Colour of the dump

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: Burnt silicon (green/black)

Country: Togo

Artwork Rationale

Burnt silicon is not a unique colour. It is a mix between the ash colour of the burnt earth of the dumps and the melted green silicon e-waste that gets thrown into them.
There is an issue with e-waste in many African cities. Electrics from the Western world are brought over and dumped in huge sites across the continent. Scavengers collect small, recoverable resources from the waste and earn a living salvaging and selling them.

These people are obliged to use fire to uncover the value in the dumps. They burn away the covers to reveal the parts that can be saved. They make a living from what was abandoned.
This shows great resilience and resourcefulness, and this represents Togo to me.
It is only when this waste material burns that the value is revealed. In some ways this is the way a revolution works. There must be violence before there is peace. Destruction before there can be growth.

What it means to be African

To be African means to find ourselves today in this singular situation where we are among those who bear the responsibility of decolonising the future. We must take into consideration our history, demography and our anthropological fundamentals, all at the same time.

Biography

Togolese architect and anthropologist Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou advocates a neo-vernacular style that influences his work as an innovator, designer and entrepreneur at the scale of the product, building and city. He is the founder of L'Africaine d'Architecture, a collaborative platform for research and experimentation on issues of African architecture and cities.
He is also the founder of WoeLabs, a network of Togolese tech-hubs that aim to make everyone equal in the face of the digital revolution. This digital collectivism has made it possible to launch half a dozen startups. In his work, he develops alternative visions on the issues of integrated architecture, primitive computationalities, technological democracy and sustainable cities. His work has been acknowledged by amongst others the African Innovation Summit (2014), the Global Fab Award (2014), the Ashoka Foundation (Fellow since 2017) and the African Leadership Award (2018).