Amoako Boafo is in a buoyant mood. The 40-year-old Ghanaian painter is about to open his first London show, “I Do Not Come to You by Chance,” at a UK outpost of the American mega-gallery, Gagosian. It’s an exhibition showcasing a new body of figurative paintings –– joyful, empowering portrayals of Black men and women, wrought in his distinctive lionized style and pairing fingertip-painting with paper-transferred patterns and blocks of color. In one, a woman stands, hands on hips, draped in white lace; another depicts Boafo himself, on a bicycle, clad in gold chains and chintz. Eshewing a conventional “white-cube” gallery setting, sections of the space are covered in patterned wallpaper. More strikingly, one room is filled with a life-size recreation of the courtyard at Boafo’s childhood home in Ghana’s capital, Accra. “The idea of bringing the courtyard situation to London is me bringing home with me,” said Boafo over Zoom. “The courtyard is a space where I got to learn about almost everything: how to take a bath, how to take care of yourself,; how to sit quietly and listen, how to be disciplined.” Boafo’s rise to art-world stardom has been swift and significant. In 2018, as he was finishing a Master of Fine Arts degree at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in Austria, American artist Kehinde Wiley found his art on Instagram. “He suggested my work to his galleries,” said Boafo, “which was when things started picking up.” By December 2021, one of his paintings, “Hands Up,” had sold for over 26 million Hong Kong dollars ($3.4 mililon) at Christie’s, setting an auction record for his work. Along the way, there was a residency at the Rubell Museum in Miami, owned by renowned collectors Don and Mera Rubell. Boafo signed with galleries in Los Angeles (Roberts Projects) and Chicago (Mariane Ibrahim). “Then Dior happened,” he said, referencing his collaboration with the French fashion house on its Spring-/Summer 2021 menswear collection, “and it didn’t slow down.” Three of Boafo’s paintings were even sent into space –– on exterior panels of a Blue Origin rocket. “I realized that maybe (my career is) never going to slow down –– and it never did.” Unexpected learnings Boafo was born in Accra in 1984; his father died when he was young and he was raised by his mother, who worked as home help, cooking and cleaning for different families. He developed a childhood love of art. “It was one of the ways that kids in the community got together: to draw,” he recalled. “I had always wanted to go to art school but, because of financial difficulties, I did not manage to.” Instead, Boafo ended up on the tennis court and played semi-professionally for several years, until a man Boafo’s mother worked for offered to pay his first tuition fees for Ghanatta College of Art and Design in Accra. The four-year course taught him to draw and to paint. But he also took lessons from the tennis court: “not to sit idle; whatever happens, you move,” said Boafo. He moved to Vienna, went back to school and developed the painterly “language” that has since made global waves. “He was confronting the ideology that art history has to be within a Eurocentric form,” said French-Somali gallerist Mariane Ibrahim, who supports emerging artists of African descent across galleries in Chicago, Mexico and Paris. “To purposely deconstruct traditional portraiture and figuration was really an act of rebellion, but also an act of making and creating your own history. I felt a connection in our experiences: being away from home in a place that doesn’t have much of an African- diaspora community.” Today Boafo sits front and center of an art-world reappreciation of Black figuration. “He’s the head of a locomotive of a new generation of painters from West Africa and beyond,” said Ibrahim. The subjects of his paintings are his friends and family, and, frequently, himself, because, Boafo said, “I don’t see why I should not be present when I am representing my people.” Impact beyond art The paintings are a visual representation of Boafo’s desire to slow down and take stock. He hopes to work on one more exhibition with a similar theme in a different location –– “and then I will step away from making paintings for shows,” he said, continuing to explain that “I want to take a bit of break because I have other projects that I am passionate about –– like architecture and tennis. I want to build my own tennis academy, to develop (sports initiatives) so that the youth have something to do.” At Gagosian in London, the new self-portraits –– including one of his largest paintings to date, in which Boafo reclines on a bed, swathed in floral patterns and surrounded by plants –– have an added poignancy. They act as “a reminder of the things that I want to do,” he said. “It’s a reminder to take a break and do yoga. Take a break and go on a bike ride. Take a break and look pretty and beautiful. Take a break and, sometimes, just stay home and relax.” With his work now held in major museum collections, from London’s Tate and the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris to New York’s Guggenheim and the Hirshhorn in Washington, D.C., Boafo has become something of a local celebrity in Accra. “Sometimes you wake up in the morning and you have 10, 15 people at your door waiting to talk to you,” he said. “Everybody wants to put their problems in front of you. There’s some joy (in it) and there’s some stress.” He is enmeshed in the local community through his dot.ateliers initiative — an artists’ residency, launched in 2022, that has since expanded to host writers and curators. Crucially, it offers spaces that foster experimentation and allow participants “to evolve or think on (their) own”, he said, adding: “I imagine dot.ateliers to be an institution which should live beyond me.”

