Portrait of writer and filmmaker Archange Kiyindou "Yamakasi"
Design Indaba
Cape Town, South Africa
Congolese writer and filmmaker Archange Kiyindou "Yamakasi" was selected by Design Indaba to take part in our collaborative initiative with Google Arts & Culture, titled Colours of Africa. Africa is known for its bold, unapologetic use of colour. Stories are told in pigments, tones and hues; a kaleidoscope as diverse as the cultures and peoples of the continent. For the initiative, we asked 60 African creatives to capture the unique spirit of their country in a colour which represents home to them. The projects they have created are personal and distinct stories of Africa, put into images, videos, texts and illustrations. Each artist has also attempted to articulate what being African means to their identity and view of the world.
- Title: Portrait of writer and filmmaker Archange Kiyindou "Yamakasi"
- Original Source: Design Indaba
- What it Means to be African: Being an African for me means being conscious of being part of a bigger family called Humanity. It is the idea that “I am because we are”, a sentiment known as Ubuntu.
- Subject: Archange Kiyindou "Yamakasi"
- Rationale: Brazzaville, the capital city of the Republic of Congo, is known as Brazza la Verte (Brazza The Green) because of the greenery that you find everywhere across the city. Walking or driving across town you will find places called “nurseries”, where we plant trees. This is why we wanted to show through an illustration – the idea that planting a tree breathes life into the future. The Congo basin is home to the world’s second largest rainforest, and is known as the lungs of the world. As far as I can remember I have always lived in areas surrounded by trees. This green reminds us of the times we used to climb trees to play, a time that ignited our spirit of adventure. Our buses and taxis are painted green, our people wear green textiles, our flag is striped with green. The forest is what connects the north, the south, the east and the west sides of Congo. During the civil wars, the forest was our shelter and the forest provided food. Some hid behind tall grasses, others at the tops of trees. Green is the colour that connects us, the colour that breaks down the ethnic borders. Finally, green symbolises peace, comfort and harmony. It symbolises the future we will create.
- Project: Colors of Africa
- Location: Republic of Congo
- Lead Quote: As far as I can remember I have always lived in areas surrounded by trees. This Green reminds us of the times we used to climb trees to play, a time that ignited our spirit of adventure
- Hex Code: 81EC14
- Colour Choice: Brazza la Verte
- Biography: Archange Kiyindou is a young Congolese writer and filmmaker who goes by the pen name Yamakasi. Growing up in the Republic of Congo, he wrote story scripts and handed them out to his friends so that they could act them out on the playground. Today he has a Bachelor's Degree in Motion Pictures from AFDA Cape Town, and is currently furthering his studies in film and television in Paris. For the past six years, Archange has been collaborating with Nsatounkazi Deo-Gracias, who goes by the name OdeN. A statistician-planner by training, OdeN is a self-taught designer who has been passionate about all forms of visual art and expression since he was a child. He experiments with drawings, animation and video games. Since 2016, OdeN has been working as a professional illustrator on comics such as Orisha Pikin, which won the award for Best Children's Comic Book at the 2016 Lagos Comic Con, and also as a graphic designer with local communication agencies. In 2019 OdeN worked as a character designer on the transmedia project Land Of God by the Nigerian publisher Vortex Inc.
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