTED DESIGNER AND ENTREPRENEUR WHO HAS MADE A NAME FOR HERSELF IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY WITH HER BRAND, AFRIKANISTA. BORN TO MAURITANIAN PARENTS , AISSÉ HAS ALWAYS BEEN DEEPLY CONNECTED TO HER AFRICAN ROOTS AND CULTURE. HER brand’s AESTHETIC BLENDS VARIOUS ELEMENTS SUCH AS VINTAGE AFRICAN FAMILY PHOTOS, AFRICAN PROVERBS AND EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS, RESULTING IN A STYLE THAT IS BOTH MODERN AND DISTINCTLY AFRICAN.
ONE OF N'DIAYE'S GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO DATE HAS BEEN HAVING HER DESIGNS WORN BY BEYONCÉ, A TESTAMENT TO HER TALENT AND THE GROWING RECOGNITION OF AFRICAN FASHION ON A GLOBAL SCALE. N'DIAYE'S SUCCESS IS A REMINDER OF THE POWER OF SELF-BELIEF, HARD WORK, AND A STRONG CONNECTION TO ROOTS AND CULTURE.
HERE, SHE SHARES WITH US HER ESSENTIAL BOOKS BY BLACK AUTHORS.
-“Tant que je serai noire” de Maya Angelou,
The Heart of a Woman (1981) is an autobiography by American writer Maya Angelou. The book is the fourth installment in Angelou's series of seven autobiographies. The Heart of a Woman recounts events in Angelou's life between 1957 and 1962 and follows her travels to California, New York City, Cairo, and Ghana as she raises her teenage son, becomes a published author, becomes active in the civil rights movement, and becomes romantically involved with a South African anti-apartheid fighter.
- “Le viol imaginaire” d’Aminata Traoré
Based on the author's rich experience, from development missions to ministerial responsibilities, through the Porto Alegre meetings, this book is an uncompromising analysis of the current situation in Africa and highlights the devastating effects of neo-liberal globalization. It denounces the inadequacy and harmful consequences of the remedies proposed by international institutions (World Bank and IMF), as well as their confiscation by corrupt indigenous "elites", and proposes an endogenous development strategy. This strategy is based on the capacity of Africans to become subjects of their own history, and involves the affirmation of a new pride and the rediscovery of their own values and imagination.
- “Une si longue lettre” de Mariama Ba
So Long a Letter is a semi-autobiographical epistolary novel originally written in French by the Senegalese writer Mariama Bâ. It was her first novel. Its theme is the condition of women in Western African society. As the novel begins, Ramatoulaye Fall is beginning a letter to her lifelong friend Aissatou Bâ. The occasion for writing is Ramatoulaye's recent widowhood. As she gives her friend the details of her husband's death, she recounts the major events in their lives.
- “Ne suis-je pas une femme” de Bell Hooks
Ain't I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism is a 1981 book by bell hooks titled after Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" speech. hooks examines the effect of racism and sexism on Black women, the civil rights movement, and feminist movements from suffrage to the 1970s. She argues that the convergence of sexism and racism during slavery contributed to Black women having the lowest status and worst conditions of any group in American society.
- “Le genocide voilé” de Tidiane N’Diaye
This study sheds light on a tragedy that has gone almost unnoticed: the trade in Black Africans by the Arab-Muslim world. This trade involved seventeen million victims who were killed, castrated or enslaved for more than thirteen centuries without interruption. The razzes were forced to cross the desert on foot to reach the Maghreb, Egypt or the Arabian Peninsula via Zanzibar, by boat... However, this slave trade has been downplayed, unlike the Western trade to America. Why ?
Beyoncé wearing Afrikanista