Dear colleagues and friends,
Good news is hard to come by these days so this one should be celebrated.
No, I’m not talking about Donald Trump’s COVID diagnosis (sorry, not sorry). Sudanese filmmaker hajooj kuka was released from jail, alongside the other 4 artists who were arrested with him. Another group of artists who were arrested later on are still being held however, so the African filmmaking community remains engaged.
On October 1st, we also celebrated Nigeria’s 60th birthday, with some of the world’s biggest brands joining in for the party: Nike gifted its 2020 Super Eagles Football kit to several diaspora influencers like the writer Luvvie or the musician Jidenna (the simple fact that a company like Nike has a Naija collection should leave no doubt on the importance of the Nigerian market); Apple Music launched its month-long Oshe Naija ("Thanks Nigeria" in Yoruba) campaign; and Netflix came through with the surprise release of the documentary Journey of an African Colony, The Making of Nigeria.
For a more poetic, less commercial take, British-Nigerian visual artist Asiko wowed the interwebs with his Nigerian Renaissance photographic project inspired By Delacroix’s 1830 painting Liberty Leading the People. The conceptual series brings forth a vision of Nigeria stepping out of the shadows of the past into a new dawn. Cheers to that.
This week in HUSTLE & FLOW, we’ll also celebrate African creators doing so much #winning in Fashion, Architecture, Visual Arts and Literature; Orange releasing a $30 smartphone; Nigerian cinemas’ reopening strong, and Netflix and Canal+iRoko experimenting with mobile-only sVOD, among other tidbits like a 5G revolution in slow-motion, Ethiopian mobile money, local football’s new sexiness, a Christmas music channel and South Africa’s first female-led animation studio.
If you missed a previous edition or haven’t subscribed yet, head over to www.restless.global/hustleflow. To get in touch and share your comments, questions, or corrections, email me at marie@restless.global, or connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter @marieloramungai.
Happy reading to all,
Marie
INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE
To the delight of South African telecoms operators, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has agreed that they could keep using the temporary 4G and 5G emergency spectrum allocated to them during the lockdown until March of 2021. The South African regulator has also started receiving applications for licenses for its high-demand 3G/4G spectrum.
Thanks to the temporary spectrum, MTN and Vodacom were able to launch their 5G networks in South Africa ahead of schedule. However, the 5G revolution is still a long way off across the continent, where 5G connections will account for only 3% of the total mobile connections by 2025. When the technology does become mainstream, it will take 32 seconds to download a high-definition movie, as opposed to 22 minutes on a 4G network.
MOBILE
Orange has released the Sanzo touch, a $30 4G Android Go smartphone supported by Google, which the operator describes as “the most affordable device globally”. Orange will start commercializing the device this month with a bundled mobile data plan in Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast and Madagascar, before rolling it out to its other markets in the Middle East and Africa region. Orange hopes that this price point will be a game changer that will accelerate the pace of digital adoption in the region - which it might very well be. However, and in case you were wondering, the Sanzo is far from being the cheapest smartphone in the world. In 2016, the Freedom 251 was released in India by a company called Ringing Bells for the shockingly low price of… $3.70. Although many customers received their phones, which seemed legit, Ringing Bells ran into trouble when some of its distributors accused it of not fulfilling all its orders and the company’s CEO ended up behind bars for fraud. Although it does seem doubtful that such a low price could be achieved without some sort of forced labor involved, it does make us wonder about how cheap technology will become during our lifetimes and what this will mean for a continent like Africa.
The National Bank of Ethiopia has finally given the greenlight to the national telecom company, Ethio telecom, to start mobile money services. Foreign firms will initially not be allowed to engage in mobile money service in Ethiopia, except for the one that will eventually acquire the 40% stake in Ethio telecom made available through the company’s on-going partial privatization process. Ethiopia is expected to generate $13 billion in mobile money revenue by 2025.
E-COMMERCE
Embattled e-commerce leader Jumia continues its strategic overhaul with a new partnership with Airtel Kenya that will allow consumers to make prepayments using Airtel Money. The prepayment option, which is already operational in Ghana and Uganda, is aimed both at enhancing contactless safety measures and at limiting the damage to Jumia caused by “last mile” issues such as delivery personnel being unable to find the address, or the customer changing their mind when they see the goods. However, customers will still be allowed to pay on the spot if they choose to, leaving that last issue unresolved. Jumia is also considering opening its logistics operations to third parties in a bid to increase revenue and is looking at expanding into rural areas to reduce reliance on customers in capital cities.
FASHION
September and October mean Fashion Week in the world’s fashion capitals of New York, London, Milan and Paris, and despite the move to digital this year, African talents are out there making their mark. South African knitwear line MaXhosa by designer Laduma Ngxokolo made its second appearance on the official calendar at New York Fashion Week with a vibrant and well-reviewed virtual runway show on Youtube, while LVMH Prize finalist Sindiso Khumalo, who focuses each of her collections on the life of a historical Black woman, debuted her Harriet Tubman-inspired collection with a fashion film presented at Milan Fashion Week. Khumalo’s previous collection was an homage to the Egbado princess Sarah Forbes Bonetta, who was taken as a prisoner of war as a child and spent many years in the British Royal household under Queen Victoria, and the next one will be inspired by South African activist Charlotte Maxeke.
Also showing at Milan Fashion Week were Vogue Italia’s Scouting for Africa Initiative 2020 winners Emmy Kasbit and Rich Mnisi, who are featured in the September issue of Vogue Talents, an initiative supported by the African Fashion Foundation and the Impact Fund for African creatives to recognize emerging African creative talents. Vogue has been a key supporter of African designers globally, and the company’s efforts might even intensify now that Nigerian-Swiss Chioma Nnadi has been named the new editor of Vogue.com. With this promotion, Nnadi joins British Vogue’s Edward Enninful and Teen Vogue’s Lindsay Peoples Wagner among the Black editors-in-chief within the Vogue global franchise.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s Fashion Week, which will be taking place later this month, has been rebranded as the “business of ethical fashion” to echo African fashion business’ on-going transformation into a leader in sustainability. According to CEO Lucilla Booyzen, SAFW has been reimagined as an environmentally-friendly digital experience staged at the Mall of Africa in Johannesburg, which will use a fraction of the lighting typically used, smaller sound systems, smaller teams, and a minimum number of models to reduce the event’s carbon footprint.
Another approach to sustainability is the one of Egyptian online fashion rental service La Reina, which has raised an undisclosed six-figure funding round to expand its team and launch a new fashion subscription service called The Box. La Reina, which has over 100,000 users, allows women to rent their evening and bridal gowns to each other. In 2018, the startup had already secured a $1 million Series A round from Algebra Ventures and 500 Startups. New service The Box will partner with global fashion brands such as Zara, Massimo Dutti, or Mango to provide the members with the newest collection to be used and returned within a week.
And finally a correction: in the last edition of HUSTLE & FLOW I incorrectly linked to a CNN profile of IAMISIGO’s designer Bubu Ogisi while talking about celebrated stylist Daniel Obasi. Both are extremely talented Nigerian creatives with very distinctive styles, so if you didn’t click on the link last time you now have a second chance to discover them both.
VISUAL ARTS
The Ivorian art world is definitely buzzing these days. In the last edition of HUSTLE & FLOW I talked about Abidjan’s dynamic contemporary art gallery scene. This week, OkayAfrica profiles four young and exciting Ivorian female photographers - Akobs, Aicha Fall, Noella Elloh and Saphir Niakadie - whose work is worth checking out.
In more West African art news, Ghana-born Nigerian sculptor and art world rockstar El Anatsui has been awarded the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture’s 2020 Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture. El Anatsui is well-known for his large scale tapestry-like sculptures composed of thousands of folded pieces of metal sourced from local alcohol recycling stations and bound together with copper wire.
ARCHITECTURE
On a similar topic, Africa’s most famous architect, the Tanzanian-born British architect of Ghanaian descent Sir David Adjaye, has been announced as recipient of the 2021 Royal Institute of British Architects’ royal gold medal, one of the world’s highest accolades for architecture. Adjaye is the first black architect to receive the prestigious distinction in its 173-year history. The very busy Adjaye, who is behind the striking National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC and the Alara concept store in Lagos, is currently building a high-rise tower in Manhattan, the new National Cathedral for Ghana in Accra, a library in Florida, a financial center in Dakar, and the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library in Johannesburg.
LITERATURE
And we finish this week’s round up of African creatives just #winning with Zambian author’s Namwali Serpell receiving the UK’s top prize for science fiction, the Arthur C Clarke award, for her first novel The Old Drift. The book, a mix of historical fiction, magical realism and sci-fi, tells the stories of three families over three generations, moving from a colonial settlement by Victoria Falls at the turn of the 20th century, to the 1960s as Zambia attempts to send a woman to the moon, and into the near future. It was described as “the great African novel of the 21st century” by last year’s winner of the prize, Tade Thompson.
MUSIC
In a testament to the global label’s commitment to the growing African market, Zimbabwean Taponeswa Mavunga has been appointed Director of Africa at Sony Music UK. In this newly created position, Mavunga will be responsible for amplifying UK signed artists across Africa, as well as supporting artists within Africa to develop relationships, identify opportunities and increase visibility within the UK. Mavunga is a veteran of the African music scene, having distinguished herself through previous stints as Head of Talent and Music for Viacom Africa, working on MTV Base, BET Africa and Nickelodeon channels, and Head of Publicity for Sony Music’s Columbia UK label.
SPORTS BUSINESS
The scramble for European premier league rights that we have witnessed over the past few weeks doesn’t seem to have satisfied the appetites of broadcasters, who are now busy looking for more, with their attention shifting to local leagues. Multichoice has announced a 5-year title sponsorship by DStv of the South African Premier Soccer League (PSL), while StarTimes has signed a $1.1 million, 7-year contract with the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) for the live broadcast of the local premier league matches, both men and women national teams matches, plus some thirty other matches from the lower-tier of the Kenyan league.
