The Sky is Not the Limit I (Credit: Felix Fokoua)

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 Colours of Africa, a collaborative project with Google Arts & Culture, 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.

Colour:Gold 'Gilded Dream Colours'
Country:Cameroon

Artwork rationale:

'This image is the will of hard work and wish to fulfil one's dreams and make tomorrow brighter' – Felix Fokoua

The Golden Nation

Cameroon can identify with a million colours. When I began the hunt for a single colour, it occurred to me that gold is the colour that symbolises life. The Golden Star on the Cameroonian flag symbolises unity; it is a human, ethnic and cultural celebration in all its majesty.

The 'Golden Nation' project, which I have curated and presented for Cameroon’s Colours of Africa, is as close as possible to the Cameroonian reality in terms of its history, its glory, its failures. Cameroon has a controversial, special and unique history. The country has many successful stories of people that came from nothing; Manu Dibango, the emblematic artist; Ernest Simo, the revolutionary scientist; and Kadji Defosso, the implacable industrialist.
Beyond all our natural and cultural assets we surely have a brilliant, golden destiny.

The Sky Is Not The Limit

Colour appeals to emotions. Choosing gold is part of telling a story. In reality, it is about revealing the daily magic of Cameroon through a colour.
Cameroon is a story. It is my story.
This is the story of a land of gold and honey that reveals itself every day beneath a bright, scorching sun that ripens our gourds.
Though it is a quiet one, there is a Cameroonian dream. One of the child who wants to serve the nation, the banana seller who will become an industrialist, or the boy who will become an architect. The iconic figures of this nation have allowed us to believe that the sky is not the limit.

Many Voices

In Cameroon we know how to shine like gold.
I look at my country through an optimistic lens. I believe in the capacity of men to positively transform their environment into something wonderful for themselves and for future generations.
Here is the deep motivation that stems from my choice of the colour gold – Cameroon is a gold mine in all aspects: geographical, physical, philosophical, cultural or metaphorical.

Gold

Gold is the sun. It is the hope for a better life that shines in our eyes every morning of the week, from north to south, east to west. The Cameroonian by essence likes to stand out as gold stands out from other elements of nature.
We each have a story to tell. In Cameroon, your story is your wealth.

What it means to be African:

To be African is to understand cultural identity, creativity, technology and industrialisation. We are living at a unique moment in history; never has humanity shown so much intelligence and inventiveness. We have reached impossible worlds. To be African means looking boldly in this new world and becoming the new captain of the African Dream, the Africa we want, and the 'Made In Africa' we wish to create.

Biography:

Hermann Kamte is an award-winning Cameroonian Architect and the Creative Director at HKA | Hermann Kamte & Associates. He is the Chairman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at HKA.
Born in 1992 in Yaounde, Cameroon, Kamte is recognised as a young talent of contemporary and African architecture through major conceptual and theoretical projects. His project, Lagos’s Wooden Tower | Abebe Court Tower, Lagos – Nigeria, enjoyed a series of international awards and media coverage in publications such as The Architectural Review, Business Day and Financial Times.

In 2016, Kamte earned his master’s degree in architecture at the prestigious EAMAU (École Africaine des Métiers de l’Architecture et de l’Urbanisme) and shortly afterward founded his eponymous practice.
Since graduation in 2016, Kamte has received a series of international awards including but not limited to the inaugural WAFX Prize 2017 (1st Prize Cultural Identity) at the World Architecture Festival 2017; the American Prize for Architecture 2017 (Gold in Architectural Design/Green Architecture); Rethinking The Future Awards 2017.

Kamte has taken part in several collective exhibitions across the world (United Kingdom, China, India, Italia, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Togo, Albania, Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Australia), and has exhibited the research project ‘Lagos’s Wooden Tower’ in London at Roca London Gallery under the theme: 'Timber Rising: Vertical Visions for the Cities of Tomorrow'.

Kamte has been featured on several international media platforms including The Architectural Review, Financial Times, CNN, Business Day, CTBUH, Afrique Magazine, Australian Timber Magazine, African Design Magazine, and Design Indaba.