Dolph Banza is an early adopter of digital illustration in Rwanda, a visual storyteller whose practice bridges engineering logic with ancestral memory, and a visionary who sees geometry not just as form, but as cultural code. Born in Kigali in the early 1980s, Banza grew up as the child who was always drawing—for teachers, neighbours, and anyone who would give him a pencil. Creativity was instinctive, almost inevitable. Yet his path did not begin in the arts. Trained as an engineer, Banza followed what many would consider an elite and secure profession. His eventual decision to abandon engineering for illustration was, in the context of Rwanda at the time, both risky and radical.
From Engineer to Illustrator
When Banza began working seriously with digital illustration, it was not widely recognised as a viable profession in Rwanda. The creative industries were still forming, and illustration was often seen as auxiliary rather than central. Yet Banza was among the first Rwandan creatives to embrace digital illustration as a primary medium—recognising its potential for storytelling, education, and mass communication.
His entrepreneurial instincts led him to found InkStain, a creative communication agency that uses illustration and animation to help organisations and individuals tell their stories. InkStain became not only a business venture, but also a platform through which illustration entered classrooms, public campaigns, and community education initiatives across Rwanda.
In many ways, Banza’s work exemplifies a broader African design trajectory: digital tools deployed not only for aesthetics, but for empowerment and social change.
Illustration as Public Infrastructure
Over nearly a decade, Banza’s illustrations have reached audiences far beyond galleries and screens. He has illustrated educational materials and children’s books now used within Rwanda’s national curriculum—quietly shaping how knowledge is visualised and internalised by young learners. In Rwanda, illustration has often functioned as a tool for behavioural change education, public health campaigns, and civic communication. Banza’s work has travelled to remote communities, where visual storytelling bridges literacy gaps and makes complex information accessible. In this sense, his practice positions illustration as a form of visual infrastructure—a cultural technology that mediates knowledge, identity, and public life.
A Theory of Everything: Geometry, Sci-Fi, and Precolonial Memory
While Banza’s applied work has had tangible social impact, his personal artistic trajectory moves toward speculative and historical exploration. His evolving visual language gathers his long-standing interests—precolonial African cultures, science fiction, and geometry—into what he describes as a “theory of everything.” This convergence is not accidental. Banza is fascinated by ancient African arts such as mask carving, architectural weaving, and ornamental systems. He sees in these traditions complex geometrical knowledge systems—encoded mathematics, cosmology, and design intelligence embedded in material culture. For Banza, geometry is not a neutral aesthetic; it is a repository of African epistemologies. By merging technical drawing, fantasy art, and Afrofuturist speculation, he seeks to reimagine African histories and futures through visual systems that are both ancestral and futuristic.
Between Tradition and Afrofuturism
Banza’s practice sits at a compelling intersection: tradition and Afrofuturism, pedagogy and myth-making, engineering precision and imaginative speculation. His fascination with geometry echoes broader movements in African digital art that reclaim indigenous design logics while engaging with speculative futures. In this sense, Banza’s work resonates with a generation of African artists who see digital media not as rupture, but as continuity—new tools for ancient logics.
Towards African Historical Futures
Looking forward, Banza envisions a practice increasingly oriented toward African historical exploration through storytelling, technical drawing, fantasy art, and animation. His ambition is not only to represent African histories, but to visualise what African futures might look like when informed by indigenous knowledge systems rather than imported templates. In a continent where digital illustration has often been undervalued, Dolph Banza’s trajectory—from engineer to pioneer illustrator, from educator to Afrofuturist visual theorist—marks him as a key figure in the quiet infrastructure of African digital culture. His work reminds us that digital art is not merely an aesthetic field; it is a site where histories are rewritten, futures imagined, and knowledge systems visualised—line by line, geometry by geometry.