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was pausing higher targeted tariffs for 90 days for most countries, a stunning reversal in his trade war that has sent markets reeling. Trump wrote on social media just before 1:30 p.m. that he came to the decision because more than 75 trading partners didn’t retaliate and have reached out to the United States to “discuss” some of the issues he had raised. The pause didn’t apply to China, which has retaliated — with 84% hikes. Trump instead raised duties for it to 125%, effective immediately. “Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately,” he wrote. “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable.” But the trade war isn’t exactly over, and the pause didn’t return the world to the time before Trump touched off the global instability; a 10% across-the-board duty will remain. For Canada and Mexico, goods covered by the U.S., Canada and Mexico trade agreement will continue to have no tariffs, while products that aren't exempt under the trade deal will have a 25% tariff. Canadian energy and fertilizer products will have a 10% tariff. It wasn’t immediately clear which countries the pause would cover; the White House wouldn’t say. Earlier Wednesday, the European Union voted to impose fresh retaliatory duties, but they aren’t set to take effect until next week. And separate tariffs on imported autos, steel and aluminum will remain, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said later — while planned tariffs on items like lumber and pharmaceuticals are still on. It’s not clear what prompted Trump to change his mind — he appeared to dig in just hours earlier, telling Americans “BE COOL” in a Truth Social post, and he suggested not that long ago that the tariffs could be permanent. “I did a 90-day pause for the people that didn’t retaliate, because I told them, ‘If you retaliate, we’re going to double it,’” Trump said Wednesday. “And that’s what I did with China, because they did retaliate. So we’ll see how it all works out. I think it’s going to work out amazing.” But markets have been in stunning turmoil — major stock indexes shed trillions of dollars in value, while alarming signals from the bond market set Wall Street on edge. When a false-at-the-time headline suggesting Trump would take a 90-day pause shot around the internet Monday, markets briefly surged. And a growing chorus of business leaders and Trump’s allies have come out publicly against the tariffs, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Markets soared on the surprising news Wednesday, with the S&P 500 climbing more than 9%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq closing up more than 12% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending nearly 3,000 points higher. Among the big gainers: Tesla stock was up 22%. Despite the gains, all three indexes were down from where they were a month ago and at the start of the year, and some investors questioned what the recent volatility could mean for the U.S. stock market longer-term. "My portfolio of defensive stocks is green so I don’t begrudge today’s market. But I ask you, would you want to own highly volatile US stocks whose price depends on whether POTUS had a good night’s sleep and woke up the next morning to reverse yesterday’s policies?" billionaire investor Bill Gross said on X. Goldman Sachs lowered its odds of a recession but said it is still forecasting minimal economic growth and a 45% probability of a recession given the remaining tariffs.