Meanwhile, French club Paris Saint-Germain is launching a football academy in Rwanda, after months of delays caused by the pandemic. The academy is part of a 3-year sponsorship deal that was signed last December between Rwanda and the French football giant which will also see PSG promote Rwanda as a tourism destination. In an opposite move, Dutch club Ajax is exiting its South African franchise Ajax Cape Town after its second successive failure to win promotion back to the Premiership. The 21-year association was meant to produce a steady flow of talented young players for the European market while at the same time sustaining a top club in South Africa's PSL. But the results have proved disappointing, and Ajax management bluntly declared that “the South African football market has not produced enough talent at the level that Ajax strives for” and that “Ajax does not see sufficient potential for the future.” Ouch. Efforts by European clubs to invest in talent sourcing and training in Africa have so far been haphazard. My feeling is that they have suffered from the common symptoms plaguing many Western approaches to Africa: under-investment and lack of adaptation of Western practices to the local environment.
Hopefully this will not be the case of the projects supported by the Agence Francaise de Development’s new African sports initiative, the online platform Sport En Commun. Based in Dakar, the pan-African platform aims to promote the financing and support of projects combining sport and development in Africa by referencing various funding opportunities and connecting interested parties.
BROADCAST
Music TV group Trace has announced that it would institute a permanent 50/50 video airplay for women artists and other women-produced content on its channels, after testing out the concept during Women’s Month in August. It is unclear if this measure will apply to Trace’s channels globally or in South Africa only, but in any case such a self-imposed constraint is a bold move. In fact, Trace seems to be full of good marketing ideas recently as it also just released Trace Xmas, a brand new pop up music channel dedicated entirely to Christmas hits on Sky Channel 364 in the UK, in a bid to “lift the country's spirits”. The hilarious concept will be coming soon to Francophone Africa, the Caribbean and the Reunion. Full disclosure, in 2016 Trace Group acquired my company Buni.tv, which was then merged with their own VOD service Trace Play.
CINEMA EXHIBITION
As major global cinema chains, such as Cineworld Group, announce new shutdowns in the US and UK in the face of a second wave of the pandemic and the repeatedly postponed release of tentpoles like the new James Bond film No Time To Die, the Nigerian cinema exhibition sector is hoping for a strong rebirth carried by local blockbusters. The industry breathed a collective sigh of relief when the comedy Fate of Alakada, the first local release since the reopening of theaters, made over 10 million nairas ($25,800) on its Independence Day opening despite seating restrictions, placing it among the top 5 highest grossing opening days for Nollywood since 2018, according to distributor FilmOne Entertainment.
Vivendi’s CanalOlympia will also count on local releases to drive audiences to its first Nigerian location opening in Abuja later this month after a 6-months delay in the company’s roll out plan.
VOD
However, with the past few months’ persistent incertitude over the state of the local cinema business, it is no surprise that the producers of some of Nigeria’s most highly anticipated films - such as Oloture, Citation, or King of Boys II - made the decision to skip cinemas for the first time and release their movies directly on Netflix. The unprecedented move privately shocked many theater owners, who were counting on the high-profile films to restart their business. Threatening the delicate economic balance of Nigeria’s film sector, whose business model is highly dependent on box office revenue to survive, is a risky move for Netflix.
But after all, the global giant might not be interested in playing nice as it is looking for ways to speed up its growth 5 years after it arrived in Africa. Digital TV Research estimates that Netflix currently has 1.4 million subscribers on the continent, still a far cry from Multichoice’s 20 million. Last week, the platform announced it was now experimenting in Nigeria with much cheaper, mobile-only subscriptions priced at $2.95 a month, after trialing similar offers in South Africa and Egypt. Such a strategy has been highly successful in India, and we can expect that it will be as well in Africa, even in countries, like Nigeria, where the internet infrastructure is still lacking. It is, truly, only a matter of time.
Interestingly, Vivendi-owned Canal+ announced last week that it was also developing its own mobile-first VOD service for Francophone Africa, in partnership with iRoko (Canal+ acquired iRoko’s ROK Studios last year). It is not the first time that Canal+ attempts to jump start the VOD market in French-speaking Africa, and it is also not its first try at creating synergies with iRoko. So far, none of it has worked, but I also believe that the market was not ready. Another challenge, which might seem trivial but is not, is creating successful products wile working across the Franco/Anglo cultural and language divide. Good luck to them - we will be watching.
In any case, if we believe Digital TV Research’s new finger-licking guesstimates on Africa’s sVOD industry, at least some of these initiatives are bound to bear fruit as the market is set to grow almost 5 times to reach 12.96 million subscriptions by 2025. Digital TV Research predicts that Netflix will count 5.7 subscribers and Disney+ 2.71 million, even though it is not expected to enter the African market until 2022. Showmax will be the 3rd-largest platform with 1.65 million subscribers.
CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
Double FESPACO winner (Gold Stallion in 2013 and 2017), French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis will dedicate his next feature film to Thelonious Monk, the famous American jazz pianist and composer behind such jazz standards as Well, You Needn’t, Blue Monk and Round Midnight.
ANIMATION
South Africa’s first female-led animation outfit, Studio Yezi, has announced its first project in SOLA, an action-adventure, fantasy coming-of-age series “about the adventures of a girl named Sola who experiences her magic awakening in a world where magic is dangerous and deadly”. Founder Thandiwe Mlauli will act as producer, director and showrunner. Studio Yezi is currently running a crowdfunding campaign (#MakeSOLAHappen) to finance the project’s development and production.
HUSTLE & FLOW #25: Facebook opens an office in Lagos, FilmOne inks with Disney, Trace buys Okuhle, and more
Dear colleagues and friends,
For the past few days, the African film community has been mobilizing to demand the immediate release of Sudanese filmmaker hajooj kuka (he does not capitalize his name) who was arrested in Khartoum last week and sentenced to two months in prison on charges of “public annoyance.”
Kuka and five other artists-activists (Duaa Tarig Mohamed Ahmed, Abdel Rahman Mohamed Hamdan, Ayman Khalaf Allah Mohamed Ahmed, and Ahmed Elsadig Ahmed Hammad) were arrested following an attack by religious militants on the Civic Lab, where they were creating art for community engagement.
Kuka’s films Beats of the Antonov and aKasha have premiered at the Venice and Toronto film festivals, and the filmmaker was admitted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences earlier this year. A couple days ago, kuka was beaten in prison and his dreadlocks were partially shaved. Is this how you know that you are having an impact?
More information, as well as instructions on how to contact Sudanese Embassies to demand the artists’ release, can be found on Twitter at #ReleaseTheArtistsSudan.
This week, The Economist is the latest major global publication to wake up to the fact that “African entertainers are wowing global audiences”. I’ll continue to show you how in this edition of HUSTLE & FLOW, as I talk about Facebook opening its second African office in Lagos; leading Nigerian distributor FilmOne inking a deal with Disney; and Trace Group acquiring South African prodco Okuhle Media. But you’ll also read about African fashion influencers, Congolese antics including a museum heist, Patrice Lumumba’s tooth, opposing views of African literature, women kicking ass in sports, and the latest Netflix moves.
If you are new to HUSTLE & FLOW, you can catch up on previous editions and subscribe at www.restless.global/hustleflow. For the loyal readers among you, please continue to send your comments, questions or corrections at marie@restless.global.
Happy reading to all,
Marie
MOBILE
Despite the current global economic slowdown, Africa - and especially Nigeria - continues to see massive growth in mobile services subscriptions, according to the newly released Ericsson Mobility Report. The second quarter of 2020 saw an increase of 12 million new subscribers across the continent, with 6 million coming from Nigeria, bringing the total number of mobile subscribers in the country to 184 million. Meanwhile, subscriber numbers have flattened-out or even dipped in North America, South America and Europe over the same period.
New plot twist in the saga of Ethiopia’s telecommunications sector privatization: the country has now announced that it would only be pursuing a "partial privatization of Ethio Telecom and the allocation of two new telecom licenses", with a completion date now reset to February 2021. The new sharing model for Ethio Telecom would maintain the Ethiopian government as a majority shareholder with a 55% stake, while 5% would be made available to Ethiopian citizens and 40% only to international investors.
DIGITAL MEDIA
Growth markets investor Platform Capital has announced its investment in Nigeria’s digital media group Big Cabal Media (BCM), publisher of tech news website TechCabal and youth-oriented Zikoko, and owner of the Cabal Creative Studio. According to BCM, its content reaches over 3 million people every month. Digital media is a very tough space in Africa as you need large volumes of in-country traffic (not traffic diluted across the continent) to monetize (mainly) through advertising, and are also competing directly with global social media behemoths-turned content publishers such as Facebook, Google/Youtube and others. Due to its size, strong local culture, and digital-savvy audience, Nigeria - where other notable players include Ringier’s Pulse, BellaNaija and Linda Ikeji - may be the only sub-saharan market where that model even makes sense today from an investment perspective.
SOCIAL MEDIA
That certainly is not news to Facebook, which has announced that it would open a full office in Lagos in the second half of 2021 to house teams from sales, policy, communications and engineering. Facebook is thus confirming its commitment to Africa’s largest internet market, after opening a hub space in partnership with Co-Creation Hub in 2018. A “shrewd move”, according to Quartz, as Africa’s population is expected to triple by 2100 and Nigeria is set to become the second most populous country in the world, ahead of China (and after India), which in itself is mind-boggling.
FASHION
One of my favorite destinations for African fashion, Industrie Africa, has an interesting article this week on the challenges that Africa’s influencer industry faces as it navigates its growth. From being underpaid by global brands, the difficulty of promoting local designers focused on couture when customers want affordable ready-to-wear, to the opportunity of becoming the spokespersons for Africa’s sustainable approach to fashion, the influencer model currently being invented by African creatives may end up looking very different from its western counterpart.
