Nostalgia as Aesthetic: Why Y2K, Ankara, and Afrobeats Are Taking Over African Visual Culture
In recent years, nostalgia has become one of the most powerful tools shaping African creative expression. Across fashion, music, and visual art, creators are mining the past not simply for sentiment but for inspiration, identity, and storytelling. Whether it is the bold textures of Ankara reimagined in futuristic silhouettes or throwback music videos infused with VHS style editing, a new generation of creatives is turning the lens backward in order to move forward.
Why Now?
The resurgence of nostalgic aesthetics in African culture is not accidental. From the global Y2K fashion wave to the local reawakening of interest in vintage Nollywood, creatives across the continent and diaspora are leaning into the aesthetics of the past with fresh purpose.
This shift is partly generational. Many millennial and Gen Z Africans are coming of age in a time when technology allows for greater access to archival content, home videos, classic soundtracks, and the visuals that defined their childhoods. These memories are being reframed with a mix of irony, homage, and personal storytelling.
The rise of Afrobeats globally has also played a role in spotlighting retro visuals. From Burna Boy’s Wonderful to Ayra Starr’s Sability, music videos are increasingly styled to resemble old school African television programs or filtered through vintage frames. These visuals are not just decorative. They root contemporary success in shared memory and offer international audiences a glimpse into African cultural archives.
Ankara, Remixed
Ankara has long been a staple of African fashion. But in today’s nostalgic wave, designers are finding new ways to remix its meaning. Brands like Pepper Row and IAMISIGO incorporate traditional prints into unconventional cuts, modern tailoring, and eco conscious fabrics. This reimagining is not about preserving tradition in its original form. It is about evolving it.
What once defined ceremonial wear now finds expression in streetwear and avant-garde fashion editorials. These reinterpretations allow young creatives to reflect their hybrid identities, grounded in heritage but responsive to global design shifts. Nostalgia becomes a design lens. It allows fashion to speak to memory while embracing innovation.
Visual Storytelling and Vintage Codes
This visual remix extends beyond fabric. Across the continent, brands are adopting vintage style aesthetics to craft campaigns that feel familiar yet fresh. In Nigeria, Shuttlers’ campaign featuring chalkboards, school uniforms, and plastic chairs nodded to 90s childhood routines while promoting a modern ride sharing service. The imagery was playful and evocative, transforming an everyday service into a cultural flashpoint.
Another powerful example of this nostalgic revival is the recreation of the beloved ‘Mama Do Good’ Indomie commercial from 15 years ago. The original ad, which featured children playing in a living room and being served noodles by a mother figure, became an iconic snapshot of Nigerian childhood. In the updated version, those same children and the mother appear again (this time all grown up) reenacting the scene with striking similarity. The result is both heartwarming and powerful, collapsing time and emotion into a single visual narrative that celebrates memory, growth, and cultural continuity.
Creative collectives across cities like Nairobi, Accra, and Lagos are using VHS filters, grainy textures, and lo fi formats to produce films and photo projects that feel like unearthed family tapes. These stylistic choices are about more than aesthetics. They are creative reclamations. They center African memory in the digital age and allow artists to express stories that feel real, raw, and rooted.
Archiving the Culture
One voice leading this kind of archival revival is Daniel Obaweya, also known as Nigerian Gothic. Through his work, he digs into Nigeria’s historical and cultural visual archives, reviving old photo aesthetics and forgotten references and presenting them with contemporary relevance. His lens often spotlights the gothic, surreal, and spiritual layers of Nigerian memory, offering a haunting yet beautiful reminder that the past is not gone. It is simply waiting to be seen again.
This practice of revival also includes the work of other cultural archivists like visual artist Yagazie Emezi, who documents everyday African life with raw honesty and intentionality. Figures such as architect and curator Papa Omotayo and poet activist Lebo Mashile are equally part of this larger movement of memory keepers, using design, performance, and language to preserve and reframe cultural histories for a new generation.
Afrobeats and the Echo of the Past
Music continues to push these trends forward. Afrobeats artists often build entire visual worlds from nostalgic references. Rema’s videos reference 2000s era Nollywood, while Tems and Fireboy DML frequently use color grading, set design, and styling that evoke vintage moodboards.
The visual choices are intentional. They reflect how music, as a storytelling tool, can help bridge generational gaps. They also act as cultural exports, giving global audiences not just a sound but a feeling, a curated experience that draws from African pasts and presents.
Beyond visuals, the sound of nostalgia runs deep through Afrobeats. Sampling has become a key part of this cultural layering. Burna Boy’s “City Boys” samples J Hus’ “Gambian Rebel,” while his global hit “Last Last” heavily samples Toni Braxton’s 2000 classic “He Wasn’t Man Enough.” Ayra Starr’s “Jazzy’s Song” pays homage to the pivotal and much loved beat of Wande Coal’s “You Bad” a track produced by Don Jazzy himself. Tems’ Love Me Jeje is a direct reimagining of Seyi Sodimu’s beloved 1997 track, reviving the mellow rhythm and lyrics for a new generation. Similarly, Olufunmi Reimagined by ID Cabasa brings together a new generation of artists including Fireboy DML, Odumodublvck, Boj, and Joeboy to rework the iconic Styl-Plus hit, “Olufunmi”, a staple of early 2000s Nigerian R&B.
Other artists draw from more recent cultural moments. Asake’s Peace Be Unto You (PBUY) samples a viral Nigerian police video that features the repeated phrase “Help me, help me.” The clip, originally shared online as a humorous soundbite, becomes a hypnotic hook in the track, transforming a once humorous moment into a rhythmic and anthemic phrase. The use of internet born audio reflects how artists are now capturing the spirit of the digital age through sound.
These choices are not just stylistic. They are deliberate nods to musical memory, ways of stitching older cultural references into new narratives. They keep the past alive while resonating with both nostalgic and new listeners, shaping Afrobeats as both a soundtrack and a living archive.
In a fast moving digital culture, nostalgia provides grounding. It allows African creatives to define legacy on their own terms and reclaim aesthetic codes that were once dismissed as outdated. It turns the past into a toolkit for the present; a way to resist erasure and champion visibility.
This is not nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. From fashion to film to music, it reflects a growing confidence in African creative identity. A confidence that says: the past is ours to reinterpret, remix, and reframe, and in doing so, we shape the future with clarity.
