Patricia [Patti] Anahory was born on a ship traveling south on the Atlantic ocean en route to São Tomé and Principe. Her birth, at dawn, was bathed by the sun rising from the western coast of Africa at the height of the armed struggle for independence in the former Portuguese colonies on the continent. Her parents named her after Patrice Lumumba.

She is a practicing architect with a Masters in Architecture degree from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Architecture from the Boston Architectural College. She works across urbanism, art, pedagogy and curatorial practice.

Her work focuses on interrogating the presupposed relationships of place and belonging in reference to identity, memory, race and gender constructs. She explores the politics of identity from an African island perspective - as a fugitive edge and radical margin.