You have designed wonderful posters about United Nations' Articles on Human Rights. How do you evaluate the execution of human rights around the world?

My self-set brief for these posters grew out of the indignation I have always felt in the way that Africans are constantly portrayed. For many, 'Africa' conjures up images of a continent torn apart by hatred and brutality, corpses and corruption. Ignore these images and the continent has no other identity.

And yes, as an African I experience life on a continent where in many parts, fundamental human rights are obliterated with blood and sadness, as conflict and turmoil leave only despair and hopelessness in their wake.

Warning -regardless of where we are, continue to ignore how we violate and exploit each other and we will all be destroyed by our own lack of humanity.

Without respecting human rights, real development cannot be sustained.

With these posters I chose to passionately look at our predicament through our own eyes and not only to see human rights in terms of abuse (I can let the media do that) but positively, as an integral part of the celebration of the human spirit and intelligence, thereby emphasising and sharing the cultural diversity that abounds us. I hoped that the viewer would see themselves in the images and see in themselves - the essence of civilisation - inherent in all our cultures and our traditions.

You were named "The Guerilla of Graphic Design" after many graphic design magazines. All of your posters motivates us to form a more peaceful and equal world. Does the graphic design alone have the power to change the world? If not, what should be done?

While design alone cannot change the world, designers can choose to be active or passive in what they do, regardless of their ideology - but if they think they are neutral they should be careful whose interests they really serve.

We seem to be living in collective denial of our role in the deeper problems of our participation in a deteriorating consumerist way of life which controls and compromises us.

We are all responsible beings regardless of our occupations, therefore it implies that we should then be responsible for our actions no matter how understated they might appear. After all we all have a choice.

As masters of visual language, we can if we choose, use the same skills in the spheres that surround every aspect of our being, responsibly, thereby countering what offends and deprives us, with truth, in the same persuasive manner that it is all sold to us.

From my point of view, design is a weapon, and if it can be used to sell jeans and perfume, then it can be used to fight for more just democracies and political wisdom. It can also fight for health and the environment and hopefully a more tolerant, peaceful world.

We always need to remember, images transport ideas, but design drives them. The act of design is an act of independence.

Renaissance sculptor and painter Michelangelo is known for the famous phrase, "I saw the angel in the marble and carved it until I set him free." What is your angel in design? How does your creative talent work?

Visual repartee -a response to the world through my work. An alternative aesthetic -born out of an attempt to revitalize our ways of seeing and propelled by the fury of perpetually being tainted by prejudice.

Trusting and believing the alluring power of the visual to respond effectively and spiritually to challenges, so those who cannot see through my eyes may hopefully be enriched by my vision.

Besides being an acclaimed and honored graphic designer, you are a film director, too. Can you talk about your short film "After the Wax"?

Stemming from the belief that creatively, film is one of the most unexplored medium of communication in the sub-Saharian region of Africa, I set out to traverse the added narrative of motion and sound combined with my imagination to convey a story.

Made in 1991, "After the Wax" is a 17 minute a personal view of nationality and identity. It is structured around a poem of a dead man - using nationality to look back on the point of his life and human existence. His plight is our plight.

Treating the process of film in almost the same way I do with my design work, the style and treatment of the film uses unusual images in surreal mythological juxtapositions to prod the viewer's conscience.

The film expresses an inherit dignity and knowledge that is progressively lost partially through colonization, then through our complicity with an unquestioned modernism that is wrapped in greed and selfishness.

Are there any film directors whose work fascinate you?

Djibril Diop Mambety -Senegal
Souleymane Cissé -Mali
Akira Kurosawa -Japan
Tomas Gutierrez Alea -Cuba
Andrei Tarkovsky -Russia

Do you listen to music while working? What kind of music motivates you most?

I listen mostly to Jazz, African and Brazilian music when I work. The one that motivates me most is Jazz mainly because of it's unpredictability.

Speaking of music, last year when 31st G8 summit held at UK, the simultaneous Live 8 Concerts held at all G8 countries. The aim was "to make poverty history" in Africa. There seems to be an increasing interest to Africa. What's your opinion on that subject?

I tend to take a very cynical point of view to this type of altruism. There are those who help everyday in every little way and are forgotten, and there are some opportunists who wait for the spotlight to say "look at me. I'm caring, buy my music". G8's come and go, hunger remains.

Our theme for this issue is "2050". From your point of view, what will be the future of the world?

The world is in precarious shape today. Our ecological and economic sustainability is threatened by rampant and careless consumerism which is directly fueled by globalization and everything it stands for.

By 2050 if we do not seriously address the dangers that face us now, our thoughtless, wasteful self-indulgence will cost us dearly.