Bassaco Diamant Ballou

Bassaco Diamant Ballou

WHAT DOES HERITAGE MEAN TO YOU?

BDB

Heritage really grounds me. It's the one thing that anchors me down to some sense of belonging. Being of Ivorian origin with a typical African colonial immigration story, I owe my parents greatly for laying solid foundations of the value of our traditions. We moved in and around East London quite a lot growing up so I struggled to form an identity that was attached to one specific place. I wasn't allowed out much either so Tumblr and music videos became my go-to influencer. The internet, 90s nostalgia, Bollywood movies, K-Dramas and drooling over the cool, artsy kids in Shoreditch on my way to Uni from Essex were the seeds I needed to nurture my own mental collage of style that seemed at the time, much richer in cultural aesthetics than my own cultural heritage. The defining moment came when I took my fourth trip to Ivory Coast in my early twenties and spent the majority of my time soaking up the village life more than I ever had previously. That's when the true romance began. The missing link to my self-discovery. I've been unraveling this part of my heritage and sowing it back into the fabric of my expression ever since.

Music Artist Bassaco Diamant Ballou photographed by Pratibha Gurung.