Afro Surf

Afro Surf is, to borrow publisher-creator Mami Wata’s own description, “a visual mindbomb”.  But it’s much more than the glorious creative direction by award-winning designer and artist Peet Pienaar. It’s a current chronicle of the history of surfing on the continent and a revelation that the sport is not just the domain of its blonde-haired archetype. University of California history professor Kevin Dawson writes in the book’s introduction that in the 1640s, a German goldsmith working for the Dutch West India Company watched children in what is now Ghana ride waves on wooden boards. From its Kickstarter campaign (which overshot its target by 300% in 75 days), to its global book deal and staggering sales, reviews in The Guardian and the New York Times, and – perhaps most notably – its commitment to donating 100% of all royalties to surf therapy organisations Waves for Change and Surfers Not Streetchildren, Afro Surf’s ripple effects are wonderfully far reaching.