Africa

1. Smaller art deals
2. A Nairobi icon
3. Lagos loss, Banjul’s gain
4. Winning at last

Also, how Isabel dos Santos has settled in Dubai, plus President Ruto’s US state visit.

Hello! Welcome to Semafor Africa! I ran into an old friend the other day who has been in the African music business for many years. It was an insightful conversation about the ways the industry has evolved particularly with major success on the global stage. And then my friend cautioned: “But we need to be careful about our IP.” The concern about intellectual property here was that the African music business is going through a boom period, which has led to plenty of talented young artists and even executives being signed up to big international organizations and financiers.

Often these deals are quite lucrative on the face of it, especially relative to where some of the long struggling artists are coming from. But the caution wasn’t about the short term, but rather, as my friend put it, it’s whether we’d wake up one day and find that the creativity of young Africa was completely owned by non-Africans. It’s worth noting this isn’t just about the music business or even just creative sectors, like entertainment and art, where many of the biggest African art buyers are not African. This applies to sectors like tech where large chunks of some of the continent’s most successful startups are funded by Silicon Valley venture funds or Chinese backers.

Is this a cause for alarm? Not necessarily. But there does need to be more education and awareness of what’s at stake beyond short term reward. Ultimately though, these are creators and entrepreneurs operating in capitalist societies, so they’re very much within their rights to sell to the highest bidders. But even that could be managed better. I’ve been told there are not as many Africa-based advisors with global M&A and rights management experience as there could be. This would help avoid the worst outcomes where talent gives up all their rights or control for below the long-term value of the African opportunity.

🟡 In today’s edition, dig into Alexander’s great scoop from Lagos on how the saga over the Landmark beach might create new market opportunities in The Gambia among other places. Earlier this week, Martin in Nairobi took the temperature of Kenyans about President Ruto who is set for a historic state visit to Washington DC in a few days. Alexander also had an important piece explaining why the internet cable break in East Africa is part of a worrying trend for Africa.

The African art market contracted in 2023

How much the African modern and contemporary art market is estimated to have shrunk in 2023, according to a report by ArtTactic, a London-based art market research firm. But this compares to a steeper decline of -17.4% for global auction sales of contemporary art in the same period at the world’s biggest auction houses. Industry insiders say the parlous state of several large African economies, including Nigeria and South Africa, has had an impact on sales prices and volume because these countries are the continent’s largest art markets.

How to market an icon

At the heart of Kenya’s capital stands the iconic 32-story Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), a building that has stood the test of political and cultural influences. But it’s also the subject of a privatization push by a cash-poor Kenyan government which is keen to raise new funds from a building synonymous with modern Nairobi.

A product of postcolonial imagination and ambitions, the 50-year old Convention Centre was commissioned by the country’s first President Jomo Kenyatta in 1967 and officially opened in September 1973. Initially intended to play host to the ruling Kenya African National Union party’s headquarters, the scope of its usefulness has expanded over the decades as economic and regional interests prevailed. But President William Ruto thinks the KICC could generate more value for the government. He has reportedly estimated that it could generate up to 3 billion Kenyan shillings ($23 million) annually if it was privatized.

The building is made up of three structures: a cylinder-shaped tower, a base, and the auditorium. The design pays homage to Kenya’s traditional architecture through its textured terracotta facades, and features Nordic design influences with the finishes that are essentially intricate wooden ceilings. It was designed by Norwegian architect Karl Henrik Nøstvik and Kenyan architect David Mutiso. The latter, in an interview a few years ago, offered that the tower’s design was inspired by a donkey’s penis.

— Muchira Gachenge in Nairobi

Lagos beach developer plans new Gambia project

THE SCOOP

LAGOS — After losing its Lagos beachside real estate to controversial government plans for a coastal highway, Nigeria’s Landmark Africa is working on plans to build two new West African beach properties, chief executive Paul Onwuanibe told Semafor Africa.

Onwuanibe said the company had received separate invitations, including one from the Gambian government and from three state governments in Nigeria’s southeast, to develop waterfront leisure hubs that will boost tourism, the CEO said. The two commissioned projects include a development proposed in Akwa Ibom, an oil-producing Nigerian state by the edge of the Atlantic Ocean which is expected to open before the end of the year, while the Gambia project “will take a little bit longer,” he said.

The new developments, for which MOUs have been signed, will be wholly funded by Landmark at $5 million each, while the land comes from the government partners.

Charles Udoh, tourism commissioner in Akwa Ibom, said on May 10 that the state was “seeking a partnership” with the company to develop a section of its shoreline for tourism.

Landmark is also “looking at a number of sites in Lagos” to locate another leisure property.

Nigeria knocked down leisure and entertainment structures on the Landmark beach in April. The move drew the ire of tourism industry watchers who questioned the wisdom in destroying “the biggest tourism spot in Lagos” to build a 700-kilometer highway connecting Lagos in the southwest to Calabar in the southeast. A notice for the beach’s demolition was served in March.

