MASA unveils 2022 programme for Ivory Coast

The biannual event will be run under the theme, Cultural and Creative Industries: The Content Challenge, with a modified programme and a reduced number of performances at the Culture Palace of Abidjan (Palais de la Culture d’Abidjan), Goethe Institut and French Institut.

There are 26 participating countries, including Nigeria, Algeria, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Chad, Senegal, Colombia, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and France. For showcases, the organisers have programmed 78 artists and groups in music, circus and martial arts, theatre, slam, humour, dance and storytelling.

The programme also includes the Street Art Zone section, which was introduced in the last edition to showcase contemporary urban creations in music, fashion, dance and visual arts. This section will programme 20 artists and is curated by Ivorian reggae musician and cultural entrepreneur Kajeem and the artistic director of the Douala Hip Hop Festival in Cameroon, Didier Toko. View the complete lineup here.

The last edition was held in 2019 and featured about 200 shows, including performances, exhibitions and fashion shows hosted on eight stages by more than 1700 artists and crew members.

MASA director-general Patrick Hervé Yapi told Music In Africa that the downscaling resulted from many factors, including challenges in funding opportunities associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The presence of Covid-19 and its trail of misfortune is still prevalent in the creative sector,” he said. “That aside, while reviewing the applications, the international selection committee also noted an absence of innovation and creativity, lack of proper electronic press kits and general amateurism of candidates.”

“The majority of the population fancies an urban lifestyle, and this extends onto the creative sector,” Kajeem said. “It is, therefore, important that MASA as a market highlights street art and urban art in general. The purpose is to increase job opportunities for the artists to tour on the continent and abroad as well entrepreneurs to sell their products .”

He added: “MASA is one of the most important meetings for African creators not only because of the number of artistic disciplines involved, but also because of the quality of the productions, debates and exchanges that take place there.”

MASA is the oldest music market on the African continent, having been created during the second Conference of Ministers of Culture and Francophonie held in Liège, Belgium, in 1990. The first edition was organised in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in 1993 by the International Organization of La Francophonie and the Ivorian Ministry of Culture.

The market has since evolved to be known as the cultural platform for promoting diverse performing arts, supporting creativity and productions of excellence and facilitating the movement of artists and their works within Africa and throughout the world, while at the same time providing capacity building for artists and key professionals in the field of production.

Yapi says MASA has also been instrumental in supporting the development of the creative economy by integrating creativity in the innovation policies in the arts, promoting the social innovation of businesses and artists through culture, providing capacity building in the field of production and entrepreneurship, encouraging collaborations between artists and promoting young talents by connecting them to bookers, producers and managers for shows in Europe and elsewhere in the world. 

Meanwhile, as part of the build-up to the event, MASA has partnered with regional councils, town halls and youth groups in the major cities of Ivory Coast to conduct an information and communication campaign to discover new talent and train them on the opportunities available for artists in the digital space.