Africa Day 2025 – From a Cultural Lens!

What is the significance of culture for African development? Teshome Wondimu, founder of Selam, takes Africa Day 2025 to reflect upon the huge possibilities for the continent linked to strengthening of the culture and creative industries.

Africa is at once the oldest and the youngest continent in the world. Oldest in the sense that humanity started here. Youngest in the sense that with a few exceptions, its nation states gained formal independence as late as in the post-war period. What does that imply for culture and development? Africa Day – May 25th under the theme “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations” presents an opportunity to address this. And a moment to celebrate African unity, heritage and shared aspirations. And also to highlight the vital role of Culture and Creative Industries (CCIs) in realizing Africa’s economic, social, and democratic potential.

Due to the rich history and diverse traditions of Africa, there are immense possibilities for development in the cultural field. But the mere notion of “developing countries” has meant that culture historically has taken the backseat in political priorities across the continent, with industrial and financial development being seen as more urgent – and as something essentially different from the culture sector. Africa Day presents an opportunity to readdress that. The view of culture as being a need opposed to industrial or financial development is a sad misconception, a false dichotomy, and constitutes an obstacle to positive change.

Culture is key

The core goals of Agenda 2063 (“The Africa We Want”), adopted by the African Union in 2013, is achieving sustainable and inclusive development of the continent over the years to come. Culture is key to this. The demographics constitute a great advantage for Africa, the large and growing youth population is deeply engaged in cultural expression and the creative sector in ways previously only dreamed of. The culture sector is a motor driving job creation, entrepreneurship and innovation and adds tremendously to economic and cultural wealth.

The vast cultural diversity of Africa is a rich economic resource, hitherto relatively untapped, with strong local as well as global appeal. The cultural and creative industries, while contributing significantly to the GDP of various African countries, remain underreported, and some of the contributions are informal. This means that there is a great potential for economic growth through this sector.

Youth and digitalization

African regional economic development has historically, post-independence so far to varying degrees been impeded by borders, tariffs and lack of cooperation, but the digital platforms and technologies at the heart of the current development will greatly change that. Digital innovation knows no boundaries and will be a catalyst over the coming decades, especially within CCIs, and the digital platforms and technologies are expanding access to markets, audiences, and creative tools all across the continent. The digital transformation of African societies will enable youth-led innovation and foster cross-border exchange.

With all this said, it would be reductive to limit one’s scope of the transformative qualities of culture to economics. Culture fosters social cohesion and unity across ethnic and national lines. More so, culture acts as a motor of change and challenges existing power structures, promotes democracy, freedom of expression, gender equality, and civic participation. Without culture, there is no such thing as society.

All of these observations remain of key importance for actors in the field invested in change, but in order to effect change, cooperation is key. And a sober view of the challenges ahead, and ways to overcome obstacles on the path. In country after country in Africa, the culture sector is weaker than it should – or need – be. Despite all its promise, the culture sector more often than not is under-prioritized in national development plans and government budgets. There’s a recurring gap between ideal and reality. The gap(s) consist of weak infrastructure, with too few and ill-maintained performance venues, underdeveloped distribution platforms, and unsupported artists’ and culture workers’ networks. Education is often informal and policies to develop training pathways are seldom in place. And in addition to that, two decisive factors are: the inadequate cultural institutions, and poor protection and enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights. In practice, the two latter factors function as negative incentives for any talent potentially drawn to the creative sector.

What is to be done?

None of these factors are beyond remedying. There are clearly identifiable key solutions.

African countries need to promote coherent and inclusive cultural policies at national and regional levels. And invest in and expand cultural infrastructure, including:

• Education and training
• Civil society organizations and grassroots initiatives
• Public and private cultural institutions
• Independent media and digital platforms
• Effective copyright and IP systems

In conclusion, it’s already clear from the commitment of AU member states. It is agreed that culture is a key pillar in African development, and the consequence is clear – decisive action.

In 2023-2024, Selam conducted four baseline studies within the framework of Connect for Culture Africa’s (CfCA) program’s initial focus countries – Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Ethiopia. Each report delved into funding allocation, sectoral challenges, and potential growth paths, with recommendations tailored to each country’s unique needs. The differences were substantial, but they all indicated large needs of change. The reports proposed several strategies to increase cultural funding, including public awareness campaigns to spotlight the cultural sector’s economic and social impact. The importance of generating data that demonstrates the actual contribution of the CCIs to the country’s economy is a critical step to convince decision makers to invest in the sector, and this has been confirmed again and again in meetings with stakeholders.

African governments have made definite commitments to public investment in culture as a catalyst for sustainable development, and culture broadly a political priority. The work, networking and studies carried out by CfCA and its “1% for Culture” campaign have been instrumental in recognizing the untapped potential for African development and highlighting the needs of the culture and creative industries. At the AU Assembly meeting on May 4th 2023, all AU member states made a landmark decision to endorse the AU Plan of Action for the CCIs, and to fast track the process of implementation of Assembly Decision AU/Dec.772 on the allocation of 1% of national budgets to the arts, culture heritage and creative industries sectors by 2030. The African Union will play a decisive role in formulating ways forward and encouraging member states, but ultimately change must come through national ownership and action.

The future is bright, it will be rewarding, and the road forward exciting.