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The work of many cultural institutions in Africa is plagued by an extreme lack of funding and unstable political circumstances. Cultural management is practically nonexistent or unknown. The Goethe-Institut has now begun an advanced training programme to step into the breach – although many of the participants are afterward considered exotic. By Claudia Bröll

Rumbi Katedza has big plans. “We can’t let our arts and cultural sector go under,” says the young filmmaker from Harare ardently. “Art and culture are so important. They indicate how a country is really doing.” Katedza’s homeland Zimbabwe has been doing anything but well for more than ten years. Under the regime of ruler Robert Mugabe, the economy experienced an unprecedented decline. Even after the formation of a unity government, henchmen still attack adherents of the opposition, many of them artists.

This tragedy is also reflected in the cultural landscape. “Hardly anything is left of our once blossoming film industry. We have to start all over again, but we’ll make it, there’s no doubt about it.” Katedza travelled to Johannesburg with twelve other arts professionals from 13 African countries to take part in an advanced training programme by the Goethe-Institut on cultural management in southern Africa. The participants came from various sectors of the arts and culture: from theatre, visual art and music.

The advanced training programme gave them the tools with which they can successfully establish and further develop the cultural sector. “We noticed an exceedingly great interest in the question of how processes can be optimized in the cultural industry. This subject matter drives cultural sector professionals in Africa just as much as those in Germany – although under entirely different conditions, of course,” explains Peter Anders, head of the cultural programmes at the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg.

Insights into German cultural institutions

The Goethe-Institut’s training programme spanned one and a half years. During this time, the participants also travelled to Germany to spend a few weeks there as interns and gain insights into the everyday work of German cultural institutions such as the Nationalgalerie in Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof and the Muffathalle in Munich. Most of them recognized not only an opportunity to learn from experience in international cultural management, but also to establish contacts for continued cooperation. Peter Anders: “This creates even more intense cultural exchange and is longer lasting.”

What can we learn from cultural sector professionals in Germany? What experiences do participants contribute from other countries? What institutions and investors overseas are interested in cooperation? “In times of crisis we rely on international networks and expertise more than ever before,” explains Katedza. Mai Jai Films, the production company she founded, is always searching for partners and co-producers to realize her dream of a new generation of Zimbabwean film.

Cultural managers are exotic in Africa

The fact that there is such a great interest in advanced training courses like that offered by the Goethe- Institut is also because the profession of cultural manager is not yet established in Africa. “Cultural managers in Africa usually do not have any formal training,” says Mike van Graan, secretary-general of the artists’ Arterial Network and director of the African Arts Institute in Cape Town, “and yet they have to work under acutely difficult conditions. Art and culture are not given much credit in countries in which large parts of the population live on less than a dollar a day.”

In many places, the political pressure on artists is also huge. In fact, many of the difficulties are similar to those that cultural managers battle in Europe, “but in Africa they are a million times larger.” This also applies to cooperation with cultural institutions across national borders. Large geographical distances, high travel costs and deficient infrastructure exacerbate the establishment of intra-African networks of cultural professionals.

A job for pioneers

During their meeting in Johannesburg the participants raved mostly about the experiences they had during their internships in Germany. Alemayehu Seife Selassie from Addis Ababa worked at Munich’s Muffathalle. “It was so interesting to see the criteria used to make decisions about cultural events and how funding is secured,” relates the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Sub Saharan Informer from Ethiopia. “One of the things I learned was how to draw up a project proposal to address potential backers.”

32-year-old Mishi Wambiji from Kenya was enthusiastic about how much space is granted to the arts in Germany. She was an intern at the Berlin Nationalgalerie at Hamburger Bahnhof: “So much room for so much art – and those were permanent exhibitions. In my eyes, that’s something very special.” Businesses in Kenya have always helped fund social projects to fight poverty or educational programmes, but rarely art.

Long-term cooperation is an important factor

It is important for the Goethe-Institut that the programme for the African cultural managers and their visits to German cultural establishments lead to long-term alliances. The first steps have been taken. Selassie worked with the Muffathalle to put the Renaissance Fashion show on its feet in an old coffee warehouse in Addis Ababa; an “art boutique” aimed at presenting the latest fashion from Addis Ababa to Munich is being planned.

Wambiji would like to organize an “East African cultural summit” with other participants. Katedza dreams that Zimbabwean film will one day play a role again at international film festivals. “If we wish to achieve long-lasting cultural dialogue, it is not enough to encourage individual projects,” asserts Britta Schmitz, chief curator of the Hamburger Bahnhof museum. “We need to bring people together, that’s the only way it can work. Otherwise, even the best meant project is simply a flash in the pan.”

The article was taken from the Goethe-Institut magazine focusing on “Africa” (zum PDF).