Congolese authorities seek to sign a minerals deal with the U.S. in exchange for security support to fight rebels in the country’s conflict-hit east. The three Americans convicted of participating in a botched coup attempt in Congo last year have been repatriated to the United States, days after their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment, Congo’s presidency said Tuesday. The three will serve out their sentences in the U.S. following the repatriation done in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy, Congolese presidential spokesperson Tina Salama said. The presidency said the Americans left Congo Tuesday morning. The State Department said it was aware of their transfer into U.S. custody and referred questions to the Department of Justice. A DOJ spokesperson said they did not immediately have information to share. The conditions of the prisoner transfer agreement were not immediately clear. But international law experts said it’s unlikely the U.S. will shorten their sentences. Among the three Americans was 21-year-old Marcel Malanga, son of opposition figure Christian Malanga, who led the foiled coup attempt that targeted the presidential palace in Kinshasa. The elder Malanga, who live-streamed from the palace during the attempt, was later killed while resisting arrest, Congolese authorities said. Marcel Malanga has said his father forced him to take part.Also repatriated were Tyler Thompson Jr., 21, a friend of the younger Malanga who flew to Africa from Utah for what his family believed was a free vacation, and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, 36, who is reported to have known Christian Malanga through a gold mining company. The repatriation came amid efforts by Congolese authorities to sign a minerals deal with the U.S. in exchange for security support that will help the capital city of Kinshasa fight rebels in the country’s conflict-hit east. U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser for Africa last week confirmed the countries were in talks on the issue and said it could involve “multibillion-dollar investments.” The U.S. has estimated Congo has trillions of dollars in mineral wealth, much of it untapped. “This decision is part of a dynamic of strengthening judicial diplomacy and international cooperation in matters of justice and human rights between the two countries,” Congo’s presidency said Tuesday of the repatriation. The news of their return brought joy to their families. Thompson’s stepmother, Miranda Thompson, told the AP that they didn’t have all the details “but we’re so excited to have him on American soil again.” The Thompsons said they were grateful for all the support they received from the U.S. government, family and friends. Thompson’s lawyer Skye Lazaro said Tuesday that she had limited information on what his status will be once he lands stateside. She said she plans to pursue all available legal avenues relating to his detention in the U.S. When the U.S. assumes custody of prisoners convicted abroad, it typically agrees to carry out a sentence of imprisonment designated by that country. Lawyers for the repatriated Americans could try to get their sentences reduced by arguing they signed their consents to the prisoner transfer treaty under duress, said Jared Genser, a U.S.-based international human rights attorney. “But it would be very hard to prevail in such a case as there would be enormous implications for other potential transfers in the future if the U.S. failed to abide by such agreements,” Genser said. Dozens of others were convicted after the coup attempt, a majority of them Congolese but also including a Briton, a Belgian and a Canadian. Charges included terrorism, murder, criminal association and illegal possession of weapons. The fate of the others was not immediately clear. Congo had reinstated the death penalty last year, lifting a more than 2-decade-old moratorium, as authorities struggle to curb violence and militant attacks. Family members last year said the Americans slept on the floor at a high-security military prison in Kinshasa, struggling with health issues and having to pay for food and hygiene products.

Heavy rains began last week, causing the key Ndjili River to overflow on Friday and submerge hundreds of buildings. The death toll from flooding that cut access to over half of the Congolese capital of Kinshasa reached 33 as authorities raced Monday to evacuate and support hundreds of families trapped in their homes. Ten more people were confirmed dead as of Sunday evening, in addition to the 23 people killed the day before, Congolese Interior Minister Jacquemin Shabani said on state television late Sunday. Heavy rains began last week, causing the key Ndjili River to overflow on Friday and submerge hundreds of buildings. While the situation had improved by Monday morning, some access roads remained blocked and vehicular traffic was limited. Many residents blamed the government for not responding quickly enough to the disaster. “We lost everything and left everything behind,” said Marie Nzola, one of those whose properties were destroyed. “The rain caught us by surprise late at night.” Officials said Sunday that most of the fatalities were caused by walls that collapsed shortly after the deluge began. The main road to the airport, which also links Kinshasa to the rest of Congo, was damaged by the flooding but will be open to all traffic within 72 hours, Kinshasa Gov. Daniel Bumba said over the weekend. The flooding has also hampered access to drinking water in at least 16 communes after water facilities were affected, the Congolese interior ministry said in a statement. The government has set up at least four emergency shelters that were catering to hundreds of displaced families across the city, the ministry said. Resident Clément Matwidi, one of those affected by the flooding, expressed frustration and asked the government for more support. “Everything is lost due to the floods (and) we are here waiting for the government’s decision,” he said. In 2022, at least 100 people were killed during similar flooding in Kinshasa. The disaster comes as the government is battling a humanitarian disaster in the east of the country, more than 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles) from Kinshasa, where decades of fighting with rebels escalated in February, worsening what is already one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.

