Manju Journal on what it means to be part of the African aesthetic today

At November’s Nicer Tuesdays Online penultimate talk, we were treated to a detailed rundown of Manju Journal. Based between Accra and London, the arts and culture platform’s founder Orlando Mensah and fashion director Kusi Kubi took us through the journal’s selected highlights over the years. Having collaborated with some of the best names in the business from Liz Johnson Artur to Ruth Ossai and Nadine Ijeware, the speakers proceeded to discuss its mission: to celebrate contemporary African creative talent and amplify their work.

Questioning what the African aesthetic is today, Orlando and Kusi then took us through a recent project made in collaboration with Gucci and creative agent A Vibe Called Tech. Titled We Are All They, the campaign set in Ghana and wholly created by its inhabitants, explores the notion that Ghanaian pronouns are genderless. A deeply personal project for the whole team, Kusi considered how gender is perceived differently by Ghanians in contrast to westerners, and went on to explain how these cultural differences informed the striking and emphatic fashion photography campaign.