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Appendix

Nnamdi O. Madichie (Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria and Bloomsbury Institute, UK)
Robert Ebo Hinson (University of Ghana, Ghana and Lincoln International Business School, UK)

The Creative Industries and International Business Development in Africa

ISBN: 978-1-80071-303-1, eISBN: 978-1-80071-302-4

Publication date: 21 January 2022

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Citation

Madichie, N.O. and Hinson, R.E. (2022), "Appendix", The Creative Industries and International Business Development in Africa, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 153-162. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80071-302-420211016

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022 Emerald Publishing Limited

Fashion, Gaming and Digital (including Animation). Key areas include SDGs, Fashionomics, Photography and Photojournalism. There are also higher education institutions such as the Nollywood Centre at the Pan Atlantic University (Lagos, Nigeria) and the Janet Centre at University of Pretoria (South Africa). This appendix highlights some of the developments in the creative industries space on the continent.

A. Technology & Virtual Reality

  • Nigeria: Unofficial Tech Capital?

    Bright, J. (2020, February 3) Nigeria is becoming Africa’s unofficial tech capital. Extra Crunch, Retrieved from: https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/02/nigeria-is-becoming-africas-unofficial-tech-capital/

  • These Virtual Reality Artists Will Challenge Your Perception Of Art | HuffPost UK Life

    https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/these-virtual-reality-artists-will-challenge-your-perception-of-art_uk_609d2985e4b014bd0ca8bb22

  • Fashion and Gaming: Connecting the Creative Industries dots

    https://www.wired.com/story/luxury-fashion-brands-video-games-shopping/

    Fashion, Gaming and Digital (including Animation). Key areas include SDGs, Fashionomics, Photography and Photojournalism. Also, Institutions e.g., Nollywood Centre at Pan Atlantic University and the Janet Centre at UP.

  • Consuming Passion for fashion, identity construction & entrepreneurial emergence at the bottom of the pyramid. Madichie, N. O. (2020). Consuming Passion for fashion, identity construction & entrepreneurial emergence at the bottom of the pyramid. Small Enterprise Research, 27(2), 195–222. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13215906.2020.1761870

    This conceptual study seeks to rearticulate luxury fashion consumption epitomized by the sartorial sub-culture and highlight how an ‘entrepreneurial emergence’ has gradually taken root at the bottom-of-the-pyramid in a war-ravaged developing world context. The study is primarily qualitative in orientation, and interpretivist in nature. The study is based on a combination of general observations and analyses of media reports, and documentary analysis/ review of the extant literature. It surmises that ‘luxury fashion consumption’ among a sartorial subculture in a war-ravaged developing world context has brought about an ‘entrepreneurial emergence’ at the bottom-of-the-pyramid. It is now up to marketers to exploit the fortune at this lower rung of the economic ladder.

  • Bloomsbury Institute London: Working Paper on Brexit, Commonwealth and the Creative Industries.

    Madichie, N., & Zaman, A. (2020, May 27) New Bloomsbury Institute Working Paper focuses on Brexit, Commonwealth and the Creative Industries. Retrieved from: https://www.bil.ac.uk/teaching-learning-and-research/centre-for-research-enterprise/research-news/new-bloomsbury-institute-working-paper-focuses-on-brexit-commonwealth-and-the-creative-industries-2/

    Madichie and Zaman (2020) recently documented, “one of the more striking moments of the COVID-19 pandemic [where] leading musicians far and wide performed for all of us from their homes. There was much power and poignancy in this event beyond 270 million people coming together and watching the performances during an unprecedented crisis. It was also a potent example of the force of a global sector.” The creative industries has mobilised millions of dollars ($128m for WHO COVID-19 relief) and millions in a global audience, all the more impressive when there are so many competing attractions in this smartphone age. The pervasive and dynamic nature of the creative industries becomes clear when looking at the range of sub-sectors covered by companies such as Pearson (publishing), Abbott Mead Vickers (advertising), Universal Music, Sotheby’s (auction), Hawkins/Brown Architects, Alexander McQueen (fashion) and Pinewood Studios (film).

  • Bolat, E., & Taura, N. (2019, September 10) Digital technologies are transforming African businesses, but obstacles remain. The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/digital-technologies-are-transforming-african-businesses-but-obstacles-remain-120005

    Digital technologies have also become a part of arts, media and entertainment, in particular in Kenya and Nigeria. Case studies from Nigeria show how small and medium-sized new media players benefit from embracing a culture of experimentation, partnership and continuous learning. These businesses have adopted a “mobile first” mindset. They do this by using mobile technology as a resourceful, quick and flexible solution to do business, connect and promote their content. The advertising, game development and media companies that took part in the research had all invested substantially in establishing their own systems for sharing data. These firms also embrace the Passion economy which centres around social causes and high access to mobile technology “as driving forces of the business”. Nigeria’s movie industry, too, has benefited from digitisation. The technology has improved production time and quality. It has also helped extend the reach of movies to wider audiences. Foreign investors are taking greater interest in this fast growing business.