The reason for the attacks in six villages in Plateau’s Bokkos district last week, the worst outbreak of violence since December 2023, wasn't immediately known. Gunmen have killed at least 52 people and displaced nearly 2,000 others over several days of attacks in Nigeria’s northern Plateau state, which has a history of violence between farmers and cattle herders, the national emergency agency said. The reason for the attacks in six villages in Plateau’s Bokkos district last week was not immediately known but it is the worst outbreak of violence since December 2023, when more than 100 people were killed in the same district. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said the scale of the violence became clearer at the weekend as 52 people were confirmed dead while 22 others were taken to hospital. NEMA said in a statement late on Sunday that “gunmen carried out brutal assaults,” leading to multiple fatalities and widespread destruction of property. “Over 1,820 individuals have been displaced. Three displacement camps have been established,” the agency said, adding that the security situation remained tense. President Bola Tinubu directed security agencies to hunt down the attackers, who would face “severe punishment”, the presidency said. Plateau is one of several ethnically and religiously diverse hinterland states known as Nigeria’s Middle Belt, where inter-communal conflict has claimed hundreds of lives in recent years. The violence is often painted as ethno-religious conflict between Muslim herders and mainly Christian farmers. But climate change and the reduction of grazing land through agricultural expansion are also major factors.

Duke's Khaman Maluach and Florida's Rueben Chinyelu met at NBA Academy Africa, a hub for talented athletes throughout the continent. They used to dream of playing in the NCAA Tournament. SAN ANTONIO — On Saturday evening, four banner college basketball programs will battle it out for supremacy — with Duke, Houston, Auburn and Florida preparing for the Final Four. But a fascinating subplot in the tale of tournament Goliaths is the emergence of two players, one from Nigeria and the other from South Sudan, who are now reunited at the NCAA tournament in San Antonio. “We don’t have many programs. … We actually don’t have any other programs like NBA Academy Africa,” said Khaman Maluach, Duke’s 7-2 center and a projected NBA lottery pick, who attended the elite academy from age 14 until he left for college. “It only takes like 24 players, or 22 players [at a time],” he said. “But it’s like millions of kids out there looking for that opportunity.”One of those other kids — Maluach’s good friend and fellow center Rueben Chinyelu — is a foundational figure for a Florida Gators squad that just made its first Final Four in more than a decade and first since longtime coach Billy Donovan left the program. Chinyelu described his friendship with Maluach and the other attendees of the close-knit academy as “a family.” “The brotherhood out here, it’s pretty strong,” the 6-10 Chinyelu said. “You have so many guys from different parts of Africa just leaving their home. You’re coming to a new home country that you haven’t been to. They don’t speak the language, they haven’t even tasted that food.”Chinyelu lost his father as a child and says he’s been supported by his family members (many of whom will be trying to watch the game in Nigeria) and his acquired basketball family who stick with him to this day. The two talented big men spent nights at the camp — sometimes until 3 or 4 a.m.— watching March Madness games and dreaming of the possibilities, but still not realistically thinking they could ever compete, much less face each other. “It never really crossed my mind that one day I’ll be playing for Duke,” Maluach said when he spoke to NBC News from the Blue Devils Alamodome locker room. “I didn’t know I was going to go to college,” much less “be able to play in a Final Four.”Now, several years later and thousands of miles traveled, the two could potentially meet with a title in the balance. Duke and Houston will vie for one spot in the championship game, and Florida and Auburn the other. The result is anyone’s guess — but a meeting of these two former classmates would be one for the ages. “Rueben has always been like an older brother to me,” said Maluach. “He has always helped me out.”

