Browsing: African Art

• According to Statista, Africa contributed a sum of US$13 B in 2018 to the global art market which is predicted to rise to US$15B by 2023
• African art has become the subject of bidding wars, with high sales of artworks pertinently at globally renowned auction houses such as Bonhams, Piasa, Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Strauss and Philips
• International African sales in the first half of 2019 by Christie’s, Bonhams, Sotheby’s, Phillips, Piasa, Strauss and ArtHouse Nigeria; generated a total of US$25.3 M
• The major roadblocks to accessing arts education in Africa are the lack of sufficient learning institutions and enough trainers

Demand for African art has been firmly taking root, perpetuating the newly found global prominence and recording a meteoric rise that is projected to continue growing exponentially in 2022.
Consequently, this market boom has been rapidly driving colossal investments from both indigenous and international investors, rushing to tap into the fairly …

Despite the wealth and abundance of African stories, writers continue to encounter numerous obstacles, such as the diminishing of advances or the complete lack thereof, which discourage the writers, who want to pursue it on a full-time basis. Racism has greatly asphyxiated this budding industry, with priority being given to white as opposed to black writers.

Data from the New York Bestseller list, from 24 December 2017 to 8 June 2020, indicated that 69% of the bestseller titles, were from white authors, whilst 9%, from black. A social media campaign tagged #PublishingPaidMe created on June 6 2020, by urban fantasy writer L.L. Mckinney, as part of the ongoing conversations on racism in the US; revealed the disparity in book advances, between black and white authors, with the latter being paid more.  …