Not an influencer per se but definitely influential is creative director and stylist Daniel Obasi, who at only 25-year-old has already shot portraits for the New York Times and Billboard, styled fashion editorials for Vogue Portugal and Dazed, and worked on Beyonce’s Black is King. Obasi, who uses fashion, photography and film, “combines the traditional, the contemporary and the imaginary to create a Nigeria freed from the political and social limitations of reality”. His name is now popping up everywhere, and it is pretty safe to say that he is destined for great things.
DESIGN
This may be the first time that I highlight an African home ware line in HUSTLE & FLOW, but with the strong pandemic-induced trend towards nesting and home improvement, it would make sense for more African designers to explore that space. Siafu Home is an ethical Kenyan-made home ware line that was born out of a collaboration between Kenyan jewelry designer Gladys Macharia and Niccola Milnes, a Canadian who sells the collection from her Vermont home. Working with artisans using local techniques and upcycled materials, Siafu’s ambition is to “break away from the mold of trying to be too ethnic or too European, to create a well-balanced symmetry that is true to traditional forms and borrows inspiration from art and tribes, but the translation and execution is done in a way that allows people from all cultures, all backgrounds to appreciate it.”
VISUAL ARTS
French daily Le Monde continues its active coverage of the (francophone) African creative space with a look at Ivory Coast’s growing contemporary art scene. Although quantitative studies are lacking, professionals report encouraging signs pointing at a developing market, such as the growth of contemporary art venues in Abidjan (there are now around ten), the occasional or permanent return of leading Ivorian artists from the diaspora (such as Ouattara Watts, Jems Robert Koko Bi, or Ernest Dükü), and the widening of the circle of local buyers and collectors to a new generation of 30 and 40-somethings with significant purchasing power.
Le Monde also has a nice portrait of Cheri Samba, the iconic Congolese painter whose work’s humorous and naive style belies a biting social commentary. "Don't admire me just to please me. It can lead to my downfall. Admire me or my work only if I deserve it," says an inscription on the floor of his Kinshasa house. His new painting entitled Merci, merci je suis dans la zone verte (Thank you, thank you, I’m in the green zone), referring to the Paris area post-confinement, is currently on show at the Parisian gallery Magnin-A in the Kings of Kin exhibition. Unfortunately, and ironically, Paris has now been reclassified as a red zone once again.
HERITAGE
In another bout of central African political humor, anti-colonial Congolese activist Mwazulu Diyabanza and other protesters briefly stole an African funeral statue from the Afrika Museum in Nijmegen, Netherlands. They streamed their effort on Facebook, announcing that they were "reclaiming" colonial-era artwork, and were promptly arrested and the statue returned to the museum. This was not the first time that Diyabanza (also known for his vocal opposition to the CFA franc) was making his point. Last June, he and four other militants from the Unity Dignity Courage (UDC) movement were apprehended at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris as they tried to make off with a 19th-century African funeral pole. Later in the same month, Diyabanza was arrested again for a similar offense in Marseilles. I’m always a sucker for a good creative political protest, but Diyabanza’s aggressive techniques may have appeared slightly overkill to the Director of the Africa Museum, who said that the museum indeed owned looted art, and that "we have already said that we are in favor of returning stolen artifacts."
Believe it or not, this is nothing compared to the story of the tooth of Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba, which Belgian prosecutors have just ruled would be handed back to his relatives, after a court dispute that lasted several years. Lumumba became the newly independent Congo's first prime minister in 1960 when he was just 34 years old. But after a military coup and the rise of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, Lumumba was arrested, jailed, and assassinated by separatists (with the probable involvement of Belgium and the CIA). Lumumba's body is said to have been dismembered and dissolved with acid, in an apparent attempt to keep any grave from becoming a pilgrimage site. The tooth was allegedly pulled from his corpse during the effort and taken to Belgium by a man whose family then kept it for more than half a century. Yes, this sounds like a movie, and hopefully it will eventually become one, as several Lumumba biopics are currently in the works.
LITERATURE
Twenty-one-years-old Nigerian English Lit student Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé is the literary world new wunderkind after landing a million-dollar book deal in the US for her first novel, high-school thriller Ace of Spades. Already scheduled for publication in 2021 by the UK publishing house Usborne, the book was snapped up this week, along with a second novel, by American imprint Macmillan for the seven-figure sum. Meanwhile, it’s the “rentrée littéraire” in France and Le Monde is highlighting a selection of new books from African authors. No sign of juicy Young Adult fiction here - it’s all about very serious, and quite dry, political statements about colonization, migration, and apartheid. A very clear illustration indeed of two very different markets, visions of Africa, and approaches to literature.
MUSIC
Afrobeats queen Tiwa Savage released her new and fifth album Celia 3 weeks ago to… deafening silence. Sure, there are the collabs with international artists Sam Smith, Davido, Stefflon Don and Naira Marley, the Black is King appearance, the glowing review in OkayAfrica, and even the in-depth New York Times profile. But, there is no buzz, no chatter on social media, where it’s all about Savage’s male colleagues Burna Boy, Davido, or Mr Eazi, and about South Africa’s viral hit Jerusalema which became the most Shazamed song in the world this month. Some industry insiders worry that Savage may have lost her edge since she signed with Universal Music in 2019. But it might also be too soon to tell - the appeal of Celia might reveal itself in a slow burn. Whatever the case, we’re rooting for Tiwa.
SPORTS BUSINESS
Women are making waves in the sports industry this week. Thirty-year-old Tanzanian-Colombian Barbara Gonzalez became the first female CEO of a Tanzanian football club when she was appointed at the head of national champions Simba last week, two years after taking her place on the board. The brilliant, US-educated young woman was poached in 2016 by Tanzanian billionaire Mohamed Dewji, to work as both the head of his foundation and chief of staff. Dewji bought a 49% stake in Simba in 2017. Gonzalez will now be in charge of increasing revenue and building a global brand around the club, which boasts 20 million supporters. One of her first goals will be to develop an academy to foster young local talents.
In Sierra Leone, the government has implemented equal pay for the country’s female footballers, covering appearance fees and winning bonuses. The new measures have even been backdated for the women's team who have been paid $2,000 each for participating in this year's maiden West African Football union (Wafu) Zone A tournament on home soil. The government hopes that the move will serve as an incentive to develop women's football and lead to a growth in the number of players.
Meanwhile, the scramble for football broadcast rights continues across the continent. In Nigeria, Silverbird Television has signed on with Integral, the current free-to-air rights holder for the English Premier League, to broadcast one live match a week over the course of the 2020-2021 season. If similar deals with other FTA broadcasters follow, this could become a tough challenge for Multichoice. Still in Nigeria, TStv, a local direct-to-home Pay-TV company, has announced the acquisition of the rights to broadcast live matches from the English Football League (the league below the Premier League). And in South Africa, while the regulator ICASA is reviewing rules around broadcast exclusivity for “public interest sports” which again, would directly go against Multichoice, the SABC has signed on with the Bundesliga to broadcast one live game per week for the 2020-2022 season.
BROADCAST
The big news in broadcast this week is the acquisition by global music TV group Trace of a majority stake in Okuhle Media, a leading producer of audiovisual content based in Cape Town. Okuhle Media, which was founded in 2003 and employs 78 staff, constitutes a 'high-potential asset' for Trace, which it will use to enhance its in-house production expertise, especially when it comes to building the courses of Trace Academia, an online edutainment platform set to be launched in November. Okuhle Media will also provide content to Trace TV channels and to TracePlay, the streaming platform of Trace Group.
I’ve talked a few times in HUSTLE & FLOW about the enormous success that is Big Brother Naija for its producer and broadcaster Multichoice. Well, that’s how enormous it is: Multichoice executives have now revealed that the production and promotion of Season 5 of the reality show, which is currently breaking all viewership records on the air, on VOD service Showmax and on social media, has cost upwards of $10 million. Which means that, if Multichoice has done its maths right, it is bringing in even more in revenue and/or subscriber acquisition, retention and engagement.
FILM
The Kenya Film Commission (KFC) is kicking off reforms that it says will bring insurance, medical cover, union protection, and funding to filmmakers. It is encouraging Kenyan creatives to officially sign up on the KFC website so they can be recognized and counted, as many of them are not registered with the Kenyan Revenue Authority (for good reason: dodging taxes is a basic condition for survival in the creative space in Kenya and beyond). The KFC also said it would set standard prices for content and prevent buyers from purchasing all exclusive rights to the content (as it is still often the case), leaving room for producers to manage and exploit their content over the long term across several platforms and territories. This won’t please buyers but it may well be a gamec hanger for the Kenyan film industry. Of course, the KFC approach may also backfire if the policy is not thoughtfully designed - see the wahala around Nigeria’s new broadcasting code.
Talking about Nigerian wahala, Producer Pamela Adie and director Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim are risking up to 14 years in prison if they ignore the warnings of the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) and go ahead with the release of their movie Ife ("love" in Yoruba) about a lesbian relationship, which the NFVCB says violates the country’s stuck laws on homosexuality. This is not the first time an LGBTQ-themed movie has fallen foul of regulators on the continent. Stories of Our Lives (2014) and Rafiki (2018) were banned in Kenya, and Inxeba/The Wound (2018) in some theaters in South Africa. Certainly Adie and Ikpe-Etim knew what they were up against. Nevertheless the fearless filmmakers plan to release Ife in Nigeria through private screenings and hold international premieres online.
Meanwhile, if you want to keep abreast of the African talents and projects that are most likely to break out internationally in the next few years, head over to the awards section of the Durban Film Festival and the Durban Film Market, both of which took place recently online and just wrapped.
