Contemporary African Cultural Productions

It is perhaps significant that the contemporary cultural effervescence that has come to the fore began to unfold in the context of the longest - and deepest - economic crises which the African continent has known since the period after the Second World War and which started in earnest in the late 1970s and early 1980s. What is particularly interesting is that while practically every indicator of economic development was declining in nominal and/or real terms for most of the continent, cultural productions were, across the board, on the increase.
Out of adversity, the creative genius of the African produced cultural forms that at once spoke to crises and sought to transcend them. It is a creative genius predominantly powered by younger Africans who yesterday may have been tempted to seek formal employment in a government service but today organize themselves, in response to the context of prolonged economic crises, in a search for self-fulfilment that is at once agonizing and liberating.
While contemporary cultural productions do not originate exclusively from the urban milieu, it should not be surprising that the urban space and urban themes, in all their complexities, are dominant in the range of concerns that are covered. Contemporary cultural productions, among the many functions they serve, are clearly engaged and critical chroniclers of a rapidly changing Africa.