Please Stop Using the Term African Decor
Summarizing the design of 54 countries in one style is absurd.
By Nafeesah Allen Alice MorganGetty Images
Stop what you’re doing right now and Google “African Design.” Browse a few entries and click down a bit to see if you can find anything that is close to coherent. Don’t worry I’ll wait.
My own search resulted in a gallery of kitsch fabric styles, moribund web pages from African design institutions like the
MOADJHB, and specious pontifications from non-Africans. A 2013
HuffingtonPost article didn’t mention a single country by name when its author wrote, “African design is founded in [sic] on Primitivism and is concerned with raw form, childlike lines, and references to wildlife, earthly hues and the color orange.” The entire continent just sighed with exhaustion.