Africa Day is Over. Now Let’s Fund the Culture

May 27, 2025

Each year on May 25th, Africa dresses up. Flags are raised, speeches are made, drums echo across open-air stages, and hashtags flood our timelines. Africa Day — the anniversary of the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union) in 1963 — is meant to be a reminder of pan-African possibility. But as the sun sets on another year of colorful celebration, we’re left with a tougher question: how do we go beyond cultural performance and build cultural power?

For decades, the creative economy has been treated as Africa’s afterthought — celebrated in rhetoric, starved in budget. But if this continent is serious about sovereignty, serious about development, and serious about the youth that make up 70% of its population, then it’s time to fund, protect, and scale the creative sector. Not for vibes. For growth.

From Freedom Songs to Global Streams

Africa’s creative industries have always been more than art — they’ve been weapons. From the anti-apartheid protest music of Miriam Makeba to the revolutionary cinema of Ousmane Sembène, creativity has long been central to Africa’s political imagination. But what was once a tool of resistance is now an engine of opportunity.

Today, Africa’s creative economy — spanning fashion, film, music, digital content, gaming, visual art, and beyond — generates an estimated $50 billion annually, and employs over 16 million people across the continent. In Nigeria alone, Nollywood is the country’s second-largest employer, and its music industry rakes in hundreds of millions in export revenue. Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Senegal are seeing similar creative booms.

But here’s the kicker: this success is happening in spite of institutional neglect, not because of it.

Africa's Creative Class is Driving the Continental Agenda — With or Without Permission

African youth are not waiting for permission to be great. Whether it’s Amapiano producers blowing up on TikTok, digital artists minting NFTs, or fashion designers showcasing at Paris and Shanghai Fashion Week, the continent’s creative class is forcing itself into the global conversation.

Still, beneath the glitz lies a more fragile story: over 90% of Africa’s creative entrepreneurs operate informally, with limited access to capital, poor infrastructure, fragmented legal protection, and zero safety nets. A young Kenyan animator can win an award at Annecy and still struggle to get a bank loan back home. A Burkinabè director might win at FESPACO and still face piracy eating their earnings alive. The ideas are global. The systems are not.

So when we talk about Africa Day, we have to ask: what does sovereignty look like in a digital age? It's not just about flags and borders anymore. It’s about owning your stories, your data, your platforms — and your profits.

Culture Is Infrastructure. But Where Are the Roads?

In April 2024, the African Union launched the African Continental Free Trade Area Protocol on Culture and Creative Industries (CCIs). It’s a promising policy tool that — if executed — could allow for smoother trade of creative goods and services, joint content licensing across regions, and more consistent intellectual property protections.

But treaties won’t mean much if creatives don’t have the infrastructure to scale. Africa has fewer than 2,000 cinema screens for over 1.4 billion people. Internet costs in some countries are among the highest in the world. There are vast creative deserts — places where talent exists, but electricity, equipment, and reliable broadband do not.

This is not a side issue. This is core infrastructure.

Imagine if every city had an Afrofuturist creative hub with studios, rehearsal spaces, VR labs, and content incubators. Imagine a continent where a YouTuber in Kinshasa and a fashion designer in Kigali can collaborate on a campaign without visa delays or data shortages. Imagine investors treating fashion tech like fintech.

The potential is here. The policies are forming. What’s missing is real money.

The Afreximbank Move: A Cultural Bankroll, Finally

This is why the announcement on May 19, just days before Africa Day, felt like a turning point.

Afreximbank, through its Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), unveiled a $1 billion Africa Film Fund, under its CANEX programme, to support film production, distribution, and post-production across the continent. This is not a grant. It’s patient capital — structured for long-term impact, not just red carpet clout.

By framing culture as a strategic economic asset, not a soft-power accessory, Afreximbank is signaling a deeper shift: Africa is done begging for platforms. We’re building them.

The Film Fund could serve as a model for other sectors: imagine a Fashion Export Fund, or a Gaming Incubation Fund, or a Digital Creator Support Scheme. Each dollar invested in African creativity creates exponential returns — not just economically, but socially. Culture creates jobs, but it also builds identity, preserves heritage, and softens borders.

If you want unity, don’t just build highways. Fund the voices.

The Diaspora is Watching — and Coming Home

Another hidden advantage of investing in creative industries? Diaspora pull.

Whether it’s African-American filmmakers investing in Pan-African projects, or second-generation Brits and Canadians building in Lagos and Accra, the creative economy is now the re-entry point for many diasporans. They don’t just want to return to Africa — they want to co-create with it.

This is where Africa can do what few global regions can: offer a hybrid identity zone, where continental and diasporic talent fuse to build something truly borderless. But again, that only works if the infrastructure — legal, financial, logistical — is ready to receive them.

So What Now? Beyond Africa Day

Africa Day is symbolic. It matters. But it must evolve. Celebration without systems is performance. And this continent can’t afford to perform its future.

Here’s what we need to do next:

1. Create National Creative Economy Strategies

Countries like Rwanda and Nigeria are already leading with cultural policy reform. Others must follow. This means aligning ministries of culture, trade, education, and technology to recognize the creative economy as a real economic sector — not a side hustle.

2. Establish Local Creative Funds

The Afreximbank fund is a great start, but governments and private sector actors must replicate this at local levels. We need microgrants, seed funds, and export loans tailored to creatives.

3. Invest in Creative Education

You can't scale creativity without training. Film schools, coding bootcamps, costume design institutes — these are the universities of the future. And they need to be affordable, accessible, and industry-linked.

4. Protect IP Like Gold

If Africa is to own its stories, it must protect them. Strengthening copyright laws, registering content, and building regional licensing platforms is essential. Piracy kills potential before it earns.

5. Build Pan-African Distribution Channels

From digital streaming platforms to intercontinental fashion logistics, creators need pipelines. A Pan-African content distribution network would allow films, books, games, and music to reach more than just local markets.

Final Word: From Celebration to Construction

Africa Day must move from symbol to system. The creative economy is not a luxury — it’s a necessity. It’s where the continent’s youth already are. It’s what the world is watching us for. And it’s the fastest-growing ticket to global relevance that Africa holds.

So let’s clap. Let’s dance. Let’s wear kente and do the TikTok skits. But when the drums fade, let the deals begin.

We don’t need another Africa Day speech. We need an Africa Day studio.

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