We are currently looking into mapping craft spaces in South Africa (with a focus on Cape Town). This includes markets, craft centres and galleries, potteries, community workshops and network organisations.
If you know of any other places that should be included on this map please send us the name and location (as precise as possible) using the contact form on the website.

On the 11th of April we hosted an incredibly talented and enthusiastic group of creative intermediaries from Lagos and beyond.
The event was hosted by a new art education / co-working space in Ikoyi called Angels & Muse, providing an inspirational atmosphere for our workshop with art showcased in our surroundings. ​

Event report written by Dr Roberta Comunian and Lauren England

​On the 9th of April we co-hosted an interesting workshop at the University of Lagos – Department of Creative Arts. In the morning we were welcomed by a team at the Department of Creative Arts, led by Prof Duro Oni and Prof. Peju Layiwola and also by Prof. Muyiwa Falaiye, Dean of the Faculty of Arts. The Department of Creative Arts provided a very engaging landscape to the event with plenty of art works and music bursting out of the venue.

The event took place also thanks to the support of King’s Worldwide Partnership Fund and the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at King's College London

In the morning after a brief presentation about the project and higher education and the creative economy collaborations by Dr Roberta Comunian (King’s College London) we engaged in discussion on the local context of Lagos and Nigeria. ​

After a lovely traditional Nigeria lunch, we focused our discussion on education and creative careers in Nigeria/Lagos facilitated by Lauren England (King's College London) and discussed how universities connect with the creative sector via student placements and common curriculum development opportunities. The final research discussion around universities, research and the creative economy led to the importance of universities making their work more available to the outside and establishing long-term collaborations with the sector. 

Finally, our research team and hosts from the Department of Arts where able to meet with Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe to seek his support towards promoting an ARUA (African Research University Association) Centre of Excellence around the arts and creative economy.

Report written by Dr Roberta Comunian and Lauren England; Photos by Dr Roberta Comunian, Lauren England and Prof Duro Oni.

Our research team will be visiting South Africa (Cape Town) in June 2019 and holding a research forum at the District 6 Museum in Cape Town on the 4th of June 2019 in partnership with SACO: South African Cultural Observatory

Lauren England (PhD Candidate, King's College London) is continuing to look and map craft spaces across Africa. This includes markets, craft centres and galleries, potteries, community workshops and network organisations.

In the map below she is starting to collect data about Nigeria, where we will conduct our first fieldwork in April 2019.  If you know of any other places that should be included on this map please send us the name and location (as precise as possible) using the contact form below. 

​Q: Can you tell us a bit about your career and the connection it has with the Creative Economy in Africa?

A: I have worked as a practitioner in the print media and as media advisor for an international development organisation in the Republic of Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania, respectively. I am co-founder and Executive Director of Culture and Development East Africa (CDEA), a creative think tank in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.  CDEA was incorporated in October 2011 to provide cultural and Pan-African thought leadership for creative, social and scientist innovators to create and innovate through structured workplace learning, incubation, research & advocacy and capacity building for social change. It also innovates on how space can be used to enhance sustainable workplace productivity and green community lifestyles. 
I was a member of the UNESCO Expert Facility (2015-2017) and am currently a member of the EU/UNESCO Expert Facility (2018-2022) for the 2005 Convention. I am also a steering committee member of African Cultural Policy Network (ACPN). 
From 2014-2017,  I managed a research project titled: ‘Research In Culture And Creative Industries Focusing On The Film And Music Sub-Sectors Contribution To Creative Economy In Tanzania And EAC Common Market’, whose findings  fed into the two annual Mashariki Creative Economy Impact Investment Conferences in 2017 and 2018 respectively, which I also curated.  I have designed CDEA’s Creative Economy Incubator and Accelerator Initiative which was launched in November 2016, targeting East African fashion and accessories designers, filmmakers and musicians from Uganda and Tanzania. 
​
Q: You have recently started a new PhD project in connection with the creative economy in Africa could you tell us about the project and what you want to achieve?

A: I am currently a PhD student in Media and Communication Research in the University of Leicester, School of Media, Communication and Sociology, hosted by CAMEo. My PhD is taking practice as a research approach to establish if creative entrepreneurs in selected creative hubs in the East African cities of Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and Kampala integrate Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) objectives in their production and manufacturing processes and urban regeneration activities. The research will establish if there is co-relation between national cultural and urban policies and the industrialisation development agendas of the Republic of Kenya, United Republic of Tanzania and Republic of Uganda. The study will frame policy recommendations that offer opportunities for creative entrepreneurs in the design sector to be able to contribute towards a circular economy and the urban regeneration of the three East African cities.

Q: What do you think are the main challenges faced by creatives operating from Africa countries (you can talk here specifically about the countries you are familiar with)?

