In a time when digital technologies threaten to homogenise culture, Chipo Mapondera is pushing back — not with resistance, but with restoration. As a creative technologist and director of Global Digital Futures, Mapondera builds immersive, interactive spaces rooted in African cosmologies. Her work doesn’t just centre African stories; it lets them lead.
Her artistic practice is a convergence of technical prowess and cultural reverence. Trained in 3D modelling (Blender), virtual world-building (Unity), and programming (C#), Mapondera’s digital fluency is undeniable. But to her, the technology is never the destination. “Tech is a tool,” she says plainly. “The stories are what matter.”
This philosophy runs deep in her collaborations. Her immersive works are developed with choreographers, sound designers, spirit mediums, and knowledge keepers. “There’s a responsibility when you’re telling Indigenous stories,” she explains. “It means speaking with elders, working with archivists, honouring what came before. It’s not just about design — it’s about research, respect, and restoration.”
Mapondera’s journey into tech didn’t follow a straight line. Before launching her own company, she worked across fashion and marketing at luxury giants like Chanel and Net-a-Porter. “Visual literacy and high standards were non-negotiable,” she recalls. “Everything had to be pixel-perfect. That sensibility shaped how I now approach immersive design — there’s an elegance to how you present a world, whether it’s online or in VR.”
Her technical evolution began while she was still working in fashion. Coding started as a hobby — a curiosity sparked while working in digital marketing. “I was the girl learning HTML on Codecademy while running marketing campaigns for Chanel. My colleagues thought it was hilarious. But a few years later, that curiosity had me building full-stack projects at Net-a-Porter,” Mapondera says.
What distinguishes Mapondera is not just her skillset, but her vision. She doesn’t just build digital experiences — she shapes rituals. Consider her project, Futuristic Pagan, for example. Developed during a return to Zimbabwe in the pandemic, the work became both speculative fiction and a spiritual offering.
“I didn’t grow up with traditional Shona perspectives,” she shares. “I was raised in a Christian household, like many post-colonial Zimbabweans. But being back — meeting elders, returning to the land — it was a reawakening. I started remembering who I was.”
Futuristic Pagan is the fruit of that remembering. A richly layered VR installation, it draws from Shona spirituality and ancestral memory to create an immersive experience that feels both ancient and futuristic. “I realised I wasn’t just creating a world — I was healing. I was offering something back to my lineage. That’s when art becomes something else entirely.”
These themes aren’t limited to her own work. Through Global Digital Futures, Mapondera actively nurtures collaboration with other artists on the continent — from fashion designer and educator Sabina Mutsvati, whose work reinterprets Shona femininity through recycled materials, to sound designers and XR artisans who merge the sacred and the sonic.
One of these collaborative spaces is the Design Futures Lab, an initiative bringing together African creatives to explore sustainable fashion through extended reality (XR). Here, innovation isn’t defined by disruption, but by continuity — by the ways tradition can inform the future. “It’s not about abandoning the past,” Mapondera says. “It’s about bringing it with us, encoded into new languages.”
This belief — that African identity doesn’t need to be adapted for the West, only presented — has grown more central to her philosophy. “There was a time I thought I had to code-switch, tailor everything to Western platforms. But that’s changed. Audiences now crave grounded, specific perspectives. Our authenticity is what makes the work powerful.”
Nowhere was that power more visible than at the NewImages Festival, a leading global showcase for immersive storytelling where Mapondera participated in the XN Days as a delegate of the Institut français’ Création Africa programme, which supports emerging African talent through cultural exchange opportunities. There, Futuristic Pagan stunned audiences not just with its technical execution, but with its spiritual resonance. “These platforms aren’t just about visibility,” she insists. “They’re about narrative sovereignty. It’s about reclaiming space.”
Anchored in spirit mediums, ceremonial practices, and digital rituals, Futuristic Pagan became a kind of portal, not just for international audiences, but for Mapondera herself. “Presenting at NewImages wasn’t about prestige,” she says. “It was about offering something back. To the ancestors. To my community. That’s what makes it matter.”
Her message to emerging African creatives is simple, but profound: “Start with curiosity. Use what you have — your phone, free software, your voice. But stay rooted. Speak to elders. Build community. The world is finally making space for our stories. You belong here.”
In Chipo Mapondera’s world, the future is not severed from the past. It’s braided into it — pixel by pixel, prayer by prayer. Through her work, we are reminded that African heritage is not something to be archived. It is something to be activated.
