Tshimologong: Connecting African creativity through diversity, technology

The event held at La Gaîté Lyrique théâtre attracted a pool of creatives, from different industries, from Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone African countries.

Forum Création Africa, also referred to as the Cultural and Creative Industries forum, saw the participation of 34 African countries with a total of 324 creatives present.

Different CCIs represented during the event included E-gaming and audio-visual sectors like cinemas, films, and series, animation such as comics as well as the Extended Reality (XR) scene, ie, Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR and VR).

The forum came at a time when France is facing strong anti-french sentiments from three of its former colonies – Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

The developed nation is, however, determined to strengthen its ties with Africa as it banks on building and fostering relations through the cultural and creative economy.

According to the adviser to the President, Nadège Chouat, the French government is focused on tapping into available opportunities to change the continental perception, especially in its former colonies.

This new relationship is in line with President Emmanuel Macron’s new policy for Africa, where he seeks to be disruptive by going beyond government-to-government, to people-to-people relationships.

This is between the French and African people, as well as African and French people of Afro descent.

This, she said, will also create collaborations that can lead to partnerships between France and Africa, and open markets that can ensure a global and competitive creative economy for the continent.

“We are looking at a win-win relationship with our African partners,” Chouat added.

“We want to feel the connection and the CCIs that provide that opportunity. We chose the sector with relative advantage to show Africa in a different way.

“We believe that France can add value to the creative sector in Africa and we chose sectors where we have a competitive advantage.”

In his speech, President Macron noted that such forums create new horizons and shared universes.

He said when talking about Africa and France, people very often tend to forget, when talking about security issues, the French nation has very often been one of the few countries that have gone to fight terrorism at the request of African states.

People somehow, he added, view this relationship amid the trappings of the past and things people are currently emerging from.

“When we look at the African continent with conventional eyes and a traditional diplomatic approach, we used to put Africa in boxes. There was Portuguese-speaking Africa, English-speaking Africa and French-speaking Africa,” Macron said.

“Just imagine, I was the first French president to set foot in Kenya – complete madness. Speaking from personal experience, it’s a long process.

“But what's happening today is the fruit of a small intellectual and cultural revolution that many of you and I have been working on for six years now.”

Macron said France has welcomed and will continue to welcome many artists.

“I want to clear up any ambiguity or false accusations. France is a country that is proud to allow artists from all African countries to create, invent, research, and understand the world, as well as think about democracy,” he added.

“We will continue to welcome and protect creators, artists, students and entrepreneurs, rising above all controversy and placing culture, intelligence and the arts at the heart of our strategy; the appetite for democracy and inventiveness at the heart of this relationship.”

The idea for the forum came about during Macron’s trip to Benin and Cameroon.

It was spearheaded by CCI secretary general Elizabeth Gomis who joined Macron’s team as an adviser and critic on matters Afro-centric.

During the event, 26 Kenyan creatives were invited to pitch and showcase their innovative, culturally creative projects. They included BlackRhino VR founder Brian Afande, who created a Kikuyu documentary that was exhibited at the forum.

Others were HEVA fund, directors from the Kizazi Moto animated series and e-gamers.

Through the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, I had the opportunity to attend the forum in Paris and interacted with a number of creatives from Africa who are leveraging technology to change the continental narrative.

I had the chance to sit down with a team from Tshimologong Precinct, South Africa, who were partners for the Forum Création Africa.

The Tshimologong Precinct is a university-based incubator, with entrepreneurship at the centre of its operating practice, that is keen on advancing creative industries focusing on excellence and transformation, not only in South Africa but across Africa.

Tshimologong supports studios collectively through four main programmes namely, Digital Lab Africa, Fak’ugesi Festival, Gaming Hub, and Mollo Animation.

During the forum, the precinct launched the seventh edition call for Digital Lab Africa, with a showcase from some of the alumni creatives they interacted with from the sixth edition.

The newly launched edition is being spearheaded by the godmother, Karabo Poppy.

The Star spoke to Poppy, DLA creative director Eduardo Cachucho and Tshimologong creative industries consultant Erika Denis on what the launch of DLA means for African creatives in the gaming, animation, XR, music and visual arts industries.

In nine years, I have grown a lot. Everything I picked since I was young took a lot of years to master and I learnt that something worth learning requires practice in order to attain some level of excellence. Things that are worthwhile and happen quickly most of the time have a short longevity

DLA GODMOTHER

Karabo Poppy is a South African creative who identifies as a queer street artist, graphic designer and illustrator.

She believes that with the new technological era, African creatives are being given a chance to change the narrative and become more expressive.

Part of Poppy’s plan is to use her craft to change the narrative around homosexuality in Africa.

She is also passionate about preserving and showcasing the African aesthetic in a contemporary context.

Born in 1992 and having completed high school in 2010, Poppy said she saw a proper turning point in 2018.

“It took me nine years to get to where I am today but with the support and opportunities that I see DLA creating, I see more creatives joining the industry at a better place than I was,” she said.