CINEMA EXHIBITION
Finally some good news for Nigeria’s film industry, which had ground to a complete stop due to the pandemic. Just as cinemas are finally reopening in Nigeria (albeit at just 33% of their capacity), leading production and distribution company FilmOne Entertainment has announced that it had signed with Disney to become the studio’s exclusive distributor in English-speaking West Africa. The agreement, which commenced this month, covers titles from all Disney studio divisions including Pixar, Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Pictures, and Blue Sky pictures. FilmOne Entertainment is a division of FilmHouse Group, which is also the largest cinema exhibitor in Nigeria and West Africa. In 2019, FilmOne Entertainment signed a deal with Chinese media giant Huahua to co-produce the first major China-Nigeria film, and raised Nigeria’s first million-dollar film fund, also from Huahua and South Africa’s Empire Entertainment.
VOD
More Nigerian good news with the announcement today that Netflix is coming on board a new series project in the country. The 6-part untitled young adult drama series is created and produced by Inkblot Productions and will be directed by prominent filmmakers Chinaza Onuzo, Tope Oshin and Niyi Akinmolayan. The streamer will also be releasing 3 new Nigerian films branded as Netflix originals: Kenneth Gyang’s Òlòtūré (produced by Mo Abudu), Kunle Afolayan’s Citation and Kemi Adetiba’s King of Boys II.
At the same time, Netflix has also been testing a $2.50 mobile-only pricing plan in South Africa, which seems priced to undercut Showmax’s mobile-only $3.00 plan. Until the introduction of this new option, Netflix was only accessible in South Africa for a $6.00 monthly subscription fee. Although the mobile-only plan limits the video stream to 480p and one viewing stream on a mobile device or tablet, this type of value proposition is likely to be a big hit across Africa.
And I’ll wrap up this week with the nomination of Nigerian-born exec and former MAC Cosmetics Chief Marketing Officer Ukonwa Ojo at the same position at Amazon’s Prime Video and Amazon Studios. Although she will not be in a position to directly influence content decisions, it’s always good news when a potential ally for African creation reaches the top of the global food chain.
HUSTLE & FLOW #24: Tecno malware steals users airtime, Mdundo goes public in Denmark, IROKO refocuses on international subs, and more
Dear colleagues and friends,
On August 28th I woke up, quite uncharacteristically, a little bit before 4 am. I reached out for my phone, which of course you should never do when waking up in the middle of the night. Chadwick Boseman had just died.
The news hit me and millions of people around the world like a sucker punch, not just because a talented artist had passed away shockingly, tragically, and way too young, but also because it is hard not to see the loss of the King of Wakanda, at a time when America is struggling with brutal racial strife, like a pretty bad omen. Who is going to give us hope now that the wise Black Panther is dead?
Well, Disney has reportedly found a solution, and it is Shuri, T’Challa’s little sister, who will assume the mantle going forward.
For those of us writing or producing content in Africa, there was a before and after Black Panther. This film changed the world’s perception about Africa and African creativity more than any politician’s speech, academic paper or news report could ever do. Black Panther may have been a Hollywood movie, but since its release and tremendous success, African creators have been resolutely throwing themselves through this open door.
This week on HUSTLE & FLOW, I’ll talk about the revelation that thousands of Tecno phones sold in Africa had been preinstalled with malware eating up users’ airtime without their knowledge (and why I think it won’t threaten Transsion’s leading position on the market); Kenya-based music startup Mdondo going public in Denmark; and IrokoTV refocusing on its international markets after catching some serious headwind in Nigeria. But I’ll also talk about towercos, new education initiatives, children’s literature, Nigerian traditional textiles, and even Kenyan VR.
If you have missed a previous edition of HUSTLE & FLOW, especially over the summer, head to www.restless.global/hustleflow to catch up on the archives (and subscribe!). Please do share your thoughts, comments or even corrections by emailing me at marie@restless.global or reaching out on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
Happy reading to all,
Marie
CREATIVE INDUSTRIES FUNDING
Nairobi-based HEVA Fund has launched its new East Africa Creative Business Fund, which will invest between $20,000-50,000 in creative businesses in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. Developed in partnership with the European Commission and Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the facility is designed to help businesses restructure interrupted supply chains, increase production capacity, diversify offerings, increase market share increase integration in local and regional value-chains, support the transition to low-touch and digital capabilities, and take advantage of new opportunities.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Leading “towerco” Helios Towers is set to acquire Free Senegal’s passive infrastructure assets for almost $190 million. The deal, which will be subject to regulatory approval by the Senegalese authorities, should come to fruition by the end of the Q1 2021 and is expected to be fully financed by Helios' cash and existing debt facilities. Helios Towers was founded in 2009 with a $350 million backing by private equity firm Helios Investments and high-profile investors such as billionaire George Soros and former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright. In October 2019, the company raised an additional $364 million after listing on the London Stock Exchange. When completed, the Senegal transaction will give Helios Towers the status of the largest independent tower provider in the country with more than 1,200 sites, reinforcing the company’s existing network of 7,000 stations operating across the continent in South Africa, DRC, Ghana, Republic of Congo and Tanzania. The telecoms towers industry is set for strong and sustained growth as African mobile operators continue to expand their networks in the years to come.
MOBILE
Staying in Senegal, virtual operator Promobile, whose launch had been blocked for more than a year by its "partner" Free Senegal (see last edition of HUSTLE & FLOW), has finally decided to team up with Free’s competitor Sonatel. Promobile holds one of the three virtual mobile operator licenses (MVNO) in Senegal and was supposed to launch on Free’s network earlier this year. Noting the stalling of negotiations between the two companies, the Senegalese telecoms regulator had imposed a daily fine on Free Senegal’s owner Saga Africa Holding, an entity controlled by Xavier Niel, Yérim Sow and Hassanein Hiridjee. But Promobile founder Mbackiou Faye, who spent about $5.4 million to create the new operator, just got tired of waiting.
Dramatically raising the bar in terms of mobile shenanigans is the revelation last week that tens of thousands of Transsion phones were sold in Africa preinstalled with harmful malware which downloads subscription apps and signs users up for paid services that eat up their airtime without their knowledge. The shocking news came from a report by security service Secure-D, which says it blocked a total of 19.2 million suspicious subscription sign-ups between March 2019 and August 2020, coming from over 200,000 unique Transsion Tecno W2 devices across 19 countries including Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa, Cameroon, and Ghana. China-based Transsion Holdings has put the blame on a “vendor in the supply chain” and said it has released a security patch that users can download to fix the problem. The question is whether the malware controversy will have an impact on future Transsion sales in Africa, where the company currently dominates both the low and middle sectors through several brands including Tecno. My personal view is that people desire cheap smartphones and user-friendly technology so much that they are willing to put up with the occasional security breach and data or even cash theft (just look at all of us using Zoom and TikTok with abandon).
EDUCATION
Several educational initiatives are launching this month across Francophone West Africa. In Togo, Page 49, Yobo Studio and ACTA (Togolese Animation Cinema Association) have teamed up to launch La Maison Junior, a "learning by doing" residency training that will be held in Lomé over a period of 10 months, and will offer 15 participants from different French-speaking African countries the opportunities to acquire skills in the fields of animation, fiction and TV magazine production. The project, which was initiated by Christophe Guignage, creator of the animated Gulli series Junior, des Idees en Or, benefits from the support of the Annecy Animated Film Festival, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the French Institute of Togo. The call for applications opens today September 7.
In Gabon, the new Hema Online Music Academy, the brainchild of MTV Base Africa’s Magali Palmira Wora, will provide professional training in music business and give Gabonese artists the opportunity to interact with other recognized artists and music professionals.
Finally, mobile e-learning startup LAFAAC has partnered with the OIF (Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie) to produce a free program of training courses primarily intended for producers from African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. Lasting around 6 hours, the courses will tackle the main principles and tools for setting up a co-production project (film, fiction or TV series, documentary or web series).
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
The dearth of culturally relevant content for African kids is a well-known issue for parents on the continent and in the diaspora. Not a parent himself but inspired by his 6-year-old niece, 23-year-old Dominic Onyekachi has launched Akiddie, a web-based subscription platform providing access to African storybooks for children in different languages. Akiddie currently has 21 books available to readers, including 5 that are accessible for free, and more than 1,200 users including six Lagos schools. Onyekachi, who wrote some of the stories on Akiddie, said a lot of the themes revolve around gender equality, innovation and financial literacy.
FASHION
Vogue Business has a great article this week about how traditional Nigerian hand-woven textiles are being rediscovered by a new generation of designers who appreciate both their complex beauty and their natural, sustainable processes of production that are very much in line with the times. Adire, for example, was (re)introduced on the global fashion stage a few years ago by Amaka Osakwe, designer of high-profile label Maki Oh, worn by Michelle Obama and Lupita Nyong'o. Other textiles include aso oke from the Yoruba, akwete cloth from the Igbo and akwa ocha from the Aniocha people of Delta state. All have featured in the collections of leading Nigerian designers such as Tiffany Amber, Kenneth Ize and Emmy Kasbit. This new focus on traditional textiles is not only a way for designers to promote their cultural heritage, but also offers a path towards sustainably rebuilding the Nigerian textile industry, which was once the largest in Africa. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the country counted more than 180 mills employing 450,000 people, before it joined the WTO and opened its borders to cheap textiles from Asia. Today Nigeria imports $4 billion of ready-made clothing and textiles each year.
This series of shots from photographer Tariq Zaidi’s upcoming first book Sapeurs: Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congo is a feast for the eyes. Since the 1920s, the Sapeurs have been making sartorial statements on the streets of Brazzaville and Kinshasa, and their flamboyant style is by now pretty well-known around the world. But Zaidi is bringing a fresh take by including rare photos of female and children Sapeurs, which are very much worth a look.
MUSIC
One of this week’s most notable news is the listing on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Denmark of Kenya-based music service Mdundo, following an oversubscribed pre-sale period that raised $6.4 million. Launched in 2013 in Nairobi by Danish entrepreneur Martin Nielsen, Mdundo provides access to a large catalog of popular African music to over five million monthly active users in 15 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and reports over 20 million monthly downloads and streams via its website and app. The company plans to use the newly secured funds to continue its expansion across new African markets. Of course, this does nothing to alleviate the controversy over the fact that 70% of startups founders (2018 figure) who have raised $1 million or more in Kenya are white expatriates.
