The BrightSphere

07/01/2026

Three books. Three refusals.

Fanon names the violence that built the world we inherited.
Said exposes how the “Orient” was invented, framed, consumed.
Freire reminds us that education is never neutral. It either domesticates or liberates.

Read together, they don’t offer comfort. They offer clarity.
About power. About knowledge. About who gets to speak, and who is taught to listen.

African futures don’t begin with innovation.
They begin with unlearning.

CriticalPedagogy PostcolonialThought

06/01/2026

A little glimpse inside No One Leaves Clean.

Sharing this video because the book is its own world. Takoradi’s compounds, trotros, Market Circle, marriage beds, toilet queues, dust, hustle and the quiet dreams people hold onto even when the country forgets them. It’s a story about survival, masculinity, shame, dignity and the everyday weight of postcolonial life in Ghana. Thank you again to Set Margins’ and Freek Lomme for backing this work and helping it find its voice.

No One Leaves Clean is now in bookshops across Europe and Australia, with North America coming soon.

You can search it on Google, or buy directly here:
https://lnkd.in/gfXjD9dx

If the story resonates, please ask your school or university library to obtain a copy and help it reach a wider audience.

NewBookRelease AfricanFutures

04/11/2025

A few weeks ago, we had the privilege of sharing “Land, Story, and Design: Cultural Geographies of Care and Decolonisation” at the University of the Philippines Diliman, as part of the Heo/Geo Lecture Series hosted by the Department of Geography and the Philippine Geographical Society.

The conversation centred on one simple question: what if the most sophisticated design practices are happening in places we have stopped looking?

Design is often framed through products, architecture, and innovation. But in preparing this talk, we reflected on the design that already exists within everyday life. The woman balancing rice on her head through the market, singing a familiar melody so people know she is coming, is engaged in design. She is shaping spatial rhythm, maintaining social connection, and preserving cultural memory through movement and song. The barber who opens his shop every Saturday for fourteen years is not simply cutting hair. He is designing community through ritual, care, and consistency.
These are not metaphors. They are living design practices that have sustained human communities for generations. The challenge is learning to see them again.

13/10/2025

The Puritanical Friends: Notes on the Educated African
In this reflective essay, Yaw Ofosu-Asare examines the contradictions of Africa’s educated middle class, a generation fluent in critique but estranged from compassion. Through a lens shaped by Fanon, Marx, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, he questions what happens when liberation turns into performance, when accents become borders, and when progress loses its soul.

https://yofosuasare.com/the-puritanical-friends-the-educated-empties/

16/09/2025

Africa Re/Designs Prelude: Meet the Presenters

When we first opened registration for Africa Re/Designs Prelude: Decolonising Design as Cultural Reclamation, we weren’t sure what the response would be. Just a few weeks later, more than 200 people have signed up, with hundreds engaging across platforms. The energy around this conversation is undeniable.

We are now pleased to announce the presenters who will join us on Saturday, 25 October 2025, for this online roundtable supported by the Design History Society.

Adenya Adali (Alberta Mortty) – Writer, photographer, and advocate for Eʋe Dzesiwo visual symbols, working to expand recognition of Africa’s multi-ethnic visual languages and their place in design and culture.

Arnold Sigala – Cameroonian designer, entrepreneur, and Creative Director of ULEVUS. Arnold has shaped Cameroon’s cultural landscape through music design, brand identity, and his leadership in mentoring the next generation of creative leaders.

Dr Kwame Boafo – Scholar and movement maker whose research and practice explore Ga religious processions as embodied knowledge, connecting ritual, performance, and African literary traditions.

Lawrence John Okoth – Industrial designer from Uganda, Director for Design and Innovation at Design without Borders Africa, with over a decade of experience leading human-centred design in humanitarian and development contexts.

These voices represent the diversity, depth, and creativity of African design today. Together, they will help us reflect on the chapters Cultivating the Foundations and Designing for Decolonised Consciousness as we rethink what design can be when rooted in African philosophies, aesthetics, and futures.

Curated by Yaw Ofosu-Asare, PhD

Event details
25 October 2025
9:00–10:30 AM GMT (Accra)
10:00–11:30 AM BST (London)
11:00 AM–12:30 PM CEST (Berlin/Paris)
8:00–9:30 PM AEDT (Melbourne/Sydney)

Register here: https://lnkd.in/gErNWUnf

Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gjPydADr

14/09/2025

Africa Re/Designs Prelude: Decolonising Design as Cultural Reclamation

On Saturday 25 October 2025, we gather online for a global roundtable that brings together designers, researchers, and creatives from Africa, the diaspora, and beyond.

This 90-minute conversation, supported by the Design History Society, will focus on two themes:
• Rethinking design education in Africa
• Designing for decolonised consciousness

The Prelude is a warm-up to the main Africa Re/Designs event in Accra this November. It is a chance to connect across borders, share reflections, and build momentum toward new design futures.

Date and Time
25 October 2025
9:00–10:30 AM GMT (Accra)
10:00–11:30 AM BST (London)
11:00 AM–12:30 PM CEST (Berlin/Paris)
8:00–9:30 PM AEDT (Melbourne/Sydney)

14/08/2024

Decolonising Design in Africa – Reimagine Design Education

Explore Dr Yaw Ofosu-Asare’s groundbreaking book that rethinks African design education. By integrating Indigenous knowledge, cultural practices, and African philosophies, this book offers a new approach to design education that is relevant globally.

Discover More: https://shorturl.at/SxE7U

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Decolonising Design in Africa offers a groundbreaking exploration of design education in Africa through a decolonial lens. By examining the colonial legacies that have shaped design education in Africa, it foregrounds the problematic ways that current pedagogical approaches primarily reflect western...