New economic studies from Ethiopia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe are putting numbers behind what Africa’s cultural and creative sectors have long demonstrated in practice: creativity is not only a source of cultural expression, but an increasingly important contributor to economic growth, employment and livelihoods. Across Africa, Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) are generating significant economic …
By Teshome Wondimu, Founder and CEO of Selam Early in my career, I understood something important. African creativity has always been there. The talent, the energy, the music, the stories. But across Africa and globally, the systems surrounding that creativity were not built to support it. Not the stages. Not the institutions. Not the rights …
Culture Is Not a Luxury – Reflections for Africa Day Read More »
Held biennially in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, the Marché des Arts du Spectacle Africain (MASA) is one of Africa’s leading platforms for the performing arts, combining a professional marketplace, public festival, and capacity-building programme. Its unique role as both a cultural market and public-facing festival makes it a key space for artistic exchange, sector dialogue, and …
Culture on the Move: Mobility as a Value Chain by CfCA Read More »
By Nesrine Benyaiche African women have always been the creators of culture and the shapers of the art field, long before art had a name or became a profitable sector. Before art had institutions, women carried it in their bodies through the clothes they wove; in their hands through the jewelry passed from one generation …
By Patrick Ssentongo, KAMPALA-UGANDA When Uganda embarked on the process of amending its Copyright and Neighbouring Rights law, artists and rights holders identified the Private Copy Levy (PCL) as one of the most critical reforms needed to align the country’s copyright framework with contemporary digital realities. In copyright-law systems globally, a private copying levy (also …
Inside Uganda’s Private Copy Levy Debate By Patrick Ssentongo Read More »
By Kwame Aidoo, Ghana While the idea of ‘top artists’ shelved on lists remains contested, the 2025 ArtReview Power 100 list could be weighed as rather fair, having projected appreciative attention away from the Western canon. Ibrahim Mahama, blaxTARLINES, and other artists and collectives from Africa and the diaspora on the ArtReview’s Power 100 list …
Black Artists Powering Cultural Ecosystems by Kwame Aidoo Read More »
By Kwame Aidoo Accra Cultural Week continues with its enlivening package of exhibitions, performances, and dialogues, as its 9th edition organised by Gallery 1957 carries on with celebrating Ghana’s contemporary art scene, by harnessing communal, historical, spatial and environmental awareness and inspirations. This time, the cultural week is showcasing an exciting programme featuring new work …
By Tonderai Chiyindiko Awards within the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI’s) play a key role in the recognition of talent, celebration of momentous achievements and overall vibrancy of the creative ecosystem. However, over the years in South Africa specifically there have been several controversies which have emanated from certain awards, and this has brought to …
Awards within the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI’s) By Tonderai Chiyindiko Read More »
By Nesrine Benyaiche Festivals are more than just celebrations; they bring us together and remind us who we are. They are a way of holding on to our culture, heritage, and geography through sound, colour, and gatherings that refuse to fade. And Africa is a festival continent, across the whole continent festivals rise like living …
While South African artists and creatives from categories such as fashion, music, film, dance, visual art, theatre, sculpture, performance art and much more continue to be the toast of the rest of the world, a structural risk which threatens to undo this and even curtail further development of the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI’s) is …