Africa is set to introduce a groundbreaking cultural milestone with The ÁLKÈ Ball, a new continental institution designed to reshape global understanding of African fashion, strengthen creative economies, and secure long-term cultural sovereignty. Rooted in art, legacy, knowledge, and enterprise, ÁLKÈ represents a shift from sporadic visibility to deliberate African authorship structured, unified, and globally influential.
Derived from Alkebulan, one of the oldest known names for Africa, ÁLKÈ asserts a truth the world is only now beginning to acknowledge: long before silk, cotton, and the modern vocabulary of luxury, there was Africa—a place where pattern was language, cloth was code, and dress was philosophy. Fashion here has never been merely decorative; it has always been evidence of lineage, mastery, and thought.
The ÁLKÈ Ball enters this lineage not as a spectacle but as a cultural institution and a continental benchmark for fashion, heritage, economy, and global influence. The initiative is led by Lulu Shabell, founder and CEO of Lulubell Group, one of Africa’s leading architects of luxury and cultural innovation, whose work across more than twenty African countries has strengthened fashion ecosystems and expanded international connections.
Reflecting on ÁLKÈ’s significance, Shabell notes, “ÁLKÈ is our declaration that Africa is not here to be discovered; Africa is here to be recognized. 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.
Lulu Shabell
A pan-African collective of designers, archivists, curators, scholars, and creative strategists supports this vision, unified under the belief that Africa is not emerging but originating.
Central to the initiative is The ÁLKÈ Endowment, a permanent funding structure investing in education, manufacturing capacity, archives and research, and enterprise development to ensure long-term competitiveness. By prioritising infrastructure over spectacle, ÁLKÈ positions itself at the vanguard of a new era of creative sovereignty.
The inaugural edition will be held in Cape Town, with future editions rotating through Africa’s cultural capitals to reinforce its continental mandate.
