For those unfamiliar with the African creative industries, there is the misconception that thriving creative platforms like Paradise Games, Dak’Art, Art X Prize, Lagos Biennale, Ake Books & Arts Festival had massive institutional and governmental support. That is far from the truth, particularly when building from the scratch.
Africa’s creative industries, more often than not, are built by big dreams, guts, opportunities and partnerships, as emerging technology creatives: Seraphine Angoula, co-founder and festival director, Dakar Series Regional Audiovisual Attache, Senegal; Sidick Bakayoko, Director General, eGames platform, Paradise Games, Cote D’Ivoire; Judith Okonkwo, founder, Imisi 3D, Nigeria; Alain Laeron, Director Executive, Institut Francais, Togo, and Sebastien Onomo, Producer, Director and Screenwriter at Special Touch, France revealed at the Creation Africa forum, held October 6 to 8, at La Gaite Lyrique, Paris France.
For Okonkwo, the dream to found an Extended Reality (XR) creation laboratory focused on creating solutions, and providing educational and engagement experiences with Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), first requires guts and pragmatism to pull investors.
“You have to be a little crazy because you are going against the grain. You are working with and will encounter many gainsayers,” said Okonkwo of her experience establishing Imisi 3D since 2015/2016, when XR/new technology interest and players was non-existent in the continent. Of course, there was the challenge of building and certifying the technical skills requisite to running the ecosystem through trainings, as well as collaborations and partnerships to foster the industry.
“We had to think about how these (XR) technology can impact our society now and in the future, in order to have the buy-in of investors.”
As is often the case, many creative ventures start small. “From a group of friends who come together to organize a competition amongst themselves; then expanding to involve more people, out of the desire to improve their craft,” said Paradise Games, Director General, Sidick Bakayoko.
But that wasn’t his story. With Paradise Games, Bakayoko dreamt big and started big. “Very early on we took the bet of making something big. We immediately jumped and created an event framed as the biggest eSports event in Africa. We wanted to impact people’s mind to tell them, “This is big. This is happening and it is possible to do video games in Africa.” Post the platform’s establishment ten years ago (2017), Bakayoko said though they weren’t many events, it’s encouraged more people to enter the eGames and the XR industry.
For others, it is about finding opportunities where they exist. While there are many film festivals in the continent, there are no festivals on film series – which provides ample space for many indigenous African stories to be told. Hence, the need for the Dakar Series Regional Audiovisual Attache, Senegal, co-founded and directed by Seraphine Angoula, which premiered May 2023.
“Series are where new stories are being told. Quite often African stories are independently made. It seems like the best time to establish the film series festival. The series festival is the best way we can reach people. We wanted to break down siloes and broadcast everything across the continent.”
The African Film Series Festival allows the different actors in the profession to meet. It is where scriptwriters can present their scripts, find producers, and distributors; and hosts master classes, workshops, pitches and series competition. A nascent initiative, it is yet to amass the synergy and participation it requires across the continent, for synchronization to take place.
In building Togo Creatives, Director, Institut Francais, Togo, Laeron went the way of collaboration with the idea of building new relationships, and new partnerships in line with France’s new policy to reestablish new relations with Africa through culture.
Despite the absence of schools of art and contemporary museums in Togo, the idea was not to build a museum, but breakdown creative ‘siloes’ and build an ecosystem where artistes communicate amongst themselves within Togo, across Africa and beyond. An ecosystem devoid of folklore rather “of young artistes talking about what is of interest to their today,” said Laeron.
Post a discuss with the EU delegation in Togo, a €60m fund was created for the project – which focused on the value chain of the structure – one that allows young talents to find space, meet new people, and obtain training on technical skills/classes they wanted or really need.
“(Togo Creative) help create bridges for artistes to create in a hub. We focused on a platform where can see artistic creation happen. Although we decided against the creation of a museum, we have filmed the cultural and creative heritage of the country and will make them available online. It is a platform where we showcase the success of our collaborations between Europe and Africa,” noted Laeron.
What stood out amongst these creative journeys – are the ability to identify opportunities, the focus on solutions to address pressing needs of their discipline, the guts to do what hasn’t been done, followed by collaborations and partnerships with likeminded colleagues and partners to scale up and move forward their industry.
That is not to say, there is no ground for government and institutional support and especially sustainability.
As Okonkwo said – “We have made progress at the grassroots. We (creatives) need support from the top to the down. I think government needs to review new technologies and their potentials. It has to ask “What things do we need to put in place to address technology in the country or the continent? Can government think about how collaboration can support the ecosystem across Africa the continent? Are there ways to make Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the XR field attractive to foreign investment?”
In the meantime, Laeron urged, creative ecosystems to work towards sustainability via “thinking of maintaining quality standards that are global”.
“A lot of things can be achieved so long as the skills and interest are there. It is also about going beyond the mere topical issues, to the artistic side … to stabilize the creative and cultural industries.”
