'Africa meets Africa' O.C.RE conference, Coast of Dreams, Durban
A five-day conference designed to support African cultural organisations in project development, professionalism and network building activities got off to a bad start last week when it appeared to sideline most major players in the arts in Durban itself. Many practitioners and arts administrators became aware of the event only through the informal network. Others discovered that they were on the programme to present, but had not as yet been officially informed and were only contacted just days before the proceedings began. Given such short notice to prepare a presentation many, such as leading artists Andrew Verster and Greg Streak, declined as they felt they could not professionally present under the circumstances.
Coinciding with the 'Celebrate Durban Festival', the 'Africa meets Africa' is an initiative generated by 'Operateurs Culturels en Reseaux' (O.C.RE. - Cultural Organisations and Networks) established in 2000 by the AFAA (French Artistic Action Association) a branch of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs as part of its 'Afrique en creations' programme. The first collective gathering of the project took place in Lille (France) in September 2000 followed by a conference in Bamako (Mali) in October 2001. This year, in collaboration with the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of Natal under the directorship of Peter Rorvik, over one hundred cultural agents from twenty francophone African countries met with their South African counterparts at the Coast of Dreams venue in central Durban to discuss inter-African artistic cooperation.Focusing more on administrative and organisational issues than artistic concerns, it was unfortunate that inadequate pre-publicity reflected badly on the conference's own brief of professionalism .
Nise Malange, from the BAT Centre, gave a brief historical presentation on the importance of grass roots arts organisations. She indicated the difficulties of the arts post-apartheid with many external sponsors now pulling funding - expecting South Africa to "get on and do it" under the umbrella of the new democracy. As a result many community arts centres and arts organisations had collapsed. Representatives from the Cameroon, Togo, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo however, made it all too apparent that whilst South Africa is battling to maintain and encourage the growth of the arts it is still in an extremely privileged position in comparison to other African countries where resources and government support were reported consistently as 'nil'.
Major difficulties in finding government support for the arts were recorded by artists living in countries that were torn by war or civil strife. A speech by Koulsy Lamko from Rwanda stating the need for artistic interventions in the national healing process after the genocide was particularly moving.
In response to the lack of government support most artistic projects are run by passionate individuals on a private basis from their studios. Often bearing the individual artists' names it is these that provide opportunities for other artists. Marylin Douala-Bell with her Doual'Art in the Cameroon was an example of such an initiative. Noting that often the 'margins' live within the centre she described the artistic interventions into inner city slums that aimed to rejuvenate and humanise such abandoned areas.
At the time of writing, the conference is in its final day with participants attempting to define recommendations to present to policy makers later in the year in Cape Town when various Arts ministers from all over Africa will gather. This is seen as an appropriate event for the arts to lobby for their needs.
