Conference report: African creative Economy – A new priority for the continent

Jenny F. Mbaye recently completed her PhD at LSE, and is now a postdoctoral research fellow at the African Centre for Cities of the University of Cape Town. Jenny’s research interests focus on the phenomena of cultural entrepreneurship and music economy in Africa; in this post, she says that with the right kind of support from governments, the arts could help boost economic growth within African countries

Reconsidering cultural entrepreneurship: hip hop music economy and social change in Senegal, francophone West Africa

The increasing interest in the cultural economy is part of an attempt to invent new industrial development strategies that comprises a capacity to transform locations. In policy-making, the cultural economy is commonly framed from an economic perspective that salutes the role of the cultural economy and the dynamics of entrepreneurship in processes of urban and regional developments. Moreover, explorations of cultural economy and entrepreneurship are mainly represented by studies of Europe and North America. This thesis departs from such a normative perspective, and critically examines the links between a situated music economy, its cultural entrepreneurs and social change in West Africa. The empirical investigation of West African hip hop musical practitioners is framed by the notion of “community of practice”. The situated practices of these cultural workers and their music production ecology are investigated – methodologically – from a grounded perspective in order to grasp the originality of their materiality and aesthetics. The empirical focus of this thesis research is Dakar, one Francophone West African urban locale, which is contrasted with the ‘test case’ site of Ouagadougou. The case study locations are ‘experientially situated’, and over seventy semi-structured interviews were conducted with a range of participants both directly and indirectly involved in the hip hop music economy. Underpinning this research is the starting point that using “community of practice” as a conceptual framework offers a theoretically informed empirical basis for situating cultural entrepreneurship in the context of the West African music economy. In response, this thesis introduces the transcultural dimension of Hip Hop to frame its radical culturalisation of the West African music economy. This is done by singling out the political, social and theoretical significance of how hip hop entrepreneurship has become a force to be reckoned within social change in Francophone West Africa: this is a significant contribution of the thesis

Ins and outs of the cultural polis: informality, culture and governance in the global South

This paper provides an epistemological critique of informality by focusing on cultural governance in two cities of the global South, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Dakar, Senegal. Aiming to enrich debates about urban creativity and urban cultural policy, which are still mainly focused on and articulated from the global North, we consider the broad field of ‘informality’ research as an entry point for such a discussion. Using case studies from African and Latin American contexts, we focus on the interstices of cultural policy and the borderlands of (in)formality, examining how governmental institutions are entangled in informal processes, and how grassroots cultural interventions become part of mainstream cultural circuits. The analysis sheds light on how these creative spaces of cultural production, located in Southern contexts of urban extremes, contribute to the vitality of informal urbanisms and unsettle predominant views that see them merely as sites ofinfrastructural poverty and social exclusion. The paper suggests that a creative remapping of informality, through an inquiry of the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of the cultural polis, could improve our translating capacity of academic discourse into institutional/policy-related operations

AURA ou de la production politique de la musique hip-hop

Depuis le milieu des années 1980, le hip-hop en Afrique de l’Ouest, parmi les rares genres musicaux communs à toute la région, a considérablement contribué à la vitalité du secteur musical local et au changement social au sein de la jeunesse ouest-africaine. La musique hip-hop s’est entre autres affirmée à travers l’articulation de perspectives socioculturelles et idéologico-politiques nouvelles. En retraçant les géographies désormais mondialisées du hip-hop et de son expression musicale, ce texte propose une analyse de la production politique de la musique hip-hop à partir des initiatives du collectif ouest-africain, AURA. La mobilisation de ces acteurs hip-hop illustre ainsi une lecture de la politique différentielle et de la politique de la différence inscrites dans ce genre musical en Afrique de l’Ouest.For the last twenty years, hip-hop in West Africa, among the few musical genres common to the whole region, has considerably contributed to the vitality of the local musical sector as well as to social change among the West African youth. hip-hop music has asserted itself through the articulation of new socio-cultural and ideologico-political perspectives. Drawing the nowadays globalised geographies of hip-hop and its musical expression, this article suggests an analysis of the political production of hip-hop musical from the West African collective, AURA. The mobilisation of those hip-hop actors thus illustrates the application of the differential politics and the politics of difference inscribed in this musical genre in West Africa.Durante los veinte anos pasados, hip-hop en África del Oeste, entre otros estilos musicales comunes a toda la región, ha considerablemente contribuido a la vitalidad del sector musical local y al cambio social sobre la juventud oeste africana. La música hip-hop se ha asentado a través de la articulación de perspectivas socio-culturales y ideológico-politízales nuevas. Reconstituyendo las geografías ahora mundializadas del hip-hop y de su expresión musical, este articulo propone une análisis de la producción politizada de la música hip-hop a partir de las iniciativas del colectivo oeste africano, AURA. La movilización de esos actores hip-hop ilustra así une lectura de la política diferencial y de la política de la diferencia inscritas en este etilo musical en África del Oeste

Coverage of malaria protection in pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa: a synthesis and analysis of national survey data

Background Insecticide-treated nets and intermittent preventive treatment with sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine are recommended for the control of malaria during pregnancy in endemic areas in Africa, but there has been no analysis of coverage data at a subnational level. We aimed to synthesise data from national surveys about these interventions, accounting for disparities in malaria risk within national borders. Methods We extracted data for specific strategies for malaria control in pregnant women from national malaria policies from endemic countries in Africa. We identified the most recent national household cluster-sample surveys recording intermittent preventive treatment with sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine and use of insecticide-treated nets. We reconciled data to subnational administrative units to construct a model to estimate the number of pregnant women covered by a recommended intervention in 2007. Findings 45 (96%) of 47 countries surveyed had a policy for distribution of insecticide-treated nets for pregnant women; estimated coverage in 2007 was 4·7 million (17%) of 27·7 million pregnancies at risk of malaria in 32 countries with data. 39 (83%) of 47 countries surveyed had an intermittent preventive treatment policy; in 2007, an estimated 6·4 million (25%) of 25·6 million pregnant women received at least one dose of treatment and 19·8 million (77%) visited an antenatal clinic (31 countries). Estimated coverage was lowest in areas of high-intensity transmission of malaria. Interpretation Despite success in a few countries, coverage of insecticide-treated nets and intermittent preventive treatment in pregnant African women is inadequate; increased efforts towards scale-up are needed