In a fabulous fairy-tale like manner, Belgian-Spanish photojournalist Christina De Middel gives insight into what could have been Africa’s early space program, with some artistic interpretation. Via FastCo Design:
“In 1964, a Zambian high school science teacher named Edward Makuka Nkoloso took it upon himself to found a space program for his country. It was the climax of the Space race, and Nkoloso wanted to put the first African on the moon (and later, Mars). “Zambians are inferior to no men in science and technology,” he wrote in an op-ed entitled “We’re Going To Mars!” “My space plans will surely be carried out.”
“For The Afronauts, De Middel crafted a fictionalized series of props and landscapes, including maps, documents, and a spacesuit woven from colorful textiles (stitched by her grandmother), which she photographed in the midst of dunescapes and elephants.”