ABOUT

OUR STORY

Open Design Afrika (ODA) is a proudly Afrikan social enterprise and non-profit company that represents a global community of thought leaders, change-makers and creative problem-solvers. What began in 2013 as the Open Design Cape Town Festival by the original co-founders Christo Maritz, Y Tsai and Suné Stassen, has since developed into a new Afrikan brand through the leadership of a new team. Open Design Afrika is an international knowledge-sharing platform in Afrika. This platform aims to build capacity in Afrika through creativity, specifically by creating accessible opportunities to learn, share and participate with one another as Afrikan citizens. To this end, ODA is dedicated to help nurture a future-ready culture of problem-solvers and change-makers who are equipped and empowered with the appropriate future skills that will enable them to add value to the future world of business, our environments and society at large.

The three building blocks that drive our underpinning philosophy of sustainability, inclusivity and prosperity include design-led innovation and technology, education as well as community. Together, these building blocks provide our ODA community with a solid foundation to unlock truly Afrikan and innovative solutions. Ultimately, ODA’s story is about driving design-enabled social change and creating a design and entrepreneurial culture for the common good.

Since we registered our new enterprise, we have been crazy busy developing exciting new projects that allows ODA to continue to add value, create change and have an impact year-round; after all, we have always been more than just a festival! Our own team of change-makers, city-makers, social designers and entrepreneurs have been hard at work identifying local challenges and evaluating how best we can add value to create change through short interventions and yearlong projects.

AFRIKA
IS RISING

RISE WITH HER

We write Afrika with a “K”!

There are more than 2000 indigenous languages in Afrika and they all write Afrika with a “K”. To us Africa with a “C” as an external and outside worldview of Afrika. Afrika with a “K” is us as Afrikans taking ownership of our future and our destiny. It is an inward-looking out perspective of our Afrikan continent.

OUR VALUES

The following values underpin our inclusive and empathetic humanist philosophy of Ubuntu, which favours empathy, justice, tolerance, integrity, inclusivity and equality through a community-driven  focus that calls for collaboration, connection and reciprocal relationships. These  values  aim  to  instill  pride  in  Afrika  and  in  being  proudly  Afrikan,  and  to  create optimism  for a better future by way of providing  meaningful  significant  experiences  for all parties involved to help stimulate the design of well-being, design to include, design for change and design for life:

We are VISIONARY.
We are PASSIONATE.
We are BOLD.

We are PURPOSEFUL.
We are EMPATHETIC.
We are CHANGE MAKERS.

OUR VISION

To build capacity beyond the 21st century in Afrika and the world. To create an international knowledge sharing platform and stimulate the development of a future-making culture of problem solvers and change makers for Afrika, by Afrikans. To develop and build a confident culture of global citizens equipped with appropriate future-making skills that can add value and meaning to the future world of purpose-driven businesses, flourishing environments, and thriving communities.

Our vision is to use the ODA platform to shape alternate futures by making Afrikan citizens aware of their inherent creative problem-solving skills and nurturing these skills towards a better quality of life, ultimately by creating and cultivating a culture of creativity and design-led innovation through multi-disciplinary civic collaboration.

OUR
TEAM

Meet our leaders
& supporters
behind the ODA brand.

OPEN DESIGN AFRIKA PILLARS

ODA FESTIVAL

STEAM EDUCATION

LEARN BIOMIMICRY

ODA UBUNTU: The Power of US Festival

Coming soon.

OPEN DESIGN AFRIKA
WETOPIA ACADEMY

Making cities together.