FILM
After his first feature Run premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2014, Ivorian director Philippe Lacôte continues to impress with his new film Night of the Kings (La Nuit des Rois), which screened at the Venice Film Festival last week.
Meanwhile, the film adaptation of Franco-Rwandan rapper and writer Gaël Faye’s 2016 novel Petit Pays, directed by Eric Barbier, is currently showing in French cinemas. Set in Burundi, the film was shot in neighboring Rwanda, the second international film to be shot in the country since it actively started promoting itself as a regional film hub. Our Lady of the Nile, an adaptation of Scholastique Mukasonga’s novel directed by Afghan filmmaker Atiq Rahimi, premiered at TIFF in 2019. For good measure, here’s a quick list of established Rwandan film directors who could direct this kind of films: Kivu Ruhorahoza, Joël Karekezi, Eric Kabera, Clémentine Dusabejambo, Thierry Dushimirimana, Kantarama Gahigiri, Jacqueline Kalimunda.
SPORTS BUSINESS
Pan-African company Rainbow Sports talks to New African Magazine about its ambition to build a pipeline of African sports superstars, starting with football, by fundamentally transforming the underlying structure of the African sports ecosystem. The company’s most notorious feat so far is the discovery of 2017 Africa Cup of Nations winner Christian Bassogog, today one of the best-paid players in the Chinese Super League. Rainbow Sports developed the Cameroonian player through domestic soccer, a stint in Denmark, to national representation and being a professional in China, and it now wants to apply the same strategy to cohorts of young players from across the continent. Rainbow aims to control the entire value chain to enable their players to progress to the top seamlessly, all the while also investing in their personal development as only a small fraction is destined to stardom. The group has recently bought a second division club in the Czech Republic, where they can expose their young talents to European football. It is now listing a $26 million (GPB 20 million) bond on Euronext Dublin to buy 4 European clubs and set up a developmental system within 10 African clubs.
Still in football, retired Ivorian star striker Didier Drogba's hopes of becoming the next president of Ivory Coast's football federation (FIF) were controversially dashed by the electoral commission 10 days ago, but could be restored after FIFA stepped in to review the entire process. The Africa Report has a play by play of the entire soap opera.
And finally, Canal+ has acquired the sub-Saharan Africa French-language broadcast rights to Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 matches for three years. The French Pay TV operator also secured a four-season extension with the Spanish LaLiga, which it will share with rival broadcaster Startimes across sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar and Mauritius.
BROADCAST
Talking about Startimes, the Chinese Pay TV company has admitted that it still has to see any profit from its business in Nigeria, ten years after launching on the market. In 2018, the company said it had invested over $220 million in Nigeria since 2010. Startimes is currently the leading Pay TV broadcaster in Nigeria in terms of number of subscribers thanks to its affordable entry-level plans, but Multichoice rakes in more revenue. Will it all be worth it in the end? Possibly. According to PwC, Pay TV revenues in Nigeria crossed $500 million in 2018 and are expected to remain a significant part of all TV and Video earnings in the country, which should surpass $900 million by 2023.
But that is if the already-harsh business environment doesn’t get even worse. After releasing its new broadcasting code that seeks to put an end to content exclusivity (a move that primarily targets Multichoice’s monopoly over sports rights), Nigeria’s National Broadcasting Commission is trying to prevent Multichoice from increasing its subscription prices while also stating that it would not tolerate any move from the company to fire its workers under any circumstance. Seems like the NBC wants to have its cake and eat it too.
With that, it is no surprise if Multichoice is turning to other African markets in search of growth. Following its success with local channels like Mzansi Magic in South Africa, Pearl Magic in Uganda and Zambezi Magic in Zambia, the company is now looking to create similarly localized entertainment channels in Ghana, Ethiopia and Mozambique. This could provide a welcome boost for these countries’ film industries as Multichoice typically doesn’t hesitate to invest in local original content.
VOD
Leading Nigerian VOD platform IrokoTV has announced that it would be forced to cut 150 jobs and refocus on its international subscribers which contribute over 80% of its revenue. CEO Jason Njoku disclosed that the company has lost at least $30 million over its lifetime with its focus on the African market. For a brief moment, the pandemic spurred a growth for Iroko in Nigeria, but a combination of value-destroying devaluation, COVID-19 recession, and unfair government regulations are now forcing the company to shift its attention away from Africa. Jason can at least celebrate one small victory: the absurd 5% levy that the Film and Video Censors Board had attempted to impose on all local content produced and sold in Lagos, and against which Jason had been particularly vocal, was cancelled by the State government over the weekend.
One may think that IrokoTV’s struggles, well documented and analyzed by Jason himself, would provide a cautionary tale to the new batch of local VOD platforms seeking to launch on the continent. But no. In the past few days we’ve heard about Wi-flix, which has partnered with Trace TV and a few others to launch an entertainment package mixing on-demand content and live TV, and CineMagic, South Africa’s newest streaming service that is currently looking for short films to help shore-up its local content catalogue. I could also mention the recently launched Afroland TV, Vuma TV and MyMovies.Africa. If you have been a HUSTLE & FLOW reader for some time, you know that I believe that the Africa streaming war has been won before it even began by Netflix (and possibly Showmax) and that attempting to carve out a space as a niche local player is now a waste of time and money.
One space I’m more optimistic about is mobile video, but it’s been so far dominated by the telcos themselves. Mobile content startup StarNews Mobile is a notable exception, having just announced that it had passed the 5 million subscriber mark after less than 3 years in operation. Full disclaimer: I am an early investor and advisor in StarNews. The company targets the mass market with a network of over 50 mobile channels offering celebrity-based content priced at low daily subscription rates, and is active in Ivory Coast, Cameroon, the Republic of Congo and South Africa, through partnerships with MTN, Moov and Orange.
CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
In African diaspora Hollywood news this week, Ghanaian multi-talented artist and Black is King co-director Blitz Bazawule has been tapped by Warner Bros to helm the feature adaptation of The Color Purple Broadway musical, while Nigerian-American writer/director Chinonye Chukwu is set to direct a feature film about Emmett Louis Till’s tragic torture and death in 1955 and the relentless pursuit of justice by his mother, Mamie Till Mobley.
CONTENT DISTRIBUTION
Canal+’s stylish Senegalese crime series Sakho and Mangane, created and directed by the French-Congolese Jean-Luc Herbulot, was acquired by All 4, the VOD service of the UK’s Channel 4. The Financial Times gives the show an enthusiastic review here. As far as I know, Sakho and Mangane is the only African TV show produced by Canal+ that has sold outside of the continent (please correct me if I’m wrong).
VIRTUAL REALITY
African Space Makers, Africa’s first interactive mockumentary series using virtual reality, is also the first Kenyan VR film to be showcased at the 77th Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica 2020. A co-production between The Nrb Bus / Cultural Video Productions, Black Rhino VR and INVR.SPACE, the film takes viewers on an interactive journey through five urban collectives that work in Nairobi’s creative industry.
ANIMATION
And to wrap up this week’s edition, Lwanda Magere, the short film produced by Kenyan animation studio Apes in Space based on the famous Kenyan folk hero of the same name, has been selected for the LA Shorts International Film Festival. To date, Apes in Space’s work has received international acclaim at the Abidjan Film and Animation Festival, the Accra Animation Film Festival, the Lagos International Festival of Animation, and the Lift-Off Global Network Film Festival.
HUSTLE & FLOW #23: Ethiopia’s telco bids stall, Grand Egyptian Museum nears completion, Burna Boy releases Twice as Tall, and more
Dear colleagues and friends,
First off, my apologies for skipping one week out of my planned publishing schedule (this edition of HUSTLE & FLOW was supposed to go out last week). It appears that many months of intense work with no play, combined with a dragged-out house renovation and a move to a different country, have led me to one of those dreaded COVID burnouts. Something had to give. But I am back now and excited to share fresh business insights on African entertainment with you.
As we near the end of August, it is still unclear what the post-COVID world has in store for us. While the United-States are suspended in a state of limbo until the November presidential elections, and Europe is delaying its economic reckoning until the end of its sacred summer vacations, worrying signs of where Africa may be headed have started to appear.
Nigeria has always been a tough market for outsiders, the latest victim being South African grocery retailer Shoprite, which threw in the towel a couple weeks ago and is exiting the country. But in recent months, a series of decidedly non-business friendly new taxes and regulations are making even battle-hardened local entrepreneurs seriously question their ability to survive in that environment. Tech startups are moving out of Lagos to escape harassment by the state government, which also just imposed a new 5% tax on film production; the controversial new broadcasting code may succeed in driving Multichoice away; and cinemas still haven’t been allowed to reopen (but airports have).
Meanwhile Ghana, despite being the seat of the African Continental Free Trade Area secretariat, is now asking foreign traders and investors for a minimum of $1 million in cash or equity for the privilege of doing business in the country. Another approach to alternative revenue generation is that of Kenya, where some $400 million in COVID relief funds seem to have found their way into the pockets of #COVID19millionaires. All that extra taxing and looting is probably not what experts had in mind when they recommended that African governments take advantage of the crisis to diversify their economies.
This week in HUSTLE & FLOW, I’ll talk about Ethiopia’s about-face on the highly anticipated opening of its telco space to foreign investors (the inward-looking trend is definitely in motion); Cairo’s upcoming Grand Egyptian Museum and its big bet on Tutankhamun to lure tourists back; and Burna Boy’s star shining bright as he releases his P. Diddy-produced album Twice as Tall.
