In Their Finest Robes, The Children Shall Return
Sunny Dolat & The Nest Collective
2019, Kenya
Performance, video by Noel Kasyoka
A central inspiration for this performance was a speech in 2018 by Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, who declared 2019 ‘the Year of Return for Africans’ in the diaspora, claiming that ‘the time is right’ for people of African descent to make the journey back. Noting that former slave trading post São Tomé e Príncipe seems to have lost its connection with the mainland, Sunny Dolat aimed to symbolically reconnect the small island country with the rest of the vast African continent through a pan-African fashion performance with a high symbolic value.
56 fashion designers, one from every country of the African continent and one from the diaspora, each provided a look for one of 56 models scouted in São Tomé. Together, they participated in a performance connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the city of São Tomé, starting at dawn.
By presenting unique designs from all 55 African countries and one to represent the diaspora, Dolat aimed to show the diversity and richness of Africa and African fashion, and thereby underline that there is not, and has never been, one singular African look or style: ‘One look per country is just a glimpse, and in beginning to see African fashion fully, we must begin to enter with depth as well. You know the saying “it takes a village” – well, this will quite literally take a Continent!’
Sunny Dolat is an independent fashion curator and creative director. In 2012 he co-founded The Nest Collective, a multidisciplinary Kenyan squad working with film, fashion, visual arts, and music. In 2019 he was invited to stage a fashion performance at the NGola Biennale in Sao Tomé e Principe.
Founded in 2012, the Nest Collective has created works in film, music, fashion, visual arts and literature, such as the critically-acclaimed queer anthology film Stories of Our Lives, which has so far screened in over 80 countries and won numerous awards. In 2013, the Nest Collective also founded HEVA—Africa’s first creative business fund of its kind—to strengthen the livelihoods of East Africa’s creative entrepreneurs. In 2018, the Nest Collective founded the Strictly Silk program—a dance party and multimedia space that centres joy, safety and community for women and non-binary people of all origins, faiths and generations.