Africa

1. The art fair scene
2. Art’s growth decade
3. African art’s prospects
4. Biennale takes a pause
5. NBA Africa starts up
6. Cape Town to Cairo

Also, Sudan’s displaced artists say thank you to Nairobi

Hello! Welcome to Semafor Africa, where our decision-making process for picking a good illiquid asset class might still involve picking a mattress to stuff your savings. There’s a certain irony that, with so many African currencies struggling against the almighty US dollar since the pandemic, more African investors are not talking about other means of storing long-term value beyond the old favorite of land and property.

But there has long been a small group of African high net worth individuals who’ve included collecting art as a way to diversify their portfolios beyond cash, stocks, bonds, and real estate. It’s difficult to get accurate numbers, of course, since most people are private collectors, but one estimate in a 2023 African Wealth Report valued the African fine art market at just over $1.8 billion in the preceding year. This includes the value of art sold by top African-born artists including Ghana’s El Anatsui, South Africa’s Gerard Sekoto, and the late Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu.

I had a fascinating discussion with our Creative Thinker interviewee Atim Oton this week about the rise of African collectors. We discussed their growing influence which helped African art sales peak at just over $100 million in 2021, according to research by Artnet News/Morgan Stanley. As you’ll read, Atim is positive about the growing prospects of African art on the global stage. She argues that wealthy African patrons of art almost never see the work they buy depreciate, and, in recent years some have seen their collections rocket in value. But she’s also realistic because it’s a long way to go yet. That Artnet research also showed sales of work by African-born artists in 2023 was just 2.3% of the value of work sold by North American-born artists.

Welcome to New York

The number of artists from Africa and the diaspora whose work will be featured in the 1-54 international art fair dedicated to contemporary African art. The fair, which was started in 2013, will be in New York from May 1 to 4. It will feature over 30 galleries including Côte d’Ivoire’s 110 Galerie Véronique Rieffel, Nigeria’s kó art space, Morocco’s So Art Gallery, and South Africa’s The Melrose Gallery and THK Gallery. The fair is held annually in London, New York and Marrakech, with pop-up events in Hong Kong and Paris.

A decade of African art sales

Connecting African art on the global stage

Atim Annette Oton is the director and curator of Calabar Gallery. The New York-based gallery, named after the southeastern Nigerian city where she spent her formative years, represents and exhibits underserved artists locally and globally. It showcases the work of African, African American and Caribbean artists, with the mission of providing a place for community, exhibition, creative initiatives and projects.

💡How do you feel about the state of African art right now?

African art is at the main stage globally: in galleries, art fairs, auctions, curators, biennales, museums, artists doing residencies, and in collections. It is now somewhat normal to see a list of exhibitions with African artists included. It’s now a staple of the industry. In auctions, we see higher auction prices and a move from figurative to abstract work. 2021 was a high note, although there was a drop in sales last year which is continuing into 2024. But it will soon bounce back.

💡 London has long been seen as a hub for African art on the global stage, where does New York fit in with the ecosystem?

In the last 10 years, New York has become an important US hub, probably the largest here. It is more integrated with African-focused galleries and others showing African artists. From 1-54, Frieze, and the Armory, you see more African art at the art fairs in New York.

💡 How has the global African art sector changed in the years you’ve been a part of it?

The price of art is higher, there’s been an increase in the number of artists doing it to earn a living; and there are more African art galleries and institutions on the continent and across the globe.

💡 What trends should we be watching with African collectors?

African collectors are collecting work by emerging artists from beyond their country’s borders, helping to build institutions in their home countries and selling more established African artists’ work at auction houses.

💡 If you’re having Semafor Africa over for dinner, which home dishes would you entertain us with?

Though I lived in Calabar, I am Ibibio, so it is always afang soup, garri and some appetizers like fried plantains.

Dakar’s Art Biennale postponed

Senegal, which has just emerged from months of political turmoil, protests and uncertainty, has postponed the 15th African Contemporary Art Biennale which was set to kick off on May 16. It has now been pushed to run from Nov. 7-Dec. 7.

The culture ministry on Thursday cited a desire “to organize the Biennale in optimal conditions, equal to its scale and reputation as a historic event for art lovers of the world.”

The event, which is under the artistic direction of Salimata Diop, a curator, composer, and art critic, is expected to feature work from some 60 artists from around Africa and diaspora. It will include Franco-Algerian artist Adel Abdessemed, Senegalese visual artist Mohamed Diop, Côte d’Ivoire’s Pascal Konan, and South Africa’s Skumbuzo Vabaza, among others.

This year’s theme is “The Wake,” setting the tone for discourse on awakening to the social and environmental crises facing the contemporary world.

Senegal was thrown into a constitutional crisis in February after the former president Macky Sall delayed the country’s elections indefinitely. After disruptive street protests by citizens and pressure from the international community, the elections were held on March 24. Bassirou Diomaye Faye won comfortably and was sworn in early this month. But the serious disruption and confusion that came with Sall’s delay would likely have unsettled plans for events such as the Biennale.

— Muchira Gachenge

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NBA Africa unveils a startup accelerator

NBA Africa is trying to plug gaps in the continent’s fledgling sports industry supply chain with a plan to invest and support early-stage startups focused on sports and creative industries in Africa.

The Triple Double: NBA Africa Startup Accelerator program will provide selected startups with access to capital, mentorship from international industry leaders and the chance to work with NBA Africa and the Basketball Africa League (BAL). The league is particularly keen on startups in ticketing, event management, youth development, AI and digital marketing. The program was announced this week in Nairobi at the American Chamber of Commerce’s Business Summit, by NBA Africa CEO Clare Akamanzi alongside US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and US Trade and Development Agency Director Enoh T. Ebong.