Going forward, I will continue to release HUSTLE & FLOW twice a month, instead of every week, as this new format seems satisfying for you and more sustainable for me. As always, previous editions can be accessed here. Please do continue to engage by emailing me at marie@restless.global or by reaching out on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter @marieloramungai.
Happy reading to all,
Marie
MOBILE
MTN Group has appointed CFO Ralph Mupita as its new president and CEO. A couple of weeks ago, outgoing President Rob Shuter had revealed the organization's plans to exit its Middle Eastern markets and focus on the pursuit of a panafrican strategy. In June, the company reported a 9.4% half-year revenue growth and an extra 11 million subscribers, bringing its total panafrican subscriber base to over 260 million.
Local reports suggest that the Ethiopian authorities are considering applying the brakes on foreign investments in its telco space, just after the government asked for bids for a 40% stake in national operator Ethio Telecom. As we discussed in previous editions of HUSTLE & FLOW, the opportunity to enter this previously locked down market had generated a massive amount of interest from a variety of industry players, including MTN, Orange, Safaricom and Helios Towers. However the process has apparently encountered strong opposition from Ethio Telecom itself, which had recently announced strong annual revenues of over $1.3 billion and the growth of its subscriber base to 46 million people, or just under half the country’s population. As of now, the entire bidding process seems to be on hold, to the dismay of foreign investors.
In Senegal, Free (formerly Tigo Senegal) was imposed a heavy penalty by the regulator for blocking the launch of virtual operator (MVNO) Promobile for more than a year, despite Promobile being authorized to operate on Free’s network. According to Promobile, Saga Africa Holding, the company which owns Free in Senegal, wanted to sell voice communications for three times the price that it charges itself and refused to allow future Promobile users to receive calls and SMS from outside operators.
Finally, Safaricom seems to be the latest telco player to jump on the super app bandwagon as M-Pesa announced an upcoming consumer “lifestyle” offering, which will embed a selection of goods and services into its mobile-money app. The offer is expected to be launched first in Kenya within the next 12 months and then extended to other African markets.
E-COMMERCE
Continuing on the topic of e-commerce, Ethiopia’s Bank of Abyssinia (BoA) and Visa have announced a strategic partnership to acquire payment gateway CyberSource, through which BoA will become a member of Visa’s global payments ecosystem. The partnership makes BoA the first bank in Ethiopia to support e-commerce by enabling businesses to accept online payments using credit cards.
Less than a year after Jumia exited the country, Tanzania is ironically experiencing an e-commerce boom, courtesy of COVID. Multiple e-commerce platforms have sprung up, from food and grocery delivery apps like Piki to ‘online malls’ such as Duka.direct or Inalipa. The new services recognize that Jumia has opened the door for them by educating the market. However, contrary to the e-commerce giant, they are taking the approach to grow slowly and sustainably.
VISUAL ARTS
Over the summer, Le Monde has been running a multiple article series dedicated to African museums from Burkina Faso to Madagascar, including Ivory Coast’s first institution dedicated to contemporary cultures which opened recently in Abidjan’s popular neighborhood of Abobo. The museum is named after Adama Toungara, former minister of oil and energy, mayor of Abobo for almost twenty years, and one of the country’s biggest private collectors. Conceived by Ivorian superstar architect Issa Diabaté, the building offers a plurality of spaces designed to attract a diverse audience, with two exhibition rooms, painting workshops, media and book libraries and a space reserved for dance.
ARCHITECTURE
Al Jazeera has an in-depth profile of 84-year-old artist and architect Demas Nwoko, who was recently commissioned by the Nigerian government to design the new National Gallery in Abuja. For the past 60 years, Nwoko has developed and formalized a creative approach grounded in the knowledge of African art traditions, with the conscious addition of Western innovations where useful. Nwoko uses on-site materials such as laterite soil, trees and stones, which are resilient to the local environment and even become more beautiful with time and wear, and builds natural cooling systems through strategically placed ventilation portals. The result: his Ibadan home has never needed renovation or significant repair since completion in 1964.
HERITAGE
Cairo’s upcoming Grand Egyptian Museum is nearing completion and should open next year, after 8 years of work and multiple delays. The $1 billion, 500,000 square meters project is the size of a major airport terminal and was financed through loans from Japan. It will re-house and restore the country's most precious artifacts including the iconic treasures of Tutankhamun, which Egypt hopes will be enough of a draw to drive tourists back to a region which has suffered greatly from the double impact of the 2011 Egyptian revolution and this year’s pandemic.
FASHION
Loved Black is King? Looking to expand on the experience by acquiring some Beyoncé-approved African fashion? The singer is sharing her "Black Parade Route," a personal directory of Black- and African-owned small businesses curated by Queen Bey’s own stylist Zerina Akers, the founder of Black Owned Everything.
Not on the Beyoncé list however are Africain streetwear brands like Nigeria’s Waffles N Cream and Vivendii (which collaborated on a project with Virgil Alboh's Off-White and Nike) or Ghana’s Free the Youth, which are working hard to prove that there is more to African fashion than hand-made custom gowns and jewelry. Whereas the style has become mainstream in the West and in parts of Asia, in West Africa, where popular culture is largely shaped by the flamboyant Afrobeats party scene, streetwear (and its associated alté subculture - more on that below) conveys an aura of youth rebellion that may be closer to hip hop’s original roots.
MUSIC
On August 13, Nigerian megastar Burna Boy released his new album Twice as Tall, executive produced by none other than Sean Combs aka P. Diddy, and he “has the whole world listening” according to the New York Times. The album got over five million streams in just an hour after it dropped, and quickly reached number one in 31 countries. From the moment he sold out the Wembley SSE Arena in London in 2019, to his 2020 Grammy nomination, being featured solo in Beyonce’s Black is King, and now capturing the global charts, the 29-year-old artist has had one hell of a year, as I’ve written repeatedly in this newsletter.
And he’s even got his name on the song of the summer - the remix of 2019 rhythmic South African gospel track Jerusalema by South African producer and DJ Master KG featuring vocalist Nomcebo Zikode, on which Burna Boy was called in to sprinkle in some Naija flavor. The result is so infectious that the song has reached every corner of the globe in the form of the #jerusalemadancechallenge. Master KG attributed the moves in the dance to a group of Angolan fans who put together a candid video, which quickly reached Portugal and then spread from there.
The fact that Burna Boy calls his music Afro-fusion rather than the catch-all Afrobeats is a possible hint that the future Nigerian sounds to find success globally will be more diverse. On that topic, the French daily Liberation digs into the rising influence of Nigeria's “alté” subculture (The Guardian has a similar article here in English), which is carried by artists with different inspirations mixing jazz, r&b and hip hop, but who have in common to have broken out online and being committed to freely expressing their individuality in a culture that can be quite conventional.
DANCE
A couple of months ago, the video of a young boy ballet dancing, barefoot on raw concrete and in the rain, went viral with 20 million views worldwide. Since, then the internet has done its thing and changed the life not only of that boy (11-year-old Anthony Mmesoma Madu) but also of his teacher Daniel Owoseni Ajala and fellow students at Lagos’ Leap of Dance Academy, who have been offered resources and training opportunities by supporters from around the world. You can bet that it’s only a matter of time before this inspiring story finds its way onto the screens.
SPORTS BUSINESS
Global Pay-TV spending for sports media rights reached its apex with $48.2 billion spent in 2019 before the pandemic hit, according to sports marketing agency Two Circles. The company advises sports rights holders to end their current reliance on Pay-TV income, which is bound to decline, and transition to a ‘hybrid media model’ by developing new packages of content comprising live, near-live and non-live rights that can be commercialized through various media partnerships with free or paid linear or VOD services. Although this trend is likely to take some time to reach Africa, where StarTimes just announced the acquisition of the French-language broadcasting rights to the Spanish LaLiga and the UEFA Nations League, the signs of overheating are already there as Multichoice hesitates to renew its English Premier League rights in Nigeria, leaving the door open for more innovative deals.
BROADCAST
Still on the topic of African Pay-TV, Ndubuisi Ekekwe breaks down one of the major reasons (if not the major reason) why challengers have found it near impossible to build alternatives to Multichoice, and it has to do with how these businesses are financed. Indeed, Multichoice is backed by South African media and tech giant Naspers, “which has so much money that it could buy all the publicly traded stocks in Nigeria with just 30% of the Group’s market cap”, writes Ekekwe. This means that MultiChoice was not built with debt, while other players in Nigeria such as HiTv or TStv were saddled with 25% interest rate loans. “It is nearly impossible to grow faster than your bank interest rate. Yes, if the interest is 25%, it technically means that to have the capacity to pay that loan, you need to be hitting excess of 40%, on value creation. That is nearly impossible in a media business where leverageables are linear, not exponential. At 25-27% interest on debt, most businesses cannot survive and you will be a slave to the banks for life.” What Ekekwe says here is valid not only in the media space but for most businesses in Africa, and especially in the seed and growth phases.
Meanwhile, consulting firm Accenture is optimistic when it comes to the future of South Africa’s film and television industry, which it says has the potential to grow by close to $6 billion over the next five years by embracing digital technologies. That additional benefit could come from advertising revenue as well as investment in local film productions - particularly from global streaming platforms with deep pockets.
CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
Eighteen film or TV projects supported by the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) will be presented during the DISCOP AFRICA virtual market which will take place on October 28-29, 2020. The projects, which include 7 series, 7 feature films and 4 documentaries, are in various stages of development or production and have for the most part been structured as international co-productions between several African, Caribbean and European countries. The presentation of these 18 projects is organized within the framework of CLAP ACP, a program to strengthen South-South co-productions led by the OIF in partnership with FONSIC (Côte d'Ivoire), with financial assistance from the Union European Union and the support of the Organization of ACP States (Africa-Caribbean-Pacific).
