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Interview


AFRICA — A DESIGNER’S UTOPIA BUILDS A NEW DESIGN ARCHIVE


NIFEMI MARCUS-BELLO AND TUNDE WEY ON LAGOS' "ANONYMOUSLY DESIGNED" OBJECTS

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12.14.22 Words By Tunde Wey
 * Decentralized Design

 * furniture
 * Material
 * nigeria

This story is a part of MOLD’s series on Decentralized Design. Through this
series of conversations we explore how designers, thinkers, and artists are
using decentralized approaches to seed a more resilient future.

I met Nifemi Marcus-Bello by chance in 2021. After living away from Lagos, I
decided to return and rent an apartment in the city. I googled indigenous
furniture designers and through internet magic I traced a gorgeous modern stool
I saw in an article to Nifemi. He delivered my order himself (2 stools, 2
lamps!), and since then we’ve been kicking it. Bad man Nif is what I call him.
He’s a “bad man” in the best sense. Nifemi is a well awarded designer whose
practice is distinctly Nigerian, specifically of urban Lagos. His design
language also translates universally,  whether by strategy or instinct: his
pieces can (and often do) occupy multiple and diverse social, cultural and
geographic spaces. Maybe that is another expression of modernity, to be
comfortable everywhere. In at least this sense then Nifemi’s work is modern. 

In his Africa – A Designer’s Utopia project, Nifemi is currently researching
what he terms “anonymously designed objects” in Africa. The research project
showcases the ingenuity of, hitherto misqualified, design solutions unique to
the urban landscape of the continent.

All Hail Bad Man NIF

– Tunde Wey



Tunde Wey:

I wanted to start talking about something you and I have talked a bit about
previously in our personal relationship — with money. What’s your relationship
with money, do you feel like it’s a good or bad thing for your design process?



Nifemi Marcus-Bello:

It’s funny. I have a very funny relationship with money because I’ve had it and
I haven’t had it. [laughs]  So for me, my own relationship with money is
something that’s always at the back of my mind. I feel like a lot of designers
shy away from money and having conversations around money. They feel like it’s
something that shouldn’t be spoken about because it might affect the flow of
creativity. But for me, I actually think it helps and improves creativity
[laughs]. You don’t have to think about the constraints of not having money,
even though a lot of good design is birthed from the constraints of not having
money.


Nifemi in his studio, Image by Stephen Tayo

TW:

Story, story. You know in a lot of your interviews and in our conversations
constraint comes up a lot. So I wanted to ask you this question about constraint
and money — how much money do you have in your bank right now?



NMB:

Which account? [laughs]



TW:

That was a trick question. But I am interested in knowing how you think your
work might change if you have money, and what your designs could look like once
you don’t have any personal constraints and it shifts more to technical
constraints. 



NMB:

I don’t think it would. Because for me, I think that a lot of innately being
African and being born on the continent is being very contextual in our
approach. Whatever is around us we make use of and we create. Finding a way to
create opportunities around what is around us is a uniquely African way of
thinking. For example, look at Ghanaian [design], where they are using gold to
create chairs for Ghanaian royalty because that’s the material that’s readily
available in their region. You might see it as luxury, but that’s availability.
Same thing with the bronze I currently work with, it’s because [in Nigeria]
there are so many bronze casters here who have a culture of creating objects and
artifacts. So for me, African design  is heavily contextual—it’s what a place
means to a material or even to a people. 



In his furniture Nifemi focuses on drawing from hyper-local materials and
regional craft traditions, such as bronze-casting. Image courtesy of nmbello
studio.
In his furniture Nifemi focuses on drawing from hyper-local materials and
regional craft traditions, such as bronze-casting. Image courtesy of nmbello
studio.

TW:

In your work I’ve seen you use a lot of wood and steel, and now I know you’re
working more with bronze. But I’m interested in your opinions on plastic.



NMB:

Plastic is really  interesting, because I think if used well it can work to our
benefit. It’s like the evil material of the 21st century, but that’s because all
of these products are poorly designed because often designers don’t think of the
[life] cycle of the product. The thing about plastic usage in Nigeria is that
90% of it is recycled one way or the other and a lot of the products I’ve looked
at in my research are upcycled. It really opened up my mind because we have huge
recycling habits and culture, right? Like our moms will go buy ice cream in a
plastic container and once the ice cream is done, they do all sorts of crazy
things with the ice cream container. So you might get a surprise when you go to
the freezer and find it’s been storing soup all this while.



