Back when I was studying Graphic Design and Photography as a university student, I went to an exhibition that changed how I felt about Africa as a continent. It was a photography exhibition by the British Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye – a name that cannot be mentioned without the fact that in 2023 the Financial Times reported allegations of sexual harassment and assault by three former employees. 

But this was more than a decade before that came to light, and his Urban Africa exhibition felt like a photographic survey of the architecture of 53 capital cities in Africa (Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia was omitted from the survey due to the civil war and instability at the time of Adjaye’s travels).

As I examined each photograph, a sense of familiarity settled upon me. Not quite deja vu, but still, a sense of recognition that felt deeply emotional. It wasn’t that the architecture and streets depicted in each photograph was even vaguely the same – the exhibition did an amazing job of displaying the variety of architectural taste and traditions that can be found across Africa – but each photograph felt like some version of ‘home’.