In May 2010, I went to the PUMA.Creative Mobility Award Recipients to Contribute to Forum Entitled, Distance, Diaspora and Aesthetics in African and Caribbean Art as part of the 17th Biennale of Sydney. I have been meaning to write about the forum for a while but for some reason I couldn’t find the right moment and now I have. For my major project, I have been researching into why Africans seem to devalue creativity. My curiosity into this subject matter was fuelled by a conversation with an African stranger on the train earlier this year.About 4 months ago on my way home from Uni I was about the get off the train and an African man (in his 50s or so) sparked a conversation with me. He asked me the general questions, where are you from? Were you born here? How long have your parents been here? Do you study/What do you study?
What started as a friendly conversation turned sour when I told him I study design. He gave me a dirty. A fatherly look of disapproval. Like I had disowned him in some way. Mind you I DON’T KNOW THIS MAN. I just looked at him and thought ‘WHAT THE?’. In a rude tone he said ‘Design. Why do you do that?’ I told him because it’s what I wanted to do so I am doing it. Then I got off the train, but I couldn’t get the look on his face out of my mind. Why did he do that? What is wrong with design? But all at the same time, I wasn’t surprised. I have had people say to me ‘I can’t believe your parents let you do that. Mine wouldn’t’, ‘Interesting. Black people don’t usually do those kind of things’, ‘Your parents must be really cool to let you do that’, ‘Wasn’t your Dad angry?’ etc. I have laughed at all those questions, but never really took note because they were questions from people I knew (mostly Ghanaian people). So to me they were just typical questions from oblivious people. But the gentleman on the train, was the icing on the cake!It got me thinking, why Africa and the creative discourse don’t seem to mix. I started reading a few articles to feed my curiousity. I couldn’t find very many, but these two articles in particular ‘5 reasons why design matters: An argument for African parents, businesses & other skeptics‘ by Lulu Kitololo of Afri-Love and Notes on the African Creative Economy by Mimeta – Centre for Cultural and Development brought my mind back to the PUMA.creative forum last year. The forum looked at why African art was not widely publicised or acceptable.
Here are a few points which I noted down:
There is a Lack of infrastructure. There are not many galleries or initiatives which promote art
Where is the money to invest in the arts? Governments and larger corporations do not invest in the arts therefore the people do not invest or value the arts.
Art is one’s imagination, nothing to do with the world around you whether you’re in the first world or 3rd world. Art should be seen the same everywhere.
Africa needs to have big art events to help promote artists. eg. Like the Biennale. Creating exposure for the continent and it’s artists.
There is an stigma about art in Africa
There is no official support for African artists in their respective countries
I was very inspired by this forum. It made me realise that I need to do something within my African community in Australia to promote creativity. Whether big or small, I need to do something.
As I do this project, I constantly wonder why Africa and the creative discourse don’t seem to mix like oil and water. So I am asking you …. Why do you think creativity in the African culture is not valued like it is in the Western culture?
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