The success of Black Panther and its afrofuturist aesthetic has put Africa in the spotlight as a growing force in design, technology and fashion, according to designers from the continent.
African designers, architects and filmmakers told Dezeen that the Marvel movie, which features a black superhero and is set in fictional African country Wakanda, has focused attention on Africa's already burgeoning creative scene.
"I am so over the moon with Black Panther, said Sunu Goneera, a Zimbabwean filmmaker who has been working in Hollywood. "It's a game changer and the opportunity is wide open. I'm excited to take our stories to the world."
Speaking at the Design Indaba conference in Cape Town last month, Goneera said: "As a continent, I feel a rising tide raising all ships, not just one."
The film has triggered a surge of interest in afrofuturism: a cultural movement that combines African culture and identity with technology and science fiction, and which heavily influenced the movie's set and costume designs.
"You can look to afrofuturism for the aesthetic [of Black Panther]," production designer Hannah Beachler told Dezeen in an exclusive interview last month.
"It was really about blending things that were existing in a lot of different African cultures, then creating them as if they had evolved over time and inserting that into our fictional nation."
Mark Kamau, an interaction designer from Nairobi, Kenya, said the afrofuturism revival was changing global perceptions of African creativity.
"It's about thinking what images and stories and perspectives we're projecting for the young generation," Kamau told Dezeen, in an interview following his own Design Indaba presentation.
"I think it's important that we start creating a different narrative for Africa and that's what this movement is doing," he said. "Design is the most powerful tool to transform Africa."
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