Zoë Ene trained as an industrial designer at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where she recalls being conflicted with what was being taught than what she knew of her Igbo heritage and its craft philosophies. “As a young designer, I was eager to challenge that gap – probably annoying a few lecturers in the process – and became interested in work that explored the opposite,” she says.
Now, she doesn’t just make work that is culturally interwoven but uses said perspective to document theories, methods and tools that aid her practice and others. Her recent work, the IO stool, is shaped like a kola nut, called isi oji in Igbo, and includes perforated motifs that appear in triangular gaps, giving it a structural impression.
Homenkà is the platform that Zoë founded to shape her design language and lead her closer to deep cultural research. It’s a portmanteau of the Igbo word Omenkà (artist) with the word Home, which reflects the commitment to homegrown approaches to designing objects. “My goal is to make the value of Nigerian traditional design visible, usable, and meaningful in everyday life – especially in Nigerian homes and shared spaces. We’re just getting started, and I’m excited for what’s ahead.”
Her forthcoming work Ncho 01 is a prototype mancala board (also known as oware, ayo, bao, or ncholokoto from which the board gets its name) and is centred on continuing Igbo woodcarving making traditions and embodies the duality of function and beauty that defines much of African object design. “At our booth, people taught each other how to play, shared memories of using stones or digging holes in the earth to create boards as kids, and responded with joy at seeing a familiar game reimagined.”
Reclaiming the narratives of their heritage is not just a bus stop for these designers, they are also looking inward, extending their knowledge to those who care deeply about this practice. With that said, it wouldn’t come as a surprise seeing further innovations of this ilk that would shape the future of design.