The highway, designed to have five lanes on each side, is estimated to cost $11 billion and be completed in eight years. It will be built by Hitech, a company owned by the Chagoury Group whose Lebanese-Nigerian proprietors are long-time allies of Bola Tinubu, the Nigerian president.

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The Ethiopian runner who took 10 years to win a marathon

In 2014’s Boston Marathon, Ethiopian long-distance runner Buzunesh Deba came in second place to Kenyan marathon runner Rita Jeptoo. But in 2016, Jeptoo was stripped of her title for doping. That made Buzunesh the winner of the race and the $75,000 prize — plus a $25,000 bonus for setting a course record of 2:19:59. But, as the Wall Street Journal reported in April, her joy has been on hold for eight years. The Boston Marathon’s organizers would not pay out until they recouped the money from Jeptoo, which they apparently had not as of publication of the article. But, in a heartwarming twist, the Journal reported this week that a reader and longtime Boston Marathon fan gave the Ethiopian runner — now a mother of two young children — a check for $75,000 after reading the first story. The fan, Philadelphia-area businessman Doug Guyer, has even offered to add the bonus for her course record.

Weekend Reads

🇦🇴 Isabel dos Santos, once Africa’s richest woman, has found Dubai a safe base to avoid arrests, despite an Interpol warrant issued in 2022. Dos Santos, the daughter of the former Angolan president, lives in near-freedom in the city with her mother, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists found. Angola charged dos Santos with 12 crimes in January, but the UAE does not have an extradition treaty with Angola.

🇬🇭 Insurgents in the Sahel are making inroads into Ghana’s northern regions, write Eliasu Tanko and James Courtright in Foreign Policy. The researchers found that “insurgents have paid Ghanaians to smuggle fuel and personnel across the border on motorcycles” and cite reports of “militants using Ghanaian soil as a temporary safe haven.” Ghana’s counterterrorism task force says its higher levels of development and democratic norms are bulwarks against insurgency.

🌍 Pushing an immediate return to democracy in West Africa’s Sahel countries under military rule will not ensure lasting peace for them, argues Ken Opalo, a political scientist at Georgetown University. The pre-coup status in those countries were not true democracies by definition, so this should stir “a need to focus on the fundamentals of establishing order and a serious rebuilding of the foundations of democratic self-government,” he writes.

🗣️ China’s economic power gives Africa greater agency in forging its future, argues Ovigwe Eguegu, policy analyst at Development Reimagined, on the China in Africa podcast with host Christian-Geraud Neema. The US-led order of the post-war years pushed democratic ideals but allowed little development capital to flow to Africa. But China’s economic might and Israel’s war in Gaza have lowered African leaders’ appetite for American lectures, says Eguegu.

🌍 Vladimir Putin’s enrichment through Russian mercenaries in Africa is the result of three decades of the US’s pursuit of “nebulous democracy and development objectives,” writes Walter Russell Mead in The Wall Street Journal. The US has viewed Africa as a kind of human rights lab, but that has not yielded results, especially in the Sahel “where the conditions for the sustainable rise of democratic societies largely don’t exist,” Mead argues.

🇲🇦 Morocco has become Africa’s top car exporter by offering subsidies and easing approval processes for businesses while investing in freight railway infrastructure, writes Sam Metz in the Associated Press. Morocco’s auto industry brings in $14 billion in exports annually, and has capacity to produce 700,000 vehicles a year. It’s the result of a 2014 industrialization plan to attract foreign automakers with the promise of a cheaper young skilled workforce.

Week Ahead

May 19 — Truck drivers in South Africa will go on strike across the country to protest employment of foreign nationals within the local logistics industry.

May 19 — Kenya’s finance ministry will release economic growth data for 2023. The government estimates the economy grew at a slightly faster pace than the 4.8% posted in 2022.

May 20 — Nigeria’s central bank will announce its latest interest rate decision. It is expected to further tighten monetary policy to tame soaring inflation.

May 20 — A Nigerian court will rule if separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu’s bail should be reinstated.

May 21-22 — The International Energy Agency’s annual Global Conference on Energy Efficiency will take place in Nairobi, the first time on the continent.

May 21-24 — Kenya’s President William Ruto will begin a historic state visit to the United States. The tour will start in Atlanta and include a visit to Coca Cola’s headquarters and Spelman College. On Thursday (May 23) President Joe Biden will welcome his counterpart to the White House and later entertain him and the Kenyan first lady at a state dinner.

May 24 — South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party is set to hold a “Victory” rally in Johannesburg ahead of the May 29 election.

May 24-26 — Ethiopian music lovers will attend Addis Jazz Festival in Addis Ababa featuring jazz artists from across the continent. It takes place at the African Jazz Village under the stewardship of the legendary Mulatu Astatke.

• The climate case for Biden’s new China tariffs.
• US Senator Warren circled wagons around embattled FDIC chief.
• Google DeepMind launches a new framework to assess dangers of AI.
• France sends more police to quell New Caledonia as civil war fears brew.

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