Ridiculed for imposing trade tariffs on frozen islands largely inhabited by penguins, Trump’s formula for calculating levies has a serious side: It's also hitting some of the world’s poorest nations hardest. A 50% reciprocal trade tariff on Lesotho, the highest levy on U.S. President Donald Trump’s long list of target economies, will kill the tiny Southern African kingdom that Trump ridiculed last month, an economic analyst there said on Thursday. Lesotho, which Trump described in March as a country “nobody has ever heard of,” is one of the world’s poorest nations with a gross domestic product of just over $2 billion. It has a large trade surplus with the United States, mostly made up of diamonds and textiles, including Levi’s jeans. Its exports to the United States, which in 2024 totalled $237 million, account for more than 10% of its GDP. Oxford Economics said the textile sector, with some 40,000 workers, was Lesotho’s biggest private employer and accounted for roughly 90% of manufacturing employment and exports. “Then you are having retailers who are selling food. And then you have residential property owners who are renting houses for the workers. So this means if the closure of factories were to happen, the industry is going to die and there will be multiplier effects,” Lesotho Private Sector Foundation CEO Thabo Qhesi said. “So Lesotho will be dead, so to say.” Ridiculed for imposing trade tariffs on frozen islands largely inhabited by penguins, Donald Trump’s formula for calculating those levies has a serious side: it is also hitting some of the world’s poorest nations hardest.The math is simple: take the U.S. goods trade deficit with a country, divide it by that country’s exports to the U.S. and turn it into a percentage figure; then cut that figure in half to produce the U.S. “reciprocal” tariff, with a floor of 10%. That’s how the volcanic Australian territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands in the Antarctic ended up with a 10% tariff. The penguins got off lightly, you might say. But Madagascar — one of the poorest nations in the world with gross domestic product (GDP) per head of just over $500 — meanwhile faces a 47% tariff on the modest $733 million of exports of vanilla, metals and apparel that it did with the U.S. last year. “Presumably no one is buying Teslas there,” John Denton, head of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), told Reuters, an ironic reference to the improbability of Madagascar being able to placate Trump by buying upmarket U.S. products. Madagascar is not alone: the bluntness of the formula as applied to economies which cannot afford to import much from the U.S. inevitably leads to a high reciprocal tally: 50% for Lesotho in Southern Africa, 49% for Cambodia in Southeast Asia. The government of Lesotho, a mountainous nation of about 2 million people that is encircled by South Africa, had no immediate comment on the trade tariffs on Thursday. Its foreign minister told Reuters last month the country, which has one of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world, was already feeling the impact of the aid cuts as its health sector had been reliant on them.“The biggest losers are Africa and Southeast Asia,” said Denton, adding the move “risks further damaging the development prospects of countries already facing worsening terms of trade.” But the formula is also sowing confusion among rich countries. For the European Union it has produced a punitive tariff of 20% — four times the 5% which the World Trade Organization calculates as the EU’s average tariff rate. “So, at least for us, it is a colossal inaccuracy,” said Stefano Berni, general manager of the consortium representing makers of the Grana Padano specialty cheese in Italy. “It costs us three times as much today to enter the U.S. as it does for U.S. cheeses to enter our market,” he said in a statement. Asked about its methodology, White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai posted on X that “we literally calculated tariff and non-tariff barriers” and included a screenshot of a White House paper setting out the algebra behind the formula. Asked on CNBC how the Trump administration came up with the formula, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick did not directly explain it but said United States Trade Representative economists had worked for years on a metric that reflected all trade barriers set up by a given country. But economists across the world rushed to point out that the terms canceled each other out in such a way that it could be reduced to a simple quotient of goods trade deficit over goods trade exports. “There is really no methodology there,” said Mary Lovely, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute. “It is like finding you have cancer and finding the medication is based on your weight divided by your age. The word ‘reciprocal’ is deeply misleading.” Robert Kahn, managing director, global macro for Eurasia Group consultancy, agreed that it produced “a lot of these kind of nonsense numbers that aren’t material.” “It sends a signal ... that we are pulling back from our relationships and alliances with them and is a cold shower to a lot of our traditional allies,” he told Reuters. Others noted that it also raised questions over the widely held view that Trump is launching an opening gambit in what will be one-on-one discussions with individual countries that will ultimately see the new U.S. tariffs sharply reduced. “The U.S. has chosen a methodology that is essentially mechanical,” said Stephen Adams, a former European trade adviser who now works for Global Counsel consultancy. “One practical question it does raise is whether there’s any scope to negotiate this away. ... The U.S. hasn’t identified any specific measures that might be changed in order to convince the president to change his mind.”

