This quilt was made by Roland Agbage, a young quilt-maker from Kogi State in Nigeria and designed with Polly Eaton from Britain, who lived in Abuja Nigeria for many years.
In The Africa Quilt the devastating impact of the exploitation of Africa's natural resources, on both her people and landscape, is depicted. Congo and Liberia have both suffered from the West's dependence on rubber, and the forests of Africa continue to be exported for making furniture and housing abroad. Sierra Leone's wars were fuelled by diamond money. The wars in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo continue because of the profits to be made from stripping the land of coltan (essential in mobile phones), copper, gold, tin and diamonds.
Probably the single resource that has done more to cripple fragile democracies is oil, particularly in Nigeria, where its extraction has caused terrible environmental damage.
The quilt shows us that the abundance of Africa has gone a long way to support the lifestyles of those in the wealthier nations of the world.
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