Miatta Fahnbulleh, singer-songwriter and activist has said it is time for Africa to export arts and culture as a commodity to the world.
She said artistes from the continent must continue to export but must “never be at the cost of the artistes” adding that African artistes “must benefit from their hard work and it must be done in such a way that engenders growth in our music industry.”
Fahnbulleh is a Liberian-born singer-songwriter described by critics in the know, even at this later stage of her music career, as one of Africa’s finest voices.
She told Accra-based Asaase Radio on Sunday night in an interview.
Fahnbulleh said though there is nothing wrong with governments’ direct intervention in the arts and culture industry, she will always shy away from such interventions.
“… In Africa, as of now, the government is the prime supporter of arts and culture to benefit tourism. [there] is nothing wrong with that, however, I shy away from the government’s direct intervention … I don’t want [that] because the government is giving us money to support us somebody tells me ‘I must sing about the president.”
Independence
She said that African artistes need independence to produce quality work.
“So we have to be careful about that, the creative artistes need that independence and we’ve seen that we don’t really need that large scale investment that was done earlier… 2020, the African artistes are coming into their own from South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana. We went through the small stage from the 70s where the Osibesas and us were limited to Africans and our diaspora family.”
“[But in] 2020 [artistes like] P-Square and Burna Boy are international and it can only grow from there. Now the media is interested in what we [African artistes] have to offer,” she said.
