Masa Mara

Founded in 2014 by Rwandan-born multidisciplinary artist and creative director Nyambo Masa Mara, MASA MARA is a Pan-African design house working across fashion, textiles, and art. The label operates on a specific belief: that culture isn't fixed, and that each generation carries a responsibility to add to what it inherits rather than simply preserve it.

That belief shapes how collections come together. Rather than treating heritage as a fixed reference point, each collection asks what this generation can contribute to African culture while still honoring what came before it — work that draws on the past without being bound by it, positioned as part of Africa's ongoing cultural story rather than a tribute to its history.

Nyambo's own path feeds directly into that approach. Having lived in more than eight countries across the continent, his understanding of Africa is shaped by breadth rather than a single point of origin — an experience that surfaces in work exploring identity, movement, and belonging, and that reads as distinctly African while still resonating beyond it.

Today, MASA MARA continues to expand across fashion, original textile development, and contemporary art — producing work for the present while adding this generation's chapter to a story future generations will inherit.

Since its founding, MASA MARA has presented work across platforms on the continent and internationally, including African Fashion International (AFI) and the AFI × CANEX Fashion Show at the Intra-African Trade Fair in Durban, South African Menswear Week, Hub of Africa Fashion Week in Addis Ababa, Portugal Fashion Week, Shanghai Fashion Week, and Barbados Fashion Week. Its work has also appeared at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, the Kigali Triennial, the VI Bienal del Sur in Venezuela, the Dakar Biennale OFF, Giants of Africa, and the Fashion Africa Now Fashion Experience at Design Zentrum Hamburg. Alongside international recognition through design awards, the label's continued presence across these platforms reflects its ongoing place in contemporary African design.