THE FUTURE IS AFRICAN
I consider that Africa is simply the central, global essential continent because it is here that all contemporary challenges collide. It is in Africa that apart of the tipping world will be played.” So said Emmanuel Macron in November 2017. It was on this premise that France President decides to organize a cultural season in his country in 2020 dedicated to the entire African continent and it was on this premise that I accepted his invitation to direct this project.
At first Mr. Macron and his advisers planned to focus on African cultures, to change French views on Africa. I found it reductive to celebrate a millennia-old-continent six months cultural programming, I saw a risk of verging on folklore and entertainment, without meeting the project’s goal: to take down cliché’s and pre conceived ideas. Africa’s image is always associated with poverty lack of democracy coups and of course migrants, who transformed the Mediterranean into a vast cemetery and symbol of lost dreams.
I accepted the position on condition that I revise the format and give it meaning. My goal was to talk wit about Africa’s place in the world, yesterday, today and especially tomorrow; to tell the world what it owes this continent, cradle of humanity, whose demography and rates of economic growth make it the continent of the future.
Africa is not obscure and cursed land prisoner of obsolete traditions, indifferent to world affairs. This season gives a voice to Africans who have pushed boundaries Africa2020 is an invitation to look at the world from an African perspective.
How doe we talk about territory of more than 30m square kilometers and more than 1.2bn people? The challenge of dedicating a season to Africa is to take the continent in its complexity, while keeping in mind its history; its populations have been migrating for centuries and its borders have moved a lot over time. What brings Africans together is the knowledge of having the same place and from a series of communal histories, linked to the empires and kingdoms that molded civilizations.
This knowledge, sometimes tenus and create a feeling of solidarity, and fraternity in sharing a common destiny. This feeling of belonging to the same territory, to the same people and the same destiny is Pan-Africanism. This ideal, of political, social economic and cultural emancipation is based on the principle of uniting in the face of adversity and of claiming a common, distinctive future. Southern African populations define this I am What I am thanks to what we all re. Ubuntu
By building the season around a Pan African State of mind, we can avoid the temptation of promoting nationalism, regionalism and linguistic and ethnic groups projects from African artistes, scientist, intellectuals and entrepreneurs invite the French public to reflect together on the state of Africa and contemporary societies. This exceptional season presents the points of view of African Civil Society, Both from the recent diaspora. The Africa 2020 season is the
My goal was to design a project to talk Africa place in the world
Sounding-board for these agents of change that affects contemporary societies.
I invite Africa and its recent diaspora to respond to issues that are the topics of research and passionate debate on the continent. The programme for the season will include 100 projects across France and its overseas territories. It is structured around five big themes” Augmented Orality” The spread of knowledge, social networks, innovations); “the economy and fabulation” (the redistribution of resources, financial flows, economic emancipation); “archiving imagined histories” (history, memory, archives) “fiction and (un)authorized movements(the flow of people, ideas and the goods the concept of territory) and systems of disobedience (political consciousness and movements, the question of citizenship
Continental Shifts
African 2020 is a pan African and Mutli-disciplinary projects focusing on innovation in the arts, science, technology, entrepreneurship and the economy. Education will be a cross cutting issue for the sharing and transmission of knowledge. It will promote mobility, showcase women in all sectors of activity and target the young above all its ambition is to create a global emancipation movement through sustainable commitment around the values of citizenship.
The Africa 2020 season is the story of a human adventure based on the principle of collective intelligence,
