DISCOVERING AFRICA
Is Africa Following Or Setting Creative Trends? By Tapiwa Matsinde of Shoko Press
Photographic art by the award winning locally and internationally renowned photographer, Osbourne Macharia I found this to be a very interesting yet difficult question to answer, and having done my best to do so at the time, the question has stayed with me as I felt it was a really important one that warranted a much deeper explanation to the answer I gave, my initial feeling being that Africa is neither following nor setting trends.
So let me explain why I think that at the present moment Africa is neither following or setting creative trends. Starting with the first part of the question, which is easier to answer because at the moment Africa’s designers and creatives are playing by their own rules, enjoying the high level of freedom that they have to create and find their own way, and therefore are definitely not following trends. This freedom is Having thought that, my mind then switched slightly, enabled by an industry still in its infancy where rules leaning towards the latter that Africa is sort of setting and regulations have yet to be set, where not having trends and then I bounced back to my original instinct to answer to a board of decision makers who tend of neither, a response which I have a feeling that most to consider things from a commercial aspect at the people will passionately disagree with me –told you it expense of creative expression. was a difficult question! But with regards to setting creative trends, I don’t feel Page|
12
BeAfrika