VOD
Still in South Africa, Multichoice has finally introduced the much-awaited DStv dishless streaming service, which will enable subscribers to access its Pay-TV services directly through the Dstv app. The company confirmed that the DStv dishless platform would offer the same content and channels as the existing service. In case you weren’t sufficiently confused already, Multichoice also runs its standalone VOD platform Showmax, and recently rolled out two new offerings, DStv Explora Ultra, a new decoder with added features, and DStv Streama which lets viewers swap from DStv to Showmax or YouTube, making it a “one stop shop” for all things entertainment.
Talking about Showmax, executives at the company have announced that Multichoice’s hit show Big Brother Naija had "broken the record for the most-watched live-streamed entertainment show" on the platform. According to Showmax, "Nigeria accounts for almost 50% of the viewing hours, South Africa 30% and 15% from Kenya. Ghana, Botswana, Namibia and Uganda also see unusual viewing traffic for Big Brother Naija." The power of this show is currently without comparison on the continent. As I’ve said before, I believe this makes a strong business case for Netflix to get on the Naija-flavored reality show bandwagon now now.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Going viral today is truly like winning the jackpot. At least it’s how it must have felt to the Ikorodu Bois, the group of young Nigerian mimikers famous for humorously recreating the trailers of big productions such as Extraction or Casa de Papel, when they received a full film equipment package gifted by Netflix. They will also receive mentoring from star director Kunle Afolayan. The Ikorodu Bois’ Extraction video racked up 11.4 million views and more than 160,000 shares on Twitter, and received praise from star Chris Hemsworth and producers the Russo brothers, who also invited the group to the premiere of Extraction 2. No doubt that these ones are on their way.
ANIMATION
Leading Ivorian studio Afrikatoon has released King Keita, its new 26-episodes animated series recounting the adventures of Soundiata Keita, the Emperor of Mali who, after his accession to the throne, will have the onerous responsibility of implementing the “Mandé Charter”, the new rules decreed by him.
COMIC BOOK
And finally, Kenya’s The Nest Collective has released two digital comic books, based on the stories of traditional female leaders Mekatilili wa Menza and Wangu wa Makeri. Over the years, the Nest has built a certain expertise in narratives that focus on women, sexuality or gender, and their diverse portfolio of works (spanning film, fashion, photography and more) is worth checking out if you are interested in these topics.
HUSTLE & FLOW #22: Ethiopian art is poised for global debut, the Queen releases Black is King, ESPN comes back to Africa, and more
Dear colleagues and friends,
Here on HUSTLE & FLOW we’ve been tracking the winds of change that are currently sweeping the global Black creative world, and this week the tempest has settled on Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is a beautiful, schizophrenic country where both the literacy and the formal unemployment rate are at 90%. Former president Robert Mugabe, who passed away less than a year ago, is widely credited for both. What is clear is that his death has so far not magically fixed Zimbabwe, which is currently suffering its worst economic crisis in more than 10 years.
Last week, seven babies were stillborn at Harare Central Hospital after urgent treatment was delayed. Nurses are on strike because of a lack of COVID-19 PPE, and the maternity wards were overwhelmed. The health minister has been sacked over allegations of corruption, as the country struggles with (another) bout of hyperinflation. Three days ago, award-winning author Tsitsi Dangarembga was arrested while protesting this whole mess, ironically just as her latest novel entered the longlist for the prestigious Booker Prize. And because this is 2020, you know there must be more: this is also the week that current President Emmerson Mnangagwa chose to sign an agreement worth $3.5 billion to compensate white farmers evicted from their land in the early 2000s. This is next-level bad timing.
We root for Zimbabwe to find its way out of this quagmire so that the country’s numerous artists and intellectuals can share their talents with the world. But despite all of this, there is no shortage of good news this week. In this edition of HUSTLE & FLOW, I talk about the vibrancy of contemporary Ethiopian art, as the country liberalizes in fits and starts; the (unjustified) controversy over Beyonce’s Black is King visual album; and the return of ESPN to the African airwaves. But you’ll also read about Ivorian chocolate, Nigerian curling, and Multichoice’s and Canal+’s first co-production.
If you are new to HUSTLE & FLOW, visit the archives here to catch up on current trends and opportunities in African Entertainment, and don’t forget to subscribe. To drop me a note, comment, suggestion, or correction, email me at marie@restless.global or reach out on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram @marieloramungai.
Happy reading to all,
Marie
INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE
Facebook’s investments in infrastructure and connectivity in Africa will increase internet traffic by 9%, contributing an extra $57 billion to Africa's economy by 2024, according to a recent report by Analysys Mason. Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa will benefit the most due to the presence of Facebook's Points of Presence connecting ISPs directly to Facebook's internal network. Most notably and as we’ve discussed here before, Facebook is one of the investors behind the $1 billion 2Africa subsea internet cable project, which will link 16 African countries to Europe and the Middle East and triple the current capacity.
Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa is seeking buyers for 20% to 34% of Liquid Telecom for as much as $600 million. He needs the money to repay a $375 million loan backed by Public Investment Corp that was used to fund Masiyiwa’s failed pay-TV venture Kwese TV (more on this further down in this edition).
Ethiopia resumed full internet connection on July 23 after a 23-day hiatus, and ordinary Ethiopians can now access the internet again. Ironically, that latest internet shutdown came just weeks after Ethiopia’s Council of Ministers approved its digital strategy to boost tech services exports and digitize the country’s economy, which has been growing by more than 9% annually for the past decade. Besides costing the country hundreds of million of dollars, the regular shutdowns are hampering the efforts of Ethiopian tech entrepreneurs to establish Addis Ababa as one of Africa’s major tech hubs. As foreign investors are waiting in the starting blocks to get a piece of this new market of 109 million people, Ethiopia is demonstrating once again that economic and political liberalization is anything but a smooth process.
MOBILE
Airtel Africa has reported a 6.9% jump in revenues to $851 million in the second quarter of 2020, with mobile money and data recording the most uptick. Over the period, Airtel’s subscribers grew by 11.5% to 111,5 million users throughout the continent.
Zimbabwean authorities are asking EcoCash, the country’s biggest mobile money platform, to share 2020 transaction data with law enforcement, in a move that the operator says violates its user data privacy rights. The government is alleging that EcoCash is allowing money-laundering activities on its network that are fueling street market foreign currency rates. The Zimbabwean government has been locked in a battle with EcoCash for several months as its currency and economic crisis has spiraled out of control.
E-COMMERCE
The fast convergence of fintech and e-commerce, clearly a major trend of 2020, continues. Dubai’s Network International has acquired DPO Group, a digital payments company and e-commerce platform, for $288 million. DPO facilitates online payments for some 47,000 merchants in 19 African countries, with South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania being its largest markets. The 15-year-old company, which has largely been flying below the radar, quietly racked up $16 million in revenues in 2019. Just three months ago it launched its e-commerce solution DOP Store, in partnership with Mastercard, initially targeting essential services such as supermarkets, food stores, pharmacies and chemists.
Meanwhile, Vodacom South Africa is entering the super app game, in partnership with the Chinese Alipay which will act as the technology provider. The operator is planning to create and launch a financial services app that will allow users to stream music, access news, shop online, pay bills and transfer money. The service, which is set to be launched next year, will also assist small and medium scale enterprises to access lending, insurance and other financial services.
Finally and still on the hot topic of super apps, TechCabal has a very interesting article about OPay’s billionaire Chairman Yahui Zhou, who stepped in as CEO in April and is reportedly behind the recent decision to shut down several of the company’s transport verticals in Nigeria to double down on e-commerce. Four months ago, the company claimed it had 5 million monthly active customers and was responsible for over 60% of mobile money transactions in Nigeria.
FASHION
Seven African fashion designers talk about the impact of the pandemic on their work in Vogue Italia (Google Translate is your friend here). Interestingly, the designers report little impact from the cancellation of fashion weeks on their business, as most were able to effectively leverage social media to promote their collections. A few even reported an increase in sales over the period. As Vogue Business writes, African designers have turned to establishing their own direct businesses online to make up for retail store closures. Before the pandemic, only the biggest designer brands had websites, and those were targeted at the global customer, while African fashion customers had previously been wary of shopping solely online for fashion due to a cultural preference for physical interactions, a lack of trust in online solutions, and restrictions in delivery. But the lockdowns have led to a fast, deep and long-lasting shift in customer behavior which, I believe, will eventually prove wildly beneficial for the sector.
VISUAL ARTS
British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare shares the vision behind his Guest Artists Space (G.A.S) Foundation in Quartz Africa this week. I’ve talked a couple times about Shonibare’s upcoming artists residency spaces, scheduled to open in Lagos and Ijebu, Nigeria in 2021. G.A.S Foundation will host three artists at a time from various disciplines for three months, offering opportunities for emerging local talents to grow their skills and visibility as well as network with their peers. Shonibare’s project also aims to facilitate social and cultural change by supporting the needs of the local community through job creation and food security. “Social interventions are a part of my practice. They’re not separate from my art,” he says. In recent years, Nigeria’s contemporary art scene has gained global recognition. However, few state-funded educational facilities exist to support creatives. Like it is usual in Nigeria, private individuals - and in this case the more established artists themselves - are stepping up to fill the gap.
One rare example of a government-led cultural initiative is the refurbishment of Togo’s Palais de Lomé, which was inaugurated with great fanfare in November 2019. The former Palace of Governors, a symbol of French colonial power, was transformed by director Sonia Lawson into an ambitious and innovative art center open to all, celebrating culture and nature. The Togolese government distinguished itself by financing the entire project to the tune of $4 million (3,5 million euros). Lawson counts on sponsorships and donations to make the project sustainable.
Moving from West to East Africa, CNN has an in-depth feature this week about Ethiopian contemporary art, which may finally be having its moment on the global stage. Although Ethiopia’s art lineage dates back to 4th century church paintings, the local art community had largely been cut off from the rest of the world until current Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed started opening the country. One fascinating consequence of this isolation is that local art practices have had time to develop unaffected by global trends, allowing Ethiopian artists to create their own distinct language. The same could be said of Ethiopian cinema and music, about which I plan to talk more in future editions of HUSTLE & FLOW. Now, the local art scene is booming, with the launch of new art spaces and artists branching out beyond painting to experiment with other disciplines. Of course, international collectors are also starting to notice, so now is the time to go shopping while it is still affordable.