B. Restitution and Intellectual Property

C. The Role and Place of Institutions

D. Heritage & Tourism

  • Bright Simons (2019, December 20) Ghana’s Year of Return is on its way to success so the government should stop using bad data. Quartz Africa, https://qz.com/africa/1772851/ghanas-year-of-return-should-avoid-bad-govt-data/

    Ghanaian officials are basking in glory and ecstasy following a very successful marketing and branding campaign for the “Year of Return”, an initiative of the president of Ghana marking a major milestone in the sordid history of black slavery. The yearlong program has seen throughout 2019 impressive feats of national showcasing: tons of positive international press, amazing gestures of corporate solidarity and fabulous celebrity endorsements, most of it at no cost whatsoever to Ghana. Naomi Campbell, Idris Elba, Boris Cudjoe, Cardi B, even the royal couple of Jay Z and Beyonce, have all won the badge and flown the flag for a delighted Ghana. So why is Ghanaian officialdom so keen on selling the success of the initiative on the tabletop of incoherent statistics and woolly numbers, instead of better cataloging these clear achievements? It is a very strange sight to behold.

    https://qz.com/africa/1772851/ghanas-year-of-return-should-avoid-bad-govt-data/

  • Jamestown to Sophiatown Navigating Spaces in Africa’s Creative Quarters

    Madichie, N. (2020, March 30) Navigating Spaces in Africa’s Creative Quarters — A journey from Jamestown to Sophiatown. Retrieved from: https://link.medium.com/DseeozqLMgb

    The article sought to capture two African townships as they recently pivoted to branding their historical Artscape – Jamestown in Accra Ghana and Sophiatown in South Africa. To get further insight see the following article.

E. The Role of the Private Sector

  • The Africa Soft Power Project

    https://theafricasoftpowerproject.com/africa-month/

    The flagship Africa Soft Power event is themed The Bridge: The Past, The Present, The Future is a month-long, high-level, global gathering of thought leaders, influencers and pioneers engaging in a longer and broader conversation on Africa’s creative power, knowledge economy, and how these assets can strengthen ties between the continent, diaspora community, and the wider world. The series ran from 5–25 May 2021 featuring sessions on film, music, technology, fashion, sports, etc, and of course economic impact. For the past five years, May 5th has been recognized as African World Heritage Day by UNESCO. Similarly, May 25th has been recognized as Africa Day by the African Union. Like you, we agree that two days in one month is not enough to honour and engage the rich history, culture, and legacy of Africa, Africans, and African descendants in the diaspora. We believe it is time to take this a step further and establish the celebration of Africa’s rich history, culture, and dynamic contemporary industries within wider global conversations. Within this, we invite the African diaspora and global community to join the celebration of May as “Africa Month”.

F. Institutions (Universities – Pan Atlantic Lagos, Nigeria; Pretoria South Africa)

  • Nollywood Studies Centre, School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University: On the 13th of March, Femi Odugbemi, the director and producer, sat down for an interview on the Filmmakers’ Forum. The Filmmakers’ Forum is an activity organised by the Nollywood Studies Centre of the School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University. The interview took place online and was hosted by the director of the Centre.

    YouTube, 24 March 2021, Interview with Femi Odugbemi, https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=bclBouQQF_s

    Designed as the one-stop resource centre for anyone doing research on the Nigerian video film and its industry, the Nollywood Studies Centre (NSC) is the ultimate portal to Nollywood. It is the first one dedicated to the study of the Nigerian video film not just in Africa but globally. The School of Media and Communication,1 has evolved directly from the Centre for Media and Communication. The CMC was instituted in 2006 by the Pan-African University Council (now known as the Pan-Atlantic University Council) in recognition of the critical role of this sector in shaping societal values and cultural life. No less important, the contribution of the creative industries to economic growth and the GDP is gaining recognition as well. Specifically, the establishment of the School of Media and Communication is informed by the aspiration to train professionals in this area of culture who would uphold the highest intellectual, ethical and professional values that promote creativity, critical knowledge, technical perfection, social responsibility, and the spirit of enterprise. The School’s programmes will prepare students for careers in the creative industries, in business generally, and in various public and private domains.2 Mission: The primary goal of the School of Media and Communication is the formation of media and communication professionals, to enable them to pursue their calling of service to human cultures with a sense of creativity, skill, knowledge and values. We wish to contribute through our expertise to the professional excellence of the creative industries in our country and the continent of Africa. Vision: The vision of the School is to be internationally recognized as a prestigious institution offering high quality education in communication and media; to be a reference point for research in Africa, and to be a leading centre of learning globally. It is expected that the level and high standard of the School will influence positively all other faculties of its nature across the country and the African continent.

