by Tom Reeves
Cover Image: Hortense Assaga with a handcrafted bag
© Entrée to Black Paris

Hortense Assaga, a Cameroonian-born writer and television journalist who lives in Paris, has produced a large-format book extolling the handicrafts of Africa and their creators. 

Beautifully illustrated with glossy color photographs by Jean-Pierre Nakpane and Patrice Bondurand, Made in Africa amply demonstrates Assaga’s central thesis:  that African handicraft workers are skillfully transforming recycled material into useful items that are not only practical to own and use but also handsome decorative objects.

Take, for example, the Macocotte, a large cooking pot made from recycled aluminum.  When Assaga engaged a local craftsman in Douala to make one for her, he molded her name on its lid.  That, he said, would prevent her pot from being stolen when she washed it after cooking and left it outside to dry.  He also included the words “Obama 2009” on the lid, the year of Barack Obama’s first inauguration.

Hortense Assaga with cooking pot
© Entrée to Black Paris

Cooking pot by Amadou in Douala, Cameroon
© Entrée to Black Paris

Assaga is particularly proud of the bracelets that she purchased in Africa.  Some are made from wood, others from recycled plastic.  When she wears them, people often take them for high-fashion designer accessories.

Ebony bracelets from lower right - Mali - Senegal - Cameroon - Cameroon
Ring from Mali
© Entrée to Black Paris

The tote bags and baskets that she has brought back from Africa are made from new materials such as straw, rope, and bamboo, as well as from recycled material such as plastic, rubber and metal.

Hortense Assaga with tote bag from Zanzibar, Tanzania
© Entrée to Black Paris

Assaga declares that traditional African fabrics are being replaced by industrially-printed material imported from Asia or Europe.  However, her book illustrates a number of locally-produced handwoven textiles and dyed fabrics.  In this photograph, she poses wrapped in a cloth produced by the Dan, a population of Mande people from Liberia and the Ivory Coast.

Hortense Assaga with cloth from the Dan in Ivory Coast
© Entrée to Black Paris

Cloth from the Dan in Ivory Coast
© Entrée to Black Paris

Assaga’s enthusiasm for African handicrafts is inexhaustible.  Her book illustrates baskets, cups and trays, pottery, utensils, textiles, jewelry, sandals, reverse-glass paintings, dolls, and small trunks among other items.  She also pays homage to several craftsmen and craftswomen and reproduces photographs from some of the forty African countries that she has visited.

With its sumptuous photographs and evocative text, Made in Africa will stimulate readers' appreciation for creative artisanship from the African continent.  Find it at the following Paris locations:

Librairie Présence Africaine
25 bis, rue des Ecoles
75005 Paris

Librairie-boutique du Musée du quai Branly
222 rue de l’Université
75007 Paris

Kate Mack Sustainable Fashion
15, rue Oberkampf
75011 Paris