M’ba M’etta Collection

M’ba M’etta is the latest collection by Nyorh Agwe, a woman’s lifestyle brand that reflects cultural experiences of an African girl growing up anywhere except in Africa.

Nyorh Agwe was born in Yaoundé (Cameroon) and moved to Italy shortly after her birth. She grew up there until she was 4 years old. Then Agwe moved back to Cameroon and lived there for 2 years before she finally moved to the United States. Today she is an artist and her art shows the cultural clashes she experienced growing up. Gratuated in 2014 from the Parsons School of Design she began to embrace her cross cultural personality.

Her latest collection is called M’ba M’etta. The pieces are colourful, funky, detailed and fearless.

The idea came up when she was for the first time in Cameroon. Walking through the bush Agwe’s father taught her how raffia fibers were used for baskets, mats, brooms etc. She also learned that raffia was the sole fiber for traditional dyeing. Nyorh Agwe became sad when she heard that this dyeing practise is slowly disappearing and being replaced with modern forms and materials.

She began to dye different fabrics like cotton and silk with raffia and got amazing results. She put all the experiences together and her collection “M’ba M’etta – We the Metta People” was born.

 

Nyorh Agwe: “The collection is my own physical link, through arts, to a culture and to people that I did not have the chance to know too well. It is almost  a proclamation that I am Metta and as such it is my duty to not just watch my culture disappear or become underappreciated. The collection is a reminder to others as well as to Metta People just how special we are”.