NBA Africa said the accelerator was “in support of” US President Joe Biden’s Digital Transformation with Africa Initiative and will be operated by ALX Ventures, an African startup incubator. Accelerator programs such as Seedstars and Silicon Valley’s Y-Combinator have played an important role in Africa’s tech ecosystem supporting companies in their early stages, including Flutterwave and Paystack.

Startups have until Friday, May 31, to apply online after which the submissions will be narrowed down to the top 10, who will be paired with mentors to provide guidance on product development, business growth and go-to-market strategy. Four final winners will be selected following a demo day slated for September in New York to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

— Martin K. N. Siele in Nairobi

Marking South Africa’s Freedom Day

New Orleans native PJ Morton, best known as the keyboard player for 2010s mega pop act Maroon 5, spent a month visiting Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa, and left with a collaborative solo album. From Cape Town to Cairo features Nigeria’s Fireboy DML, Asa, and Fela Kuti’s grandson Mádé Kuti, alongside Ndabo Zulu and the Soweto Spiritual Singers from South Africa. The single ”Simunye (We Are One),” featuring the Soweto choir, was released on Friday in honor of South Africa’s Freedom Day, the anniversary of its first democratic election in 1994 that marked the official end of apartheid. The full album is out on June 14.

Weekend Reads

🌍 Multinational consumer companies fleeing Africa are demonstrating an inability to create new consumers on the continent, writes Efosa Ojomo, a research fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute. Foreign companies that expect an easier business environment in Africa, despite obvious decades-long structural problems, place “an unrealistic burden on its employees and on Africa,” he argues.

🇸🇩 When Sudanese artists fled from Khartoum and other cities after the war broke out a year ago, many moved to Cairo, a city with similar Arabic culture and customs. But the artists who made it to Nairobi are particularly grateful that they did because they’ve been made to feel welcome and as an equal member of the Kenyan creative community, reports Amuna Wagner for OkayAfrica. “Nairobi has influenced the way I interpret, perceive, and ultimately integrate within communities,” says one Sudanese mixed media artist.

🇸🇴 Filmmaker Abshir Rageh typifies an emerging generation of young Somalis driving the return of locally produced film projects, reports Abdi Latif Dahir for the New York Times. Rageh has risen through Somalia’s film and television industry, leading productions on one of the nation’s top cable TV networks. His Somali dramas, with millions of online viewers, have encouraged thousands of prospective actors to put themselves up for roles even as financing and other challenges persist.

🇬🇭 Taiwan’s successful crackdown on vote-buying during elections can be a role model for Ghana for its upcoming polls, Audrey Elom Donkor argues in Foreign Policy. Ghana’s vote buying problem is massive, and sees presidential candidates spend up to $100 million per election cycle which is at odds with the country’s middle income status, notes Donkor. Taiwan has nearly extinguished vote buying since 1994 in a wider fight against corruption.

🇪🇹 Brewing coffee and drinking it communally is integral to strengthening familial relationships in Ethiopia, where a quarter of the population farm the crop, Fred Harter reports in The Guardian. In the country’s south-west, it is common for families to take turns in hand-grinding, brewing and serving coffee. The ritual is used as opportunities to bond or lift the mood during depressing times, Harter notes.

🇨🇫 The Wagner Group’s operations in the Central Africa Republic clashed with US security interests in ways that replicated the atmosphere of the Cold War, especially in the capital Bangui, reports James Progue for Granta. It was taken for granted by citizens that Wagner mercenaries were “acting in the interests of the Russian state,” a trade people were happy to make in exchange for stability. As one person told Progue: “Maybe the Russians want to colonize us… And we’re going to accept that colonization, if this colonization can bring us development.”

Week Ahead

April 29 — Togo plans to hold delayed parliamentary and regional elections as political tensions rise over controversial constitutional changes. It is seen as an attempt to maintain President Faure Gnassingbé’s hold on power.

May 1 — United Arab Emirates’s Etihad Airways is set to resume flights from Nairobi to Abu Dhabi, four years after it ceased flights to the city due to global pandemic travel restrictions.

May 2-3 — The Mozambique Mining and Energy Conference will take place in the capital Maputo, bringing together national leadership and more than 500 industry players.

May 5 — The African World Heritage Fund will celebrate the ninth edition of the African World Heritage Day. This year’s theme is “Safeguarding Africa’s Heritage Through Education.”

May 5-8 — The 2024 Forbes Under 30 Summit Africa will be held in Gaborone, Botswana.

For Your Consideration

The African Development Bank invites African graduate students to apply for its 2024 Internship Program (Session 2). The program lasts three to six months and will be located at its headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, or one of its regional offices. (May 7)

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights invites candidates of African descent to apply for its fellowship program. The intensive human rights training takes place at offices in Geneva, Switzerland. (May 24)

• Microsoft, Apple look to go big with smaller AI models.
• In its battle against Russia, US focuses on Moldova.
• Poor countries have a climate bomb on their balance sheets.

If you’re enjoying the Semafor Africa newsletter and finding it useful, please share with your family, friends, African art collectors, and sports business startup founders. We’d love to have them aboard too.

Happy Independence Day to the people of Sierra Leone!! 🇸🇱 (April 27)

Happy Freedom Day to the people of South Africa!! 🇿🇦 (April 27)

Happy Independence Day to the people of Togo!! 🇹🇬 (April 27)

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— Yinka, Alexis Akwagyiram, Alexander Onukwue, Martin Siele, and Muchira Gachenge