Nomad_Africa_Edition12

Above: Papi, alias Mamadou Wane with his paintings
and designed clothes.
Far Left: one of Selly’s Designs.
Left: aissatous’ shoe designs. She specializes in
shoes and bags. aissatous sold part of her company
to an american investor and can now invest heavily
worldwide.
and New york. Dad is from Dakar and mother
from Mauritania.
"We always came to Senegal on vacation
when i was young. But after my art education
in the United States, i just landed in Dakar before
deciding where to have my base. after a
few days and many cool meetings, i decided
to stay here," he says.
He saw something big and creative was
emerging among young people in Dakar.
"There is a big generation gap here in Senegal.
But there is definitely something bubbling
right now. young creative people everywhere
founding their market on social media,
says Papi.
During the recent Dakar Biennale 2016 he did
Wax-off with rappers and Djs from different
parts of africa.
"i did a live painting and there were photographers
everywhere documenting what happened.
i'll do something similar this year," he
says.
in addition, he has also begun designing
clothes.
"i have always seen myself as an entrepreneur.
i want to paint, but i also want to create
clothes people like to wear. There is no contradiction
to me," he says.
last stop on our designer trip through Dakar
is with Milcos Badji. His whole family are police
and military, but he chose iT and became
a computer programmer.
For fun, he designed a T-shirt with the text;
Nio Far, "We're Together" in local language
Wolof.
"i put it on Facebook and got many orders. it
gave me a kick to continue with other ideas i
had," he says.
He created the brand Nio Far by Milcos and
today he has great success with his shoes, all
in special patterns from a small community in
Mali.
"i liked the quality and patterns, but it has been
a long journey to get them to deliver to me."
it started with a bag and today he has several
collections of sneakers that have become
popular online.
"Today i have a good team and the best so far
was the King of Morocco recently bought a
whole collection from me," says Milcos Badji.
Next step is launching shoes and bags in a special
blue colour from the same area in Mali. To
him, sharing and cooperation are the key to
the creative explosion in Dakar.
"There are many doers here in Dakar, young
people who make wonderful things in fashion,
music, art and photography. it is a traditional
society where not much happens so we say;
we cannot wait for others to do something for
us," says Milcos Badji.
Issue 12 | ...Celebrating the world’s richest continent | www.nomadafricamag.com | 41