Africa is set to unveil a monumental, high-impact financial institution focused on transforming the continent’s creative industries with the introduction of The ÁLKÈ Ball.
Rooted in Art, Legacy, Knowledge, and Enterprise, The ÁLKÈ Ball is defined as an exclusive annual, high-net-worth Gala/Awards Night that prioritises prestige, financial networking, and investment. Reflecting the high-end consumption focus of prestigious local events like Nairobi’s renowned Tribal Chic, this premier gathering will serve as a critical bridge connecting ultra-high-net-worth individuals and corporate partners to Africa’s bespoke luxury market. Future editions are set to rotate among Africa’s major cultural hubs, bringing immediate exposure to trailblazers and cutting-edge brands.
The ÁLKÈ Ball is designed to reshape global understanding of African fashion, significantly deepen the value of African creative economies, and secure long-term cultural sovereignty. Joining the ranks of esteemed heritage brands like Ann McCreath’s KikoRomeo and globally celebrated luxury jewellery house Adele Dejak.
Derived from Alkebulan, one of the oldest known names for Africa, ÁLKÈ asserts a fundamental truth the world is only now beginning to recognise: African fashion was never merely decorative; it was and remains evidence of lineage, mastery, and thought. The ÁLKÈ Ball enters this lineage as a cultural institution and a continental benchmark for fashion, economy, heritage, and global influence.
The ÁLKÈ Ball is spearheaded by Lulu Shabell, Founder & CEO of Lulubell Group, one of Africa’s leading architects of luxury and cultural innovation. Working across more than twenty African countries, including Kenya. Shabell has supported designers, expanded the African fashion industry, and established international connections through strategic insight and cultural understanding.
Shabell notes: “ÁLKÈ is our declaration that Africa is not here to be discovered; Africa is here to be recognised. We are reclaiming authorship of our own cultural narrative, not as an act of nostalgia, but as a strategy for the future. Our designers, archives, makers, and knowledge systems are not peripheral to global luxury; they are central to it.”
Under her leadership, a pan-African collective of designers, archivists, curators, scholars, and creative strategists representing East, West, North, Southern, and Central Africa endorses a unified thesis:
Africa is not emerging, Africa is originating. We are not participating, we are authoring.
Central to ÁLKÈ’s mission is The ÁLKÈ Endowment, a permanent funding structure designed for long-term stability and global competitiveness. This mechanism directly addresses persistent market failures by offering dedicated financial support.
Currently, Africa’s creative economy is valued at an estimated $58 billion and accounts for around 2.9% of the continent’s total GDP. This vibrant sector accounts for 8.2% of all jobs in the region, a higher percentage than any other continent.
In Kenya, Local financial innovators have already validated this sector, with entities like the HEVA Fund having successfully committed over 40 million to creative industries and planning to commercially invest an additional 20 million by the end of 2025.
The launch of the ÁLKÈ Endowment is a calculated intervention justified by quantifiable economic potential and severe structural constraints facing the creative economy:
Why I walked away from a lucrative job that had doubled my salary, Jubilee CEO Njeri Jomo
Addressing the Financing Gap:
The Endowment provides a mechanism to counter the estimated $42 billion financing gap faced by women-led Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across Africa. Since the fashion value chain is heavily dominated by women-owned small businesses, this lack of access to commercial funding is a critical constraint.
Unlocking Export Potential:
The African fashion industry generates approximately 15.5 billion annually in exports. Experts agree that this revenue could realistically triple over a decade, approximately 46.5 billion annually, provided sufficient capital and infrastructure are deployed.
Tackling the Infrastructure Deficit:
Despite Africa contributing around six per cent of the world’s total cotton production, the continent accounts for less than two per cent of global spinning, weaving, and knitting capacity. The Endowment specifically targets this deficit, aiming to localise textile production and capture the immense value currently lost through the export of unprocessed raw materials.
Reversing Brain Drain through Brain Circulation:
While talent migration, often called “brain drain,” occurs due to a lack of institutional support and infrastructure, the goal is to facilitate “brain circulation”. This involves creating institutional structures that incentivise globally exposed designers to convert the knowledge and high-value expertise gathered through international experience into assets that enrich the home industry.
The ÁLKÈ Endowment will focus its investment strategically across four critical areas essential for achieving scalable industry growth:
Production and Industrial Capacity:
Funnelling capital directly into strengthening local value chains and accelerating innovation in both artisanal and industrial systems. This aims to immediately address the deficit in spinning, weaving, and logistics needed for sustained export growth.
Talent and Skills Development:
Building clear pathways for the next generation of creative entrepreneurs, designers, and artisans. This ensures specialised knowledge is actively transferred, guaranteeing a globally competitive workforce.
Archives and Heritage Preservation:
Funding the safeguarding of Africa’s textile histories and indigenous knowledge systems. This critical step provides the foundation for intellectual property claims and authenticating provenance, which drives high market valuation in global luxury sectors.
Enterprise Scaling for Brands:
Dedicated funding to promote long-term operational stability and accelerate international expansion for African fashion labels.
This movement capitalises on the ongoing African creative renaissance, where prominent brands such as MaXhosa, Sarayaa, Odio Mimonet, The Cloth, Akire, Asantii, and Aaboux are blending tradition with innovation and sustainability with storytelling. African fashion is a living art form, where textiles and construction become mediums for sculpture, colour theory, and narrative. What unites these designers is a profound reverence for craftsmanship, reflecting a conscious departure from fast fashion by embracing made-to-order models and locally sourced materials
By design, the Endowment is a practical response to decades of underinvestment in Africa’s creative and cultural industries.
The inaugural edition will take place in Cape Town, with subsequent editions rotating among Africa’s cultural capitals, reinforcing ÁLKÈ’s pan-African mandate and promoting regional collaboration.
