Anyone working long hours outdoors knows the burden that a glaring sun can take on the body. In Africa, Dominic Wanjihia has proposed a flexible, wearable solar panel vest to harness this energy for productive purposes.

Artist Sebastian Bouchard attempts to transform the commonplace Calabash into a commodity in his new piece, C’est la Crise (Crisis Time).

A few photos of street art in Africa have appeared on the web with the speculation that the pieces are the work of reknowned British artist Banksy. Some of the images have been painted in Mali and were painted “from Bamako to Timbuktu” says one commenter on Flickr.
It’s likely they are the work of the artist as PSFK found that they also appear on his website.
Banksy

The Nigerian film industry, a.k.a. Nollywood is the new subject of an exhibition at Sydney’s Australian Center for Photography.  Producing between five hundred to one thousand films a year, Nollywood is the third biggest film industry to date.  Despite often being ”low budget, violent and excessive”, Nollywood films outsell Hollywood films on the African market.
Working alongside well-known Nigerian actors, South-African photographer Pieter Hugo has recreated typical scenes that reflect the little-known-about Nollywood industry.
The exhibition runs from Friday 12 June to Saturday 11 July at 257 Oxford St, Paddington, Sydney
Related Post: Nollywood Babylon: Rise of the Nigerian Film Industry

June 12th through 20th, African Fashion International (AFI), organizers of the Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban Fashion Weeks, will be presenting ARISE Africa Fashion Week, which will be a showcase of the continent’s leading fashion designers. This event is of cultural importance because it’s the first time designers from all over Africa will be able to overcome ethnicity and cultural disparity to present a unified vision of African fashion for the new millennium. In addition to shining a light on emerging African fashion designers, the event will also help bring attention and revenue to the Continent’s evolving fashion industry.

Dr. Precious [...]

CNN has an interesting but quick story about an African brand that an American, Jeffrey Zarnow, is trying to grow worldwide. As part of that expansion he’s decided to keep all the production in Mauritius (rather than China), donate to African micro-finance charities and also distill the rum environmentally.