The country’s ruling ZANU-PF party has said it wants to extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term in office by two years until 2030. HARARE, Zimbabwe — Police deployed heavily in Zimbabwe’s capital and other cities on Monday, largely neutralizing a call by veterans for massive protests against plans to extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s rule. Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party said in January it wanted to extend Mnangagwa’s term in office by two years until 2030. Mnangagwa, who first came to power in 2017 after his long-term mentor Robert Mugabe was ousted in a coup, is serving his final term. Independence war veterans led by Blessed Geza previously supported Mnangagwa but have turned against him, accusing him of seeking to cling to power. Anticipating possible unrest, businesses barricaded their premises and car dealerships cleared their showrooms in recent days.Most businesses, schools and vendors across the capital, Harare, as well as in the second-largest city of Bulawayo and other towns, stayed closed, as large numbers of police officers patrolled the empty streets. “The situation in the country is peaceful,” police said in a statement, encouraging people to continue with daily activities. Still, in the western outskirts of Harare, police officers threw tear gas to disperse a small group of protesters chanting “we reject 2030,” a reference to the plans to extend Mnangagwa’s term. Some analysts said the economic shutdown could still send a message to political leaders.“The stay-away is a massive statement by the masses of Zimbabwe. Those in power have reason to fear,” political analyst Ibbo Mandaza said. Geza, the veteran leader who called for the protest and has mostly communicated through videos posted on social media platforms, did not react publicly on Monday morning. The veterans remain influential within ZANU-PF, and appear to be filling a void left by opposition parties weakened by internal divisions and a war of attrition with the ruling party. Mnangagwa has repeatedly denied intending to prolong his presidency, but the veterans accuse him of pursuing the plan using proxies. Zimbabwe’s 2013 constitution limits presidents to two five-year terms.

Every year, about one billion tires around the world reach the end of their life according to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Many of them end up piled in landfills posing potential health and environmental risks. In Africa, one Rwandan entrepreneur has found a way to upcycle the rubber to create fashionable footwear. While studying creative design at the University of Rwanda, Kevine Kagirimpundu felt she had limited employment options, so she took matters into her own hands. She began researching how to make her own products and stumbled upon the idea of using old tires for shoe soles. In 2013, she and her friend Ysolde Shimwe officially launched Uzuri K&Y, a name incorporating the founders’ initials and a Swahili word meaning beauty and goodness. The eco-friendly shoe brand offers a range of handcrafted sandals for men, women and children. “We wanted to be different but also be part of the problem-solving process because Rwanda at the time was banning plastic bags, which was such a huge inspiration for us. So, we thought how do we play a part in that and how do we contribute?” Kagirimpundu said. “We thought this creates something that would become a source of income for ourselves but also for other young people like us.” In 2008, the government banned the manufacturing, importation and use of plastic polyethylene bags, and took a step further in 2019 by prohibiting single-use plastics, like straws, bottles, and containers. As CEO and managing director, Kagirimpundu says the brand’s mission aligns with Rwanda’s efforts to cut back on waste. The company buys tires from local landfills and makes the sandals in its Kigali production facility. When running at full capacity, Kagirimpundu says it can produce more than 4,500 pairs of sandals a month, which it sells online and in several stores across Rwanda and Nairobi, Kenya. A report from the Rwanda Environment Management Authority found the country discarded more than 5,000 tons of tires in 2022. Kagirimpundu said to date Uzuri K&Y has removed 10 metric tons of rubber from landfills in Rwanda. Still, the CEO believes the company’s human impact is just as important as the environmental aspect: “We had to create a business that actually became a source of employment for women,” she said. Empowering women Reflecting on the company’s humble beginnings, Kagirimpundu said one of the biggest challenges was a lack of skilled labor. “Nobody knew how to make shoes,” she said, so she decided to set up a training program to teach locals the skills they need to become artisans and entrepreneurs. Kagirimpundu says 1,500 young people have gone through the program, about 70% of them women. She added that it’s “priceless” to give a woman a steady income when Rwanda has an unemployment rate of 13%, 14.5% for women. “It’s the whole collective of women working together to create something big, something important,” she said.

