By Sabine CessouPosted on 05-01-2020Modified on 05-01-2020 at 19:02

Launched in 2017, the African Culture Fund (ACF) finances artistic projects with the money of African artists themselves. No less than 2.9 million euros have been raised in two years. A promising start, for an initiative which gives itself the means of its cultural sovereignty.

A Malian cultural actor, Mamou Daffé, director of the Kôré Cultural Center in Ségou and of the Festival sur le Niger , is behind the launch of the African Culture Fund, headquartered in Bamako. He is the discreet president, because he is not there for his personal glory, but a completely different ambition. The credo of his institution in Ségou sums up the state of mind of the African Culture Fund (ACF), which has chosen a name in English: " Evolving from a folkloric perception of culture towards cultural industries " .

The idea did not only germinate in 2017 during a major exhibition in the Seychelles and discussions between Mamou Daffé with the renowned artists who were there. The objective: that the big help to finance the development and the professionalization of the “small”, talents without big means.

Mamou Daffé immediately took action: " We have mobilized African money to finance projects on the continent, " he explains. The initiative is tailor-made, and it thinks big. " We are not talking about 2,000 euros per project, but a minimum of 10,000 euros which allows you to seriously start a professional adventure ."

In two years, more than 3 million euros raised

Two years later, the result speaks for itself. After a first call for projects in 2018 which attracted 519 applications and raised $ 1.7 million, the second, launched between August and October 2019, registered 771 applications from 52 countries, including 42 from Africa - the others being worn by members of the diaspora. Of this total, 57% were deposited by people, and the rest by organizations.

First observation, the linguistic borders do not matter: projects have poured into Swaziland and Mozambique. Second observation: the fund abounds, more than any other structure - with the exception of large prestigious structures, such as the Prins Klaus Fund, in the Netherlands.

On December 4, 2019, no less than 40 projects were selected, half in the visual arts and the other half in the performing arts, for an amount of 1.2 million euros (out of an expected total of 2 , 6 million on 2019/20). A sum more than respectable - impressive in the world of culture in Africa.

The key to success ? An inventive formula: the ACF has been endowed by renowned artists like the Malian visual artist Abdoulaye Konaté , with works sold up to 100,000 euros, without expecting anything from anyone. ACF accepts foreign contributions, including those from the Ford and Open Society foundations (United States), Doen (Netherlands), but on par with the African money invested. In other words, foreign subsidies cannot exceed the money invested by the Africans themselves.

Projects decided by an independent jury

To guarantee the transparency of its selection process, the ACF annually trains an independent jury of six members from six countries. In 2019, Fatma Kilani, director of La Boîte, an alternative art space in Tunis, Nakhana Diakité Prats, Malian consultant in cultural engineering, general coordinator of the Mali Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, contemporary painter Viyé Diba from Senegal, the Rwandan playwright and director of the Rwanda Arts Initiative (RAI) Dorcy Rugamba , the South African André Le Roux, director general of the Southern African Music Rights Organization (SAMRO) and Korkor Amarteifio, music producer and associate director of the Institute for Music and Development Accra (Ghana).

The projects relate both to works and to training and structuring actions in the artistic sectors. In the visual arts, the Senegalese stylist Selly Raby Kane will be able to produce Dakar Strange Tales. On the side of the performing arts, the journey called East African Soul Train is led by Charlotte Spowage, based in Great Britain, who wants to leave by train in dialogue with the passengers. The objective: to draw a story over 1,200 km from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, to make of the shows played at each stage. In Guinea, the universe of words will consist in writing residencies to confront manuscripts with the opinion of confirmed playwrights, the winner winning a prize and the opportunity to defend his work at the Avignon festival.

" Instead of having the other's gaze focused on Africa, with people who find themselves" shown "as public curiosities, the ACF wants to listen to the concern that Africans have of be represented in the arts, with projects that start from their own feelings, explains Mamou Daffé. Instead of putting money on migrants, war or excision, there will be funds to tell the epic of Soundiata Keïta, a sonata for balafon proposed by the Ivorian Jean Donatien Koné, a Sahelian story by excellence ”. The projects carried out are also situated in transversal frameworks, involving several countries, such as Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso in West Africa for example, with Antigone and its avatar: Antigone or the tragedy of the dispersed bodies , Gakokoé / Ziticomania Company.

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