Cultural Policy and Cultural Industries in Africa

This book argues for the reconstitution of the cultural in African cultural industries and societies. It posits that African cultural industries face a deep-seated problem of the crisis of normativity that is largely rooted in the coloniality of modern cultural policy and an unconscious, but pervasive anti-Black racism culture in the continent itself. The book places hope for re-animating African agency and national cultural identities in the decolonization of cultural policy and cultural industries as consciousness industries. Only through relevant cultural policy, a higher-order cross-institutional moral and ethical value system for reconstituting the cultural in post-colonies, can Africa build truly democratic, progressive, cosmopolitan, decolonized, and self-respecting citizens and societies. Using decolonial cultural policy studies, the book develops a decolonial cultural critique that locates African culture industries within the racialized power dynamics of capitalist modernity. It explores the decolonization praxis of cultural industries and acknowledges the complexity of cultural decolonization iniatives in a continent that is so diverse, interconnected, globalized, and facing newer modes of colonialism that are aggressive and covert.

makes a case to re-assert the value of cultural policy into transforming African cultural industries and societies identifies modern cultural policy as a critical part of the colonial matrix of the commercial and cognitive empire unmasks systemic anti-Black racism in cultural industries and suggests strategic decolonization interventions

Autorentext

Last Moyo is an Associate Professor in Media and Communications studies at XJTLU, Suzhou, China. He has lectured at several other universities in Africa, Europe, and Asia, including a stint at the University of Wales (UK) where he attained his PhD in Media Studies. He is published extensively in top, reputable, international peer-reviewed journals including Journalism Studies, Telematic and Informatics, International Communication Gazette, Journal of International Communication, among several others. His book The Decolonial Turn in Media Studies in Africa and the Global South (Palgrave, 2020) received outstanding reviews from top scholars in the United Kingdom, USA, Norway, and Africa.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. Cultural industries and cultural policy in postcolonial contexts.- 3. The post-Bandung state and African cultural freedoms: Cultural policy initiatives from 1957- 1994.- 4. The crisis of normativity in African cultures: Towards new higher order ethics for cultural industries.- 5. Modern empire and the end of cultural policy in Africa.- 6. Broadcasting and film industries in Africa: Re-animating African cultural agency.- 7. Advertising industries and anti-Black racism in South Africa.- 8. Cultural landscapes and ecological citizenship in postcolonial Africa.- 9. Conclusion: The future of African cultures in hyper-techno modernity.