Creativity is unfolding at the speed of thought around the world. Just a little reminder that Africa is also a part of the Creative world and it is not being left behind.
There is no race or finish line towards which creators are running to but we are now more connected to risk ignoring each other. I believe creators and makers in Africa want to give the world a human face, to quote Steve Biko
“The great powers of the world may have done wonders in giving the world an industrial look, but the great gift still has to come from Africa – giving the world a more human face.”
Afro Futurism
Cyrus Kabiru has been a front runner of Afro-futurism on the Kenyan creators landscape. He does so through innovative eyewear (an other expression of art) made from recycled materials.
“I grew up surrounded by a lot of trash,” says Cyrus Kabiru. “The biggest dumpsite in Nairobi was right opposite my house. I used to tell my dad, ‘When I grow up I’ll give trash a second chance.’ I used to feel like trash also needs a chance to live.”
His work is an ensemble of futuristic sci-fi ish African realities. It points towards adopting a culture of imagination and learning to see new possibilities through the African lens. It therefore is not an accident that the seed stage of his art was nested from the idea of spectacles.
Apart from being on the stage at TED – the Young, the Gifted and Undiscovered program, resident artist at Han Nefkens Foundation in Barcelona, Spain and a resident artist at AKKA Project Venice among many more mentions. He provides the world with new lenses to African possibilities of Art and Art making.
Bo Kaap Murals
The Bo-Kaap murals have been significant artistic expression for justice. The art scene in Cape town is the setting of this visual commentary. The have taken liscence to add a voice of justice to the public space.
Obeidullah Gierdien, a central participant of this art, noted that the public will circulate the message by taking pictures of the murals. The murals could not be ignored.
He boldly noted that “Flags tear and weather, people march, but you can only march for so many hours, but a mural is something that can only be destroyed when someone actively destroys it, other than that, a mural is here to stay.”
The murals might be highlighting the Palestinian plight but also as a form of art form it captures the possibility of becoming a strong way of etching bold messages in our memories creatively embellished in our public spaces. From tail space of the African continent a human face shows up to highlight the plight of those out of Africa through art.
The Persistence of Nollywood
We used to have a joke in our house that, if you do not want to watch a Nollywood film, do not give it, ten minutes of your attention. Once you go past the eleventh minute you are hooked. It does not matter how obvious the movie and script runs.
Nollywood exemplifies the creativity that is born from sheer persistence, working with what you have and boldly using everything in a culture to tell a story. Nollywood is proof that cumulative creation as soon paves way to quality creativity. It lends us a case study, in art creation that does not blush. You cannot mention modern art expressions in Africa and ignore Nollywood.
These is just a pinch of creative expressions of art on the African setting. Art in Africa is seen like a thousand islands of isolation. Every expression and discipline of art seems to cluster itself in in a silo. Makers, Creators and Innovators are groping in the dark by themselves. No government and little audience support. There is also a hierarchy of preference and taste of art.
I live in a country where one of the largest telco easily supports musicians and scarcely winks at writers, sculptors, film makers or canvas artists. The influencer culture seems to be more attractive to would be funding agencies. It may be a slice of the creative industry but is not close to a making, creating and innovation economy. We should not confuse social media evolution as an art creation movement – we should first see it as a techno marketing phenomenon.
Challenges:
Limited Access to Funding: The Creative industry in Africa is not new. I just believe over the years it has been ignored. Africa has been seen as a nest of hardcore raw materials to the world. The Creative industry has firstly been pushed to the back burner by African Governments. Funding that emerged from donor partners has helped but sometimes also comes with up the sleeve agendas. We are in 2025 and movie makers, gamers, documentary filmmakers, thespians et al, are still being viewed as hobbies at most. We have to rally energy to make African art in whichever manner to be viewed as front runner resource. Art is that one expression that resonates with all ages. It is also the fibre of cultural identification and a signifier of personality, story and real myth.
Infrastructure Gaps: when making, creating and innovation are not given priority, even the infrastructure and policy to enforce the environment and ecosystem of creating is ignored. I live in a country where we boast of only one national theatre. We rely on donor funding to upgrade our national museum and national library. Our national archives has only had a paint touch but the curation ecosystem ignored. This is happening while space for apartments and housing is bursting at it’s seams. I have seen in the last five years and the last three even more, individuals muscling up to start studios, thespians squeezing in spaces to stage plays, lonely filmmakers unable to raise money to make films and rent film theaters to show their work. There has also been a gross misinterpretation of content creation and art creation. Government tends to confuse Art makers with content creators – as you can see this is a deep and wide concern and needs strategic approach from philosophy of art making, creation and innovation to it’s consumption before we even talk about the monetary value of it.
Lack of Intellectual Property Protection: The value of art and innovation in Africa has experienced a hush or sealed lips when it comes to Intellectual Property. If we are unable to see Art for its intrinsic value how will we be able to asses its true value. When our Art is displayed on the national, continental and global spaces plus markets, does it show up encased in its true value. When we are silent about intellectual property we fund and feed market gate keepers who willingly belly up at the makers and creators expense. Universities and guilds should sponsor studies in African Artistic Value in emerging markets. Governments should also be at the forefront to enforce art value through legislation, through funding and education.
Conclusion:
We should move quickly from having conversations about African Art using terms like potential and possibility. Art in Africa should BE, not possibly or potentially defined. UNESCO and URTNA and their foreign siblings cannot be at the forefront of interest in African Art. African Union should and must declare boldly one of these years the year of African Art. They should then devolve these goals to every African nation.
Otherwise if we do not do this we will for ever refer to African Art and heritage from a language of abstraction than the language of practice.
