Since its creation in 2011, through its creative and educational programs, it has created learning spaces where children themselves are active learners and producers of new knowledge that are valuable through play. IA believes in a world of African child changers who solve development problems and imagine the Africa of 2025 powerfully led by young people who can think and creatively solve problems. 

ImagiNation Afrika began with the work of educator, author and coach Karima Grant. In 2007 she organized a series of successful writing and illustration workshops that enabled 40 young authors from the Fass district of Dakar to publish their first book, arousing her desire to create a space that encouraged children to achieve their biggest dreams.

Karima, as well as a core group of individuals dedicated to creating innovative learning opportunities for children, launched the first IA exhibition, Union Made Beauty (in Unity, Beauty) in December 2011 at the Leopold Sedar Senghor Institute in Dakar. The exhibition allowed children in Dakar schools to explore the intersection of mathematics and art through the creation of a “forest” of Sierpinski triangles. Young people, from primary to secondary, have created an exhibition that links fractal concepts, architecture of African villages and cities, natural sciences and mathematics through play, and exchanges of interdisciplinary learning with local artists.