> For me, African design  is heavily contextual—it’s what a place means to a
> material or even to a people. 

TW:

That’s the worst thing, because palm oil stains [the white containers].

What you’re saying makes sense, but when I think about plastic I think about
convenience and also how Lagos has in some ways really become a dumping site for
these products. And in that context it makes me question this pragmatism,
because the African or Nigerian negotiation of a context is really things that
have been imported to us and dumped on us, leaving us to conform to that
reality. So when you think about your design philosophy as a designer that tries
to maximize  materials in a particular context, do you think about how that
context was created and how that might be limiting?



NMB:

I have asked myself that question, and again. Especially in this research [with
AADU], where I am asking things like: Why do these materials exist here? Why do
these forms exist here? Who’s dictating or creating these opportunities for
these products to exist? And how is it affecting the way we are living our day
to day lives? And then, how is it affecting urban planning and urban expansion?
Getting to the heart of things like, why [in Lagos] we have to be considerate to
putting water storage on your roof, why a great deal of houses have a tap
outside where these Meruwa guys fetch water? So I won’t lie to you, I don’t have
the answer to that yet. But that’s why I’m carrying out this research because
I’m trying to understand what’s happening today with mass production and batch
production of these products.


A Meruwa, or water seller, transporting water in Lagos, Nigeria. Image courtesy
of Benson Ibeabuchi Photography.

TW:

Right so, tell me about the project that you are researching now.



NMB:

So I’m looking at anonymously designed objects and how they integrate into the
urban landscape of major cities across Africa, starting with Lagos. 



TW:

What are some examples of the objects you are looking at?



NMB:

So I’ll give you two examples. The first product I’m looking at is actually a
product called Kwali which is a portable convenience store that is used to sell
confections in traffic. To me, these products are extremely well designed, and
it creates job opportunities for people while making their lives economically
viable. 


Kwali is a designed structure used by street hawkers to sell snacks, trinkets,
and toiletries. Image courtesy of nmbello studio.

TW:

That makes sense, but I have a challenge to your design philosophy. Take for
example, the prison shank. I think that’s a well-designed product, right? It has
a sharp tip, there is sometimes even fabric around the handle that you can
attach around your wrist. That’s an example of fantastic design for products
that are horrible, right? And when we start talking about the constraints of
living in Lagos and people having to make their livelihood by selling shit on
the road in these portable convenience stores, I’m more interested in why that
dude has to do that than how well the solution he comes up with works. Like the
design might be interesting, but I don’t know if it’s necessarily good design
because the circumstances are terrible in my mind.



NMB:

True, for me I think when it comes to products you have to kind of place them in
an out of body experience. For example, I recently had a conversation with
someone where I said that if someone was going to give me a brief to design a
kiosk for Coachella, I would redesign the kwali and it would work effectively.
Everything you need, food, water, drugs [laughs], you could sell from a kwali,
and of course it would be well-branded. And of course, what’s going to happen,
as with what happens with all things on the continent is that someone is going
to document, redesign it and sell it. And then we’re gonna be like, “Ah, but
that’s what we used to do.”

Things have never been perfect, but as Africans we always create. Another thing
I’m researching is those houses in Surulere where they have the security guards
who have cut out small windows in the walls [of the houses they guard] so they
can sell things. People might say because they are defacing the building, it’s
bad design. But to me, that’s an architectural archetype that solves the problem
so that the security guard can just sit there and create extra income. So for
me, regardless of what it is, if it’s sad, whatever, we don’t sit back. [As
Africans] we conform and create. 



TW:

I’m impressed by your pragmatism. This points back to your point about bad urban
design. I think that part of the problem is that we have so much ad hoc design.
And when you cobble this ad hoc design together it creates something that is
sometimes not navigable. So on one hand you’re solving problems as they come up,
but when you look at the aggregate, you actually end up with an even bigger
problem to solve. What do you think about that?