A: The research carried out by CDEA highlights the key challenges facing the creatives in Tanzania and other East Africa countries, and can be summarised under the following framework conditions:
• Financial Framework Conditions: Most of creatives run micro businesses that are not bankable because they are considered high risk. In addition, there are no guarantee financial systems targeting creative industries. 
• Industrial Framework Conditions: Creative content producers in Tanzania and wider the East Africa region are at the precursor and embryonic stages of industrial development, with limited incentives and capacity support to stimulate industrial growth.
• Market Framework Conditions: There is a market for creative products such as film and music in Tanzania, but they controlled by telecoms and broadcasters and aggregators, with limited trickledown effect to the creatives.
• Cultural Framework Conditions: There are clusters for creative and cultural industries that are mostly privately organised. However, in Tanzania, the National Arts Council-BASATA has played a pivotal role in clustering the artists under four arts federations namely; art and craft, film, music and performing arts.
Knowledge Framework Conditions: There is limited knowledge development (research) for the creative economy in the East African countries. Most of the creatives are self-taught and hardly rely on formal knowledge for their development.
• Regulatory and Policy Framework Conditions: There is a weak copyright management framework, with the broadcasters in East Africa as the biggest copyright infringers since they do not pay royalties to the digital content creators. Instead, they ask the content creators to look for advertisers who can cover the cost of broadcasting time.
• Support Framework Conditions: No policy measures to support creative startups to stimulate innovation, unless they are linked to social sectors such as health, water and education.   Mobility funds are limited which hinders opportunities for creatives to network.
 

Celebrating CDEA's Fashion Bootcamp combining leather and Kanga, local fabric associated with East Africa.
Photos courtesy of Ayeta Wangusa

We would like to invite you to contribute to a special session we are organising as part of the next RGS-IBG Annual International Conference in London  (28 - 30 August 2019). The detailed call for paper is here below. 


​If you are interested in submitting a research paper or a policy case study, please email the following information by the 31st  January 2019 to Roberta.Comunian@kcl.ac.uk: TITLE of paper, AUTHOR(S) and ABSTRACT. 

​In recent years there has been a growing interest in the role that cultural and creative industries (CCIs) play in the Global South- in terms of their economic contribution and connections to social change and cultural engagement (UNESCO, 2013). To contribute to this field and to support related policy agendas, this special session aims to bring together international researchers and policy makers engaged with understanding or developing creative economies in Africa. It aims to engage with the following research questions: what role can CCIs play in the development of African countries? What challenges and opportunities emerge with the development of CCIs in Africa? What role can policy (national and international) play in this context? The session (or sessions) will also feature a discussant to enable critical reflection on current research and policy initiatives. To explore these questions in greater detail, this session welcomes papers from diverse
conceptual, empirical and geographical perspectives which engage with the following and related themes:

• The role of education and career development opportunities for CCIs practitioners in Africa;
• The interconnection between creative and social economies in Africa context;
• The adoption and adaption of creative cities frameworks across African cities;
• The role of geography and mobilities in the development of CCIs in Africa;
• The emergence of co-working and networks to facilitate CCIs development;
• The roles and functions of various intermediaries in supporting CCIs in Africa;
• The role of policy (national and international) in supporting CCIs development;
• Connections between cultural and creative industries and youth employment and work;
• Connections between Africa and other countries in relation to CCIs via collaborations or policy transfer.

The special session builds on the work of an AHRC funded research network http://www.creative-economy-africa.org.uk . The session aims to contribute to a better understanding of the creative economies in African countries and to explore strategies to encourage and enable sustainable context-specific cultural, social and economic development. The papers and authors will be invited to share findings via the project blog and website or contribute to an edited book and policy report.  

Special Session organisers:
Dr Roberta Comunian, Reader in Creative Economy, Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries, King’s College London. 
Dr. Brian J. Hracs, Lecturer in Human Geography, Geography and Environment, University of Southampton

In this blog Lauren England (PhD Candidate, King's College London)  focuses on the themes that emerged from the literature on two forms of craft production in Nigeria – ceramics and textiles – and their role in both micro-enterprise development and in industrial manufacturing.
 
Craft is an interesting discipline as it spans both artistic and industrial production and can combine creativity, design, science and technology. There is a long history of utilitarian craft production in Nigeria following a traditional small to medium enterprise production model.
Key themes that have emerged from the literature on craft production in Nigeria are:

• Availability of cultural and natural resources for small-scale and industrial craft production - kaolin and glaze minerals for ceramicsand cotton and dye materials for textiles
• Decline of ceramics and textile industries associated with emphasis on oil
• The capacity of small-scale craft enterprise to generate employment and the potential for economic self-reliance through craft production (for women in particular) - government initiatives to alleviate poverty through small scale craft enterprise
• Gender dynamics in craft work - typically female labour associated with utilitarian house-craft, but more men engaging in more contemporary markets for decorative works or using new technologies and materials.
• Education systems – family, apprenticeships, historical government-funded training centres and higher education offering formal training
• The role of arts and crafts tourism in the sustainable development of local markets and small-scale production
• The appropriation of African designs and crafts by non-African companies in international markets (and their export back to Africa)
• Working towards industrialisation and modernizing craft production processes and the potential for national economic growth through industrial manufacturing of ceramics and textiles and competition in global markets
• Domestic challenges to modern industrialisation – expertise, infrastructure, technology, finance and policy
• Global challenges – competition with other countries with strong import markets to Nigeria (i.e. China and textiles) and smugglingwhich hinders local industry development.
  

​These themes will be explored in greater depth through a literature review.