Windows of Opportunities in the Cultural Sector in Cameroon

Cameroon Mon 04-10-2010

Windows of Opportunities in the Cultural Sector in Cameroon
By Mwalimu George Ngwane | AfricanColours.com

The creation of the Ministry of Culture a few decades ago was arguably a launching pad for a cultural renaissance in Cameroon. The Ministry still remains a gateway for artistic blossoming if only, like most Culture Ministries in Africa, it resists the temptation of civil service bureaucracy, the foibles of patronage and the virus of centralisation. Its flagship event FENAC or the Festival of Arts and Culture that is held after every two years remains a veritable corridor for showcasing Cameroon’s tangible cultural heritage.

The happy Family by Angu Walter | 69cm by 90 cms | Acrylic on canvas | Image from artcameroon.com

It could be improved through opening an arts and culture market in the country and beyond for the artists and the creation of National Arts Councils in every Region of the country that provide the template for a new vision in the arts world as it obtains in West, East and Southern Africa.

An arts market can be re-energised through appropriate training, mentoring and being made business savvy for artists; transparent management of President Biya’s Art Grant at regional levels; a balanced bi-cultural identity policy, a holistic and equitable representation of the value chain of creativity in our cultural industry; and the inclusion of civil society art-related organisations’ prism into a new cultural roadmap that the new Minister of Culture seems to be heralding.

Fifty years of Independence and Reunification can only find relevance in a human development paradigm that unfortunately places most African countries at the bottom of the world’s economic pyramid. Now that creative industries have been recognised as one of the most dynamic economic sectors offering vast opportunities for cultural, social and economic development, the Ministry should be able to implement the Plan of Action on Cultural Industries that was signed by African Union Ministers of Culture in Algiers in 2008.

The Way Forward

The way forward is to celebrate individual artistic excellence as has been the case in the last fifty years but with added administrative value in the manner which the indomitable lions have been idolised. Any art form that borders on the commodification of art, the bastardisation of artists and the propagation of an ululation culture is anathema.

Art advocates and cultural militants in Cameroon in collaboration with their counterparts in other African linkages like Arterial Network would have to craft a bigger picture of intercultural dialogue, cultural tourism and the status of the artist which all underpin the cultural dimension of development.

Our cultural zones of silence embodied in our plethora of intangible cultural heritage would have to be given voices so they can speak through brick and brass, through clay and canvass, and through screen and scroll - the mindset of our collective memory and the heritage of our chequered history.

The way forward lies in our artists ability to recognise the paramouncy of clustering and networking; to redeploy their success spin-offs through art investment in Cameroon; to drink deep from the fountain of cultural wealth modernised along the creative template of globalisation, and to resist the syndrome of art at the service of political truimphalism and culture as the quintessence of status mobility.

We can in the next fifty years create a more vibrant creative industry and even postulate as a cultural capital if local companies take a corporate social responsibility in promoting arts, if administrative authorities at home and abroad disconnect cultural showcasing from mere folklore during national events and if Cameroonians start emulating the global trend of patriotically consuming their own art goods and cultural services.

Mwalimu George Ngwane is a writer and panAfricanist.

Posted By: Hirum Ndungu

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