Welcome to NEW AFRO
At the age of 8. I left Brazzaville (Republic of Congo) to join my mother and my adoptive father in Cotonou (Benin), where they respectively worked as representant of a German NGO in Lokossa and where my mother was finishing her studies.
Since then, Benin has played a huge part in the awakening of the possible role I could play as an African Woman, who believes in the capacity of cultural exchanges to enable social development in the epoche we're living.
Traditional, cultural, and religious heritages are an important part of almost every Beninese Person's life. People there grow up being aware of their history as 'black' and learn to love what remains from their ancestors, starting from languages, clothing styles, musical instruments, to values and beliefs.
These cultural particularities that Benin and many other African countries have always made me become even more proud of being African, despite all the political, economical, and social challenges this beautiful continent has to face.
In 2013 after my High-school graduation, my whole family moved to Mainz (Germany). This change wasn't easy, but shortly after I joined the preparatory school, where I was surrounded by people from different origins and cultures, and most importantly with the same goal as me: learning sufficient German to be able to study what we wanted, I felt good again, being in a space that always knew and needed: interculturality
However, during my first years as a Political science student, I was usually confronted with questions that I found sometimes very 'ignorant' on the African continent on the behalf of my fellow students or other intellectuals. This was also the case outside the university.
Worst, I was and I'm still sometimes shocked by the way certain media portray the African continent, Its realities, and cultures. Or the cliches existing on African people and their countries.
For having spent 18,5 years of my life in Central and West Africa, I felt the need to show the image of the African continent, that We're not used to seeing on International media and educate that way, the ones who still have wrong cliches about African, African-descendants and their cultures. Therefore, Gustav Friis and I decided to create a cultural project that We named NEW AFRO.
NEW AFRO is a culturally-driven development project, that wants to share the best of afro creativity, cultures & entrepreneurship with you. On this site, You can expect we will cover different afro lifestyles, fashion, music/movies, and everything in between.
Together we can change this misperception by empowering exchanges between Afro creatives, entrepreneurial products, and services with the world.Â
Do you have anything on your mind you want to share with us? Feel free to reach out to us and join us in portraying the chic, talented, modern, moving & tasty reality of afro cultures <3.
We are just getting started
This is a social change in process, we welcome you to join. For inquiries, questions, feedback, collaborations, partnerships, or suggestions please contact us at hello@newafro.net
Let's build a better world together!
Picture of Cheria by: Marina Ackar Photography
Cheria Essieke-Bayer