Unlocking the Potential of the Creative and Cultural Industries in Africa
featured brief
Unlocking the Potential of the Creative and Cultural Industries in Africa
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August 11, 2020
Emerging markets, particularly those in Africa, are home to vibrant creative and cultural industries (CCI) with massive investment potential. From the Yoruba to the Kongo, African civilizations have shaped the aesthetics, music, sculpture, textiles, and architecture of regions from North America to Latin America and Europe for centuries. Despite this outsized impact on major cultural exports from jazz to dance, Africa’s creative and cultural industries remain underdeveloped today. However, recent advancements in technology, data, and intellectual property now poise artists across the continent to reap a profit from this economic opportunity and carve out a share of the trillion-dollar global market for music, film, and fashion.
Africa’s creative and cultural industries are marked by a constant push and pull between contrasting factors - long-established practices versus disruptions caused by technology, fragmentation versus collaboration, and global access versus local appeal. The growth of technology and access to data across the data presents a unique opportunity to help this burgeoning sector generate jobs and revenue within local markets. It is clear, however, that despite the many available opportunities for creatives to venture out independently, collaboration will be the foundation of future industry growth. While regional and global creative exports from Africa are on the rise, this trajectory is only sustainable if stable, revenue-generating markets develop.
This brief explores the landscape of Africa’s creative and cultural industries and strategies to nurture their growth.