LITERATURE
British-Nigerian writer, Irenosen Okojie, is this year's prestigious AKO Caine Prize winner for her short story Grace Jones. It tells the story of Sidra, an impersonator of the legendary 70s and 80s musician, who is keeping some dark secrets.
As I mentioned in introduction, Zimbabwean literary giant Tsitsi Dangarembga’s third novel This Mournable Body has been selected in the latest Booker Prize longlist, alongside Ethiopian-born Maaza Mengiste's The Shadow King. This Mournable Body reflects on the volatile political landscape in Zimbabwe through the life of female protagonist Tambu, picking up 30 years later from Dangarembga's seminal work, Nervous Conditions. Mengiste’s The Shadow King revisits the Italian-Ethiopian war under Mussolini's reign.
FOOD
Former banker turned chocolatier Axel Emmanuel has been selected as one of 50 finalists to the African Business Heroes prize 2020. The entrepreneurship competition, an initiative of the Jack Ma Foundation, received 22,000 applications from across Africa. Emmanuel describes his 2012 epiphany, which led him to change careers: “I saw the big transactions of cocoa and thought it’s fine to export cocoa, but not all of it. Two million tonnes of cocoa are exported from the Ivory Coast every year to big companies like Nestlé. It’s absurd. More than 75% of the world’s cocoa comes from Africa, and there were almost no local brands of chocolate.” Emmanuel’s company Le Chocolatier Ivoirien now distributes more than 100 chocolate flavors in local supermarkets, airlines, and other outlets, employing a team of 10. He’s now looking for investors to open a factory (and, I’m guessing, wouldn’t say no to partners who could get him into Wholefoods or Monoprix).
MUSIC
Beyonce’s highly anticipated Black is King, the visual companion to the singer’s 2019 album The Lion King: The Gift, was released last Friday on Disney+, DSTV and Canal+. The 90-min film sees Beyonce narrate and guide a young African king on a journey of love, betrayal, and understanding the importance of his history. A perfectly-timed reclamation of Black power and heritage, Queen B’s latest production still managed to stir up controversy as some African critics complained about perceived cultural appropriation from the American star. Personally I find myself resolutely on the pro-Bey camp here. Beyonce and her team clearly put in the time and care to curate the dozen African artists who collaborated with her on the project, offering them a massive platform to showcase their work in the process. Besides featuring Afrobeats stars such as Wizkid, Tiwa Savage, Mr Eazi or Yemi Alade, alongside appearances by Lupita Nyong’o or dancers from the DWP Academy in Ghana, Black is King also makes references to Dogon and Yoruba cultures, and includes the work of African designers such as Ivory Coast-based Loza Maléombho. The very secret production was shot all over the globe including in South and West Africa. It was codirected by Kwasi Fordjour, creative director at Beyoncé's Parkwood Entertainment, alongside African directors Emmanuel Adjei, Blitz Bazawule (The Burial of Kojo), Pierre Debusschere, Jenn Nkiru, Ibra Ake (Atlanta), Dikayl Rimmasch, Jake Nava and Dafe Oboro.
In a new milestone of the genre’s journey to global domination, Afrobeats is getting its first-ever official singles chart in the UK. The move by the UK's Official Charts Company recognizes Afrobeats’ rising popularity in the UK and growing influence on popular culture across the globe. The new Top 20 weekly rundown will pull data from downloads, physical sales and audio and video streaming, and the playlist will be published every Sunday on Spotify.
Meanwhile, a new player is entering the now crowded Nigeria streaming market (which already counts Boomplay, Apple Music, Deezer, UduX, Spotify, SoundCloud and MTN MusicTime), as music streaming and discovery service Audiomack opens a new office in Lagos. According to the 8-year-old company, “when you look at majority English-speaking countries, [Nigeria is] second after the United States. Since most of the artists we have are English speaking, it makes practical sense to see Nigeria as a growth opportunity both for Audiomack and all of the artists who upload their music to the platform.”
Moving over to the Francophone side, Universal Music Africa has launched Def Jam Music fr, which will focus on artists from Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Senegal. To bring this news into context, the label’s parent company Vivendi stated in its 2019 annual report that local artists (meaning artists from a certain territory selling in that same territory) accounted for 61% of UMG’s revenues last year - a strong incentive for the music giant to continue investing in its African operations. However African diaspora artists are also extremely popular in France. In fact, Franco-Malian singer Aya Nakamura is the most listened to artist in France on Spotify, where she accumulates more than 12 million listeners per month and dethrones male superstars Booba, PNL and JuL by far.
SPORTS
This week we’re doing a little tour of lesser-known sports in Africa. The first one is freestyle football, which is described by the World Freestyle Football Association (WFFA) as “the art and sport of juggling a football using all parts of the body to entertain audiences and outperform opponents; a fusion of tricks with a ball, dance and music.” Sports tricks + dance + music = a perfect African product (just add TikTok). Freestyle football was launched in Africa and Nigeria in 2017 by business leader and philanthropist Valentine Ozigbo, the Chairman of Feet ‘N’ Tricks International. In 2019, some 30 countries converged in Nigeria for the African Freestyle championships, sponsored by StarTimes. Ivorian Abdoul Titi Kone won for a second time. This year, the competition took place virtually, sponsored by MTN, and saw reigning Nigeria champions Benjamin Ebong and Augustina Unamba retain their titles.
A lot more unexpected is the slow but steady development of... curling in Africa. OkayAFrica has an offbeat article about a small group of die-hard diasporan fans trying to bring the winter sport to Nigeria, despite the unlikely climate. In 2018, Damola and Henrietta Daniel set up the Nigeria Curling Federation (NCF), which became the first African member association of the World Curling Federation. They recruited team members from the diaspora to participate in events in Norway, Scotland, China and Austria. NCF has a five-year plan to create 100 teams to breed competition in the country and has purchased land for the first ice rink in Nigeria in Calabar, partnering with ISS, a German firm renowned for making ice rinks across the world. Estimated at $6.9 million, the facility could become the home of ice sports in the country. In true Nigerian fashion, nothing is too big for the Daniels who dream of representing Africa at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, in the company of the Nigerian bobsled and skeleton athletes who've pioneered winter sports in Africa.
BROADCAST
ESPN is back on on Dstv across Africa. Two 24-hour channels, ESPN and ESPN2, will feature every major US sport, including the NBA, NFL, National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball, plus live football from the English Football League, Scottish Premier Football League, Dutch Eredivisie and Major League Soccer, as well as local sports including the Cup of Nations and boxing tournaments. ESPN’s courtship with the African market has been through several twists and turns over the past few years. In 2013, the channel had pulled its content away from Dstv as part of a decision to end operations in non-American markets that were considered to be no longer financially viable. A couple years later in 2016, the sports channel struck a licensing partnership with pay TV and VOD upstart Kwese TV (mentioned earlier in this newsletter), an ambitious initiative by Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa’s Econet Media to compete with Dstv. However, barely 18 months after its launch, Kwese TV shut down (a classic case of overspending in small markets with tiny margins) and Econet Media went into administration. ESPN had been looking for a new Africa home since then.
Multichoice’s SuperSport and the Spanish La Liga have renewed their broadcast deal for another two years, up until the 2023/24 season, in all languages except Arabic and French. Multichoice has also announced that the number of its movie channels will be reduced from the existing six (M-Net Movies Premiere, Action Plus, Action, Smile, Zone and All-Stars) to four, which will simply be called M-Net Movies 1, 2, 3, and 4 moving forward. A little note here as I know this is extremely confusing: Dstv, Multichoice, SuperSport, Mnet and Showmax are all part of the same group. There are some subtleties (cable operator vs commercial channel bouquet vs individual channels vs VOD platform) but for the sake of simplification you can just consider them one and the same.
Canal+ will launch Ethiopia’s first premium DTH platform at the beginning of 2021, in partnership with satellite operator Eutelsat. The pay TV offer will launch with 50 premium channels and a selection of Ethiopia’s Free-to-Air channels. This is the second partnership announced by Canal+ this month for the continent, following news of a deal with African utilities firm Bboxx. Still in Ethiopia, Indian Zee TV has rolled out a new channel in Amharic called Zee Alem. This brings Zee TV’s total number of channels in Africa to eight, airing mainly Bollywood entertainment and series in different languages across the African continent.
FILM
Film festival roundup: For the first time in twenty years, an Ivorian feature film will compete at the Venice International Film Festival taking place in September, as Philippe Lacôte’s La Nuit des Rois is one of the 19 titles selected in the Orizzonti section. Lacôte’s first feature Run was selected at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2014. Thirty-one film projects from 13 African countries were selected by the Durban FilmMart Institute to take part in its Finance Forum from 4 to 13 September, and 5 African film projects have been awarded grants in the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund’s latest funding round. Finally, seventeen producers will take part in the inaugural Creative Producer Indaba scheme, which has been developed by Realness Institute in partnership with Sundance Institute, International Film Festival Rotterdam and European training outfit EAVE.
South Africa’s National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is examining a number of propositions to help and support the film industry in South Africa as it battles the impact of the pandemic. One of the initiatives is the call for fundable proposals that will see the revival of drive-in cinema. And still in South Africa, Netflix has partnered with the South African Screen Federation and the Independent Producers Organisation, to establish a Covid-19 film and television relief fund that will provide emergency relief to the hardest-hit workers in South Africa's creative community. The streaming service will donate about $400,000 from the global $150 million hardship fund it had announced in March.
VOD
Talking about Netflix, a couple recent interviews provide more information on the platform’s inner workings in Africa for those of you out there trