The Kabila furniture collection celebrates African community and culture

The Kabila furniture collection celebrates African community and culture June 25, 2026 | 11:31 am CDT

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Design

Woodworking Industry News

The Kabila furniture collection celebrates African community and culture

By

Rich Christianson

June 25, 2026 | 11:31 am CDT

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Kabila earned designer Terry Aidoo Product Designer of the Year in the 2026 Africa International Design Awards.

Photo By Matteo Ercole

MILAN, Terry Aidoo designed the Kabila wood furniture collection inspired by the social and cultural significance of the traditional African courtyard. Comprising a coffee table and accompanying stool, the collection explores how furniture can foster gathering, belonging and shared experience through contemporary design.

At the heart of Kabila Collection is the coffee table. Embedded within its surface is a recessed circular detail referencing the Eritrean coffee ceremony, a ritual centered on hospitality, conversation, and togetherness. The table also incorporates a carved interpretation of Oware, one of the oldest and most widely played board games in West Africa.

Accompanying the table is the stool, which draws inspiration from traditional seating forms in the Benin Kingdom, in present-day Nigeria. Historically, Edo stools carried both practical and symbolic significance, serving as objects of status and identity. Rather than replicating these forms directly, Kabila reinterprets them through a contemporary lens.

Kabila is handcrafted from solid sapele wood, chosen for its durability, rich grain, and natural warmth. The collection combines traditional woodworking techniques with contemporary fabrication processes, resulting in pieces that balance precision, craftsmanship and material authenticity.

Kabila, which means clan or tribe in both Swahili and Arabic, earned Aidoo Product Designer of the Year in the 2026 Africa International Design Awards.

 

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About the author

Rich Christianson

| President/Owner/C-Level

Rich Christianson is the owner of Richson Media LLC, a Chicago-based communications firm focused on the industrial woodworking sector. Rich is the former long-time editorial director and associate publisher of Woodworking Network. During his nearly 35-year career, Rich has toured more than 250 woodworking operations throughout North America, Europe and Asia and has written extensively on woodworking technology, design and supply trends. He has also directed and promoted dozens of woodworking trade shows, conferences and seminars including the Cabinets & Closets Conference & Expo and the Woodworking Machinery & Supply Conference & Expo, Canada’s largest woodworking show.

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