A Hub for African Digital Art, From Science Fiction Maasai Warriors to Star Wars Re-Imagined in Africa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Jepchumba, the creator of African Digital Art. Image from her Twitter account (@digitalafrican).
African Digital Art is a website that celebrates African art, design and technology:
Created and developed by Jepchumba, the platform covers a wide range of artistic production from audio/visual production, animation, interactive projects, web, film, graphic art and design. Our focus is on artistic work or practices that utilize digital technology as an essential part of the creative, presentation or distribution process.
The creator of the site, Jepchumba, is a Kenyan digital artist who combines her two passions, digital media and Africa:
Originally from Kenya, she has lived around the world developing her interest in philosophy, art and technology. An African digital artist, Jepchumba loves experimenting with motion, sound and various digital effects and techniques and has an extensive background in digital art, web design and development, audio/visual production and social media strategies.
Below are a few of the African digital art works that have been shared on the website.
This work was designed by Rodrigo Galdino, a car designer for VW Design Center in California, USA.
He describes the thinking behind his design:
What if after an human annihilation by a lethal virus brought by aliens, the only survivors were the beautiful and strong Maasai people? What if they learned the technology left behind by [the aliens] after their evacuation, and merged into their culture, without loosing their identity and beliefs? How would it look like? All of it inside the Star Wars universe/ design language.
Kendario La’Pierre experiments with digital techniques ranging from digital collage, photography and animation. The work below is titled Beyond Reach:
3D artist Evgeny Rusolovski drew inspiration from Africa to reimagine Star Wars in 3D African character designs:
Nobody knows, was he born from sand melted with sunrays, or made an appearance where the sun have the other name. When he appeared, he gave people the chance to understand the language of birds and animals, to hear the whisper of wind and the song of the water. He brought the knowledge.
Nowadays he is God, statuesque idol from wood, bone and iron. He rests, tranquil and quiescent. Awaits when you will strain ears.
Daniela Yohannes is an Eritrean/Ethiopian Paris-based artist who combines painting, collage and illustration techniques to explore the invisible:
My work explores themes of new myth, the dream world, the supernatural and the cosmos. I’m inquiring into the unknown, making the characters in my paintings confront the void, and enter it. I rely on my intuition and dreams as a direct source of storytelling.
My paintings allow me to explore fictional narratives, enabling me to remove all concrete limitation and boundaries. I paint characters that are facets of myself, but not earthbound. In this way I truly liberate myself from social constructs. I am drawn to the threshold between life and death and my paintings often project this great duality.
BlackSage: The Rising is a graphic novel created by Sola Adebayo and written by Bill Bidiaque on the theme of fighting corruption in Nigeria:
Black Sage hunts down corrupt citizens of Nigeria and offers them the opportunity to make things right. When they don’t, he delivers judgement-day to them on earth. The world of Black Sage is one of justice and immediate judgement. There are no second chances with him.
Finally, Justice has arrived
He’s been long awaited
and he’s got a plan to liberate Nigeria.
Support Black Sage as he tackles
the electric power situation in our nation
Terence ‘Tako’ Maluleke is an illustrator, animator and digital artist from South Africa:
I absolutely love digital art, it allows you to do things that would be impossible in traditional work. Programs like Photoshop and Autodesk Sketchbook have a layering system that make drawing super convenient, not to mention the ‘undo’ button – I’d be nothing without (Crtl Z). Digital art is big part of my life. My mood is most determined by the last thing I drew, if my last drawing was good I will be happy for the rest of the day and if it was a bad drawing, well, then talk to me at you own risk.
Visit the African Digital Art website for more beautiful and creative artworks.