---
title: At Home With a Continent’s Cultural Heritage
date: 2025-01-15T09:55:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://terp.umd.edu/at-home-with-a-continents-cultural-heritage"
section: Articles
---
# At Home With a Continent’s Cultural Heritage

*January 15, 2025* — by [Sala Levin ’10](/authors/sala-levin-10)


- *Photos by John T. Consoli*

> Alumna’s Book Weaves Together African Design Principles and Contemporary Decor

*Nasozi Kakembo poses next to Juju hat — Nasozi Kakembo ’05 shows off a featured Juju hat from Cameroon in her Maryland home. Her book, “The African Decor Edit,” teaches design-minded readers how to enliven their homes with traditional African objects.*

The multicultural aesthetic of Nasozi Kakembo’s childhood home felt as natural as the groundnut stew her mother would cook for dinner. Impala hides on the walls symbolized her Ugandan-born father’s Baganda tribe, Senufo statues commemorated her mother’s travels in West Africa, and the overarching minimalism nodded to her parents’ time in Germany, where her dad attended medical school and her mom was a fashion model and nurse.

But as Kakembo ’05 got older, she realized that the tastes of most of her neighbors in Silver Spring, Md., ran more to the pastel pink sofa her parents eventually bought from BJ’s Wholesale Club. As an art history major at UMD, she became interested in understanding how the textiles, furniture and art from her parents’ African heritage could be incorporated into homes around the world.


*"The African Decor Edit" book*


*stack of three books with candle and elephant figurine on top and plant in background*


At UMD, Kakembo studied art history and traveled to Morocco and Uganda, the latter of which “felt like home.” After college, she moved to New York City, where she earned a graduate degree in urban planning at Columbia University and worked for an international human rights foundation. On a trip to Senegal, a visit to a fabric market altered her professional trajectory.

“I just was blown away by the sheer volume” of fabrics, Kakembo says. She bought some pieces and “had this whole creative explosion on the plane ride back,” where she came up with designs for pillows. She taught herself to sew, and soon was selling her pillows at festivals and markets in New York City.

Eventually, Kakembo’s pillow business blossomed into [XN Studio](https://xnstudio.com/), a design business that incorporated her work as well as items she’d bring back from her travels in Africa.


*bowl with pinecones*




**Issue:** [Winter 2025](https://terp.umd.edu/editions/winter-2025)


**Types:** [Post-Grad](https://terp.umd.edu/category/post-grad)