She’s the sister of Nigerian soccer legend Sunday Oliseh, but now Tessy Oliseh-Amaize is becoming something of a celebrity in her own right, making a name for herself in the US fashion scene. As founder of the Tesslo fashion brand, and a former science student, she produces a distinctively modern take on traditional wax print ankara designs, with her vision inspired as much by mathematics as classic aesthetics. The style is showcased in her “Africa to the World” collection, featuring designs that infuse elements of African culture in colorful ankara fabrics. Each design takes four to eight weeks to create, using carefully conceived geometric shapes to create an optical illusion of depth, and patterns she describes as “moving in a four-dimensional way.” “I realized that in designing, the Pythagoras theorem comes to play,” said Oliseh-Amaize, referencing the formula for calculating the relationship between the sides of a triangle. “My designs are all mathematics. You need to think of shapes and even calculate shapes that do not exist.” “Pyramids” is a knee-length dress made from one of the most common ankara fabrics and inspired by the pyramids of Giza, with prism-like shapes arranged in alternating directions. “Mpi” is Oliseh-Amaize’s take on a varsity jacket, embellished with rows of protruding cones, a nod to the animal horns used in Nigeria’s traditional Igbo culture for weddings, chieftaincy titles and as a musical instrument. “For Pyramids, I used geometric calculations, which is a very complex technique in fashion design,” Oliseh-Amaize said, while for Mpi, “I manipulated the fabric in geometrical dimensions to create each one of those horns. I thought that the real beauty of executing this inspiration would be more impactful if I have them all together in a cluster around the outfit.” “Taking it to the next level” Oliseh-Amaize’s design journey started out in the UK, at Middlesex University London, where she studied Fashion Product Management at the start of the millennium. A major break came after she returned to Nigeria and was crowned the country’s best designer at the 2006 Nigerian Fashion Show competition. She began designing for TV shows, and eventually relocated to the US, which she said “was like starting afresh.” Unlike Nigeria, where there’s a ready demand for ankara clothing, she had to prove her creativity to an American clientele, which meant “taking it to the next level.” Now based in Washington, DC, her eye-catching designs are increasingly in the spotlight. Last September she was invited to close the Ankara Festival Los Angeles, which celebrates African fashion, and her works were also shown at the Congressional Black Caucus and Philly Fashion Week that month. After the Ankara Festival, she said in a statement, “Outside Africa, when people hear “African prints,” it is as if the expectation is that it’s not truly African unless it looks primitive or poorly made. I’m rebelling against that. African fashion is rich, diverse, and deserves to be seen as sophisticated and high-quality.” It’s a stance that’s earning her celebrity supporters. Folake Olowofoyeku, star of US sitcom “Bob Hearts Abishola,” wore Tesslo’s “Hollywood” dress at the Ankara Festival, a design inspired by old-school Hollywood glamour, with sleeve cuffs shaped like mid-century lamps. Oliseh-Amaize has also received a commission by celebrity stylist J. Bolin for one of his high-profile clients. As Oliseh-Amaize establishes her own identity, she is stepping out of the shadow of her famous brother, who played for European soccer teams including Ajax and Juventus in 1990s and 2000s, as well as playing for and managing Nigeria’s national team. Growing up, “Everyone calling me Sunday Oliseh’s sister didn’t mean I had it easy,” she told CNN, saying that she would be overcharged when buying equipment, because people assumed she had money. “I had to work extra hard to get things,” she added. “Fashion Professor” Now, Oliseh-Amaize is helping younger designers through her “Fashion Professor” project. She has held 35 mentoring sessions on Instagram about everything from understanding different fabrics to knowing how to bill clients, teaching young designers to navigate the industry and to aspire beyond Nigeria. “I looked at how I could inspire the next generation of fashion designers within and beyond Nigeria and decided to mentor them and help them avoid my own mistakes while charting their own unique paths,” she explained. Her innovations in ankara designs come at a time when more Western designers are exploring the fabric. Oliseh-Amaize says they have the opportunity to do so because they can more easily access funding, which is not always the case for Nigerian designers. She emphasizes that African designers should not limit their thoughts to designing or selling to only Africans, and Oliseh-Amaize would like to see a time when a Nigerian brand can sell out in international department stores like Harrods or Macy’s. While her fashion creations are deeply rooted in Africa, Oliseh-Amaize insists that her identity as a designer goes beyond that. “I don’t want to be put in a box and labeled an African designer,” she said. “I want to be identified as a global brand designing for the global market. This is what would make me fulfilled.”