Originally published on orature.africa In this article, Oriiz U. Onuwaje argues that design has always been more than decoration—it is a technology of power, memory, and identity. From the royal ivory of sixteenth-century Benin to […]

Originally published on orature.africa In this piece, Oriiz U. Onuwaje explores how African societies intentionally embedded memory into their material world. What we now call “art” was originally a practical system for preserving history, legitimising […]

Originally published on orature.africa In this article, Oriiz U. Onuwaje explores rhythm as a democratic system of memory—one that preserves history beyond books, institutions, or written records. Across Africa, rhythm has long functioned as an […]

Originally published on orature.africa In this essay, Oriiz U. Onuwaje explores rhythm as evidence of history rather than entertainment. Long before museums, libraries, or written records, African societies preserved memory through repeated movement, sound, and […]

By Oriiz U Onuwaje Oriiz writes that our sound is a tool for ‘community connection’ that endured silence to become a global roar. When you hear @temsbaby’s soul or @ayrastarr’s confidence, you are hearing centuries […]

What does it mean to capture the likeness of a soul, whether using sacred earth or lines of code? Oriiz looks at how capturing likeness has always been a political act, from the ritual workshops […]

Form is never neutral. It is always charged with meaning. Imagine a griot in Mali, seated with a kora, his voice carrying genealogies of kings and the moral lessons of centuries. Now imagine a rapper […]