“The greatest strength at the heart of Africa’s cities is the people, their knowledge and tenacity”

ACC’s Edgar Pieterse and Philippa Tumubweinee were featured on CNN’s Inside Africa episode on Africa’s next-gen cities alongside other creative thinkers from Nairobi and Lagos. In the segment on Cape Town, Edgar takes the CNN crew to 16 on Lerotholi, an art gallery in the heart of Langa township. The episode highlights how Africa’s creatives are “trying to redefine urban living for the future” and the lessons that African cities have for the world.

Pieterse on 16 on Lerotholi: “I love this space because it speaks to that can-do attitude. These are 3 young people from Langa that said ‘why can’t we have a world class, contemporary art museum in the heart of Langa and we’ll do it ourselves and we’ll do it on our own terms.’ I can’t think of a more vibrant node in the city where that kind of energy is aggregating and is visible with incredible art”.

Tumubweinee, an Associate Professor and practicing Architect, speaks on building more socially inclusive and environmentally friendly cities. “We’re sitting in a time where we can be completely imaginative as to what we want an urban environment or an African city to look like…We can literally move into a future where anything is possible because we have no choice but to radically imagine and speculate as to what that environment is going to be…There is an upswell of people who are experimenting with different ways of looking at how we build our built environment,” she says.

Watch the episode below.