NMB:

Ultimately you can’t move forward without good governance and policies in place.
Design is political. I think the reason that design doesn’t really have a “face”
on the continent is because there are no policies or politics that allow for
design to be placed at the forefront. In terms of design I’m not just talking
about products, but urban planning, education, and healthcare. What’s beautiful
about these products that I’m looking at is that they are like a “fuck you” to
the status quo. We can’t just sit back and wait, we’re going to try to solve the
problems that are right in front of us through creativity.


Research image of a meruwa water barrel from AADU. Image courtesy of Benson
Ibeabuchi Photography.

TW:

Right, so what is the second object you’re looking at?



NMB:

So the second object is Meruwa, which is a wheelbarrow-like device that’s used
to transport water from one suburb to the other. 

This interest came about during the pandemic when I was doing research for a
handwashing station I designed with the community. We designed this handwashing
station because during the pandemic a lot of artisans I was working with were
out of work and were looking to create something useful. So what I did was talk
to friends who were doctors and nurses to figure out what problems might be
solved through better design and realized there was a need for handwashing
stations. I quickly realized while speaking with both artisan and medical
practitioner stakeholders that we needed to create something that was local and
had a contextual design language, which made us factor in the Meruwa water
hawkers who were bringing in the water to these hospitals. 

Design-wise we wanted to create a form that people were visually accustomed to,
while also factoring ease and efficiency for the Meruwa who were providing
water. So the handwashing station was designed so that instead of pouring water
into the hand washing station, all they would have to do is replace the existing
empty 25 liter keg at the bottom with a different keg that they brought in. 


Through AADU, Nifemi hopes to create an open-source resource on African design
for future designers. Image courtesy of nmbello studio.

TW:

Right, so the Meruwa push this wheelbarrow that has usually six 25 liter kegs
from house to house for people who don’t have running water, it’s really about
portable convenience for them. With this new research project are you
researching the design of these products and then redesigning them?



NMB:

I’m not redesigning them. Why redesign if they work? I’m actually trying to
learn from them, to see how they’ve used materials and material ability to
dictate forms and create solutions. One of the things I hope to achieve with
this research is to create an open source resource so that this information is
available to future designers. [African] design language is different from the
standardized design language of say Europe or North America, but I think it’s
important to build an archive of products and ideas that embrace how we live,
rather than dictating how we should want to live. 



TW:

Right, I have a story that sort of illustrates that. Where I live there’s a
woman that makes akara on a side street. Her daughter will take this akara, put
it in plastic containers along with ogi and put it on her head and sell it from
there. So once, I asked her if she would like me to make one of those NesCafe
coffee pushcarts for her so she could just scoop the akara and ogi from there
and sell it. But she said no, that doesn’t work for me, what I do is better. I
wanted to get your opinion on that from a design perspective, because to me it’s
less efficient, but it’s pretty characteristic of Lagos. 



NMB:

Good design is like the cornerstone of good ethnographic research. From her
point of view, too drastic of a change is the same as shooting yourself in the
foot. Her customers might have it ingrained in their head that the best akara
comes from a vendor that sells from their head, and would refuse to buy it from
the cart. 

This is why I think those design sprints they’ve introduced in design thinking
are so funny. You can’t create anything with just two months in the field, you
have to be ingrained in that community. Humility is important in design, not
just from your own point of view but also the product you are trying to create.
You have to think about the person, material, the usage, the emotional context
and connectivity.


The LM Stool. Image courtesy of nmbello studio. The M2 Shelf. Image courtesy of
nmbello studio. The Selah Lamp. Image courtesy of nmbello studio. The LM Stool.
Image courtesy of nmbello studio.

TW:

A lot of the furniture you design is unconventional and unexpected, something
that grows with you over time. I’m interested in understanding what is beautiful
and what is ugly to you in design?



NMB:

This is a really hard question because I don’t often think of ugliness. As for
beauty, I think that really lies in honesty. I like the juxtaposition of
materials, and also using materials in unexpected ways. There’s a Dieter Rams
saying that design should be unobtrusive. But for me, the design in Africa can
be obtrusive, it can be sculptural but at the same time extremely functional. So
before, I was really interested in making design that fit seamlessly into the
background, and sometimes I still design like that, but now I’m becoming more
comfortable with creating things that have presence.





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