“At least they are able to become hopeful of the possibilities coming as well as exceed the kind of achievements I had.” 

Poppy added that she has never really gotten instant gratification from the work she does.

While in primary school, she engaged in a number of activities such as ballet, high jump and playing different musical instruments such as the bass guitar and drums.

“In nine years, I have grown a lot. Everything I picked since I was young took a lot of years to master and I learnt that something worth learning requires practice in order to attain some level of excellence,” Poppy continued.

“Things that are worthwhile and happen quickly most of the time have a short longevity.”

As she works as a freelancer, Poppy said being referred to as the godmother of DLA is something that she likes to hear.

She sees the name as something that validates and continues validating the work that she does.

“In this new technological era, it makes me very excited about the next generation of creative that I will become,” Poppy said.

Being a queer creative, according to her, is marginalisation, upon marginalisation upon marginalisation.

“Being a black, queer, creative woman, all these things are very unconventional. In the beginning, I felt like I had to represent every marginalised group but it was impossible,” Poppy explained.

“I learnt to build up with one group after another. I come from a place of privilege as South Africa became one of the first countries to legalise homosexuality in Africa.”

“I feel like coming from such a place, I need to do something and see if I can partner in creating other safer spaces for people who are queer within the creative community as well see if we can start changing mindsets through creativity in Africa.”

She added that her parents were not as supportive and interested in the beginning but over time, they saw a turning point when it came to return on investment.

“When my parents started seeing a monetary balance and saw that, yes we are investing this amount and this is the outcome, over the years, they have become my biggest supporters in the creative industry and it came through me showing them the possibilities,” she said.

“Another thing was I became a sensation and I was always happy about my job when I came back home.”

Poppy said it is very common for African communities to relate to going to school to ultimately come out as a doctor or lawyer.

“Being a creative is something very uncommon. The most creative we can get is being an architect and that’s it but we are changing that,” she said.

TSHIMOLOGONG IN KENYA

DLA creative director Eduardo Cachucho believes the kind of appetite that already exists for African content around the world, means that this is going to become a major market for creatives in Africa.

This means that creatives get to have jobs, make livelihoods and build intellectual property that will carry Africa forward into the next century.

Over the previous six editions of DLA, 48 projects from 17 countries were incubated.

Even though DLA is an accelerator, Cachucho said they have started a boot camp for creatives who have ideas but are yet to actualise them.

“With our first cohort, we helped the creatives understand what the ecosystem can be; from making a business plan to understanding how distribution works,” he said.

“It does take some time for projects to get to where they are and access to knowledge or resources is so limited in Africa but with accelerators and boot camps, we can really amplify our creatives.”

Cachucho said in the next few weeks, they will be in Kenya to pitch and interact with creatives.

He said over time they have worked with many Kenyan creatives.

One creative worth noting is Kenyan animator Njogu Macharia who won the 2023 DLA award for his project titled Boy Boi.

The award was announced at the Durban FilmMart SA 2023.

The Kenyan animation series was selected among seven other African creations to be shown at the Durban FilmMart.

The series, which was co-produced by Shadrack Munene, consisted of eight episodes that follow the domestic exploits of Boi, a lively and creative six-year-old boy, his family, friends and some unexpected visitors.

The show is set in a contemporary Nairobi, with each episode taking a typical family experience and transforming it into an exciting and thrilling adventure through Boi’s imagination.

Through the Fak’ugesi Awards 2023, it is also worth noting that two creatives were honoured during the event.

According to the precinct, the awards recognise African digital creativity in animation, gaming, and Extended Reality (XR) to include AR, VR, Immersive, digital art, and music.

Agnes Ndegwa, a 3D artist, VR content creator and illustrator, won the Fak’ugesi awards for XR with a project titled Young Haven.

Her project was a VR experience focused on child mental health and emotional awareness, designed with the well-being of younger children in mind.

Kilifi county’s creative agency, Baruu Collective bagged the XR award for a project that combines documentary film and AR technology to bring Kenyan artefacts to life.

Cachucho said they often make numerous calls for applications as not many people know much about the precinct.

“We want to widen the audience and make young creatives who have interesting projects understand that this is for them and it is completely free,” he said.

“All you need is to have a project that is ready to be accelerated. We hope that for this new seventh edition, we get as many projects from Africa.”

Tshimologong creative industries consultant Erika Denis noted that the precinct was initially funded by the French Development Agency (AFD) but progressively received financial support from different partners, public and private through the French government.

She said such facilities need funding and partners that bring additional expertise and support for numerous programmes.

“AFD invested 1.4 million euros when the place started. Today, AFD funding is 40 per cent of the entire budget of the place which means 60 per cent comes from other partners,” Denis said.

“As the project keeps scaling we are looking for more partners. All our programmes are free and hence can be quite costly. Our current partners, who are more than 70, come from SA, Africa and France.”