  • Salkowitz, R. (Forbes, 26 June 2020) Africa Angles To Be Animation’s Next Global Hotspot. Retrieved from: https://www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.forbes.com/sites/robsalkowitz/2020/06/26/africa-angles-to-be-animations-next-global-hotspot/amp/

    From Cape Town to Cairo, Lagos to Nairobi, animation is fuelling the emergence of a creative economy across the African continent and helping to satisfy increasing global demand for new programming and production capacity. Just this month, a series of announcements underscores the rising prominence of African voices in one of the few COVID-resistant segments of the media and entertainment industry.

  • The State of In-betweenness: South African National Gallery

    Hosted by the South African Gallery, this showcase presents impressions that hover in a liminal space of constant flux and becoming. Slipping in-between “visibility” and “invisibility,” materiality and immateriality, human and non-human, actuality, and imagination, being and non-being, presence, and absence – they oscillate in a state of in-betweenness. Materially “corporeal” yet “ethereal” and spectral, the impressions inhabit varying states of “atrophy” and “transformation,” acting as affective carriers of memory, possibly evoking remembrances of familiarity, intimacy, comfort, strangeness, disease, vulnerability, trauma, complicity, and loss.

    Source: https://www.iziko.org.za/exhibitions/disquieting-domesticities-vestiges-violence-or-ghost-house

Table A-1

A Decade of The Callus Chronicles on African Animation (2010–2019)

  • Callus, P. (2010). Animation as socio-political commentary: an analysis of the animated films of Congolese director Jean Michel Kibushi. Journal of African Media Studies, 2(1), 55–71.

    This article broadly explores the relationship between non-indexical audio-visual formats and socio-political commentary by focusing on the animated films of Congolese film-maker Jean Michel Kibushi. It uses a multidisciplinary approach, drawing on biographical information, the history of animation in Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, animation and African film theory, writing on Congolese popular culture and collective memory, and personal interviews with Kibushi. The article argues that Kibushi’s films both mobilize local cultural forms and offer socio-political critique.

  • Callus, P., & Potter, C. (2017). Michezo Video: Nairobi’s gamers and the developers who are promoting local content. Critical African Studies, 9(3), 302–326.

    In Kenya, the rise of digital technologies and related new media, and an infrastructure able to support them, has seen the emergence of a growing local video games industry and a new generation of Kenyan video game developers, players and promoters. This article focuses on the particular design strategies employed by young producers of creative digital content for games and the current networks of practice, play and support unfolding around these new gaming technologies. Interviewees for this paper span industry experts and independent artists operating in and beyond the capital city of Nairobi. It examined strategies employed by these developers and promoters looking to create and advocate local content, i.e., visual and narrative game environments referencing histories and folklore specific to their cultural context. Real or virtual spaces of interaction and networks these games developers, promoters and players operate within – including gaming studios, entertainment parlours, technology hubs, gaming conventions and online SNS interest groups and video channels – and the ways in which these spaces might support the emergence, development and increased distribution of Kenyan games that incorporate local cultural context and regional folklore.

  • Callus, P. (2015). Animation, Fabrication, Photography: Reflections upon the Intersecting Practices of Sub-Saharan Artists within the Moving Image. African Arts, 48(3), 58–69.

    There are a number of different ways in which a range of African animation artists engage with or utilize photography within their practice, illustrating the range and scope of methods that are employed. By focusing upon Kenyan Ng’endo Mukii’s explorations of animated documentary such as Yellow Fever, Ethiopian Ezra Wube’s portfolio of animated paintings, and South African artists Mocke Jansen van Veuren and Theresa Collins’s time-lapse experiments, this article explores photographic practice within African animation. These artists were selected to demonstrate the range of such ideas and practices explored within animation rather than to offer specific representations of African animation. Embedded within these animations one can identify the themes of migration, displacement, identity, interpersonal relationships, local narrative, and social and political commentary. They challenge the fixed conventions of still and moving image and create works that prompt the viewer to reconsider photography in light of fabrication and manipulation.

  • Callus, P. (2019). Shifting Cultural Capital: Kenyan Arts in Digital Spaces. In Digital Entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 125–143). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

    The discourse on African arts has, in the past, been framed by a dialectic between earlier traditions and practices and contemporary modes that face the problematic question of ‘authenticity’. This chapter will focus on how digital technology impacts further on this discourse by challenging the cultural capital that is typically associated with curatorial practice, the gallery, and the marketplace and how digital art practices can challenge notions of authenticity in the discourse on African art. Through a range of cases of Kenyan multi-media artists that operate virtually and physically, and stakeholders such as bloggers, the chapter asks whether a shift in cultural capital is emerging from popular and subcultural online spaces and the interactions that these bring about.

Table A-2

Goge Africa Worldwide

Resources and Further Reading

1

School of Media and Communication, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria https://smc.edu.ng/centres/nollywood-study-centre/

2

https://smc.edu.ng/about-smc/

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