Here it is! We’ve always wanted to interview an African entrepreneur based in Germany. Why? Think about it. We don’t know many things about African presence in this country. Who for example can name 10 African designers or brands based in Germany?
Beatrice Oola can. Born and raised in Germany and originally from Uganda, she founded Africa Fashion Day Berlin in 2012. She started thinking about that project in 2009-2010, while she was in Uganda for quite a long period. She exchanged with designers, musicians, and lmmakers on the ground and realised there was a wave coming: African Culture, especially fashion, was beginning to cross borders…
Inspire Afrika: Is AFDB your first project?
Beatrice Oola: Yes, AFDB is my rst entrepreneurial project. Initially, I’m coming from the production eld. I worked for lm production companies as a production designer, and after that, I also worked as a stylist. So l have got all this creative experience, but working in pro- duction helped me organize and canalize that creativity.
AFDB was a way to do so- mething where I had skills. But I also wanted to bring people together and create a kind of feeling.
As I see it, people are some- times not aware about their identity (who they are, where they really belong to, etc.) when they are having for example a white German father and an Afri- can mother, or when parents are separated.
Therefore, I believe everyone needs space, a stage where they can nd people who have the same mind-set than them.
Please click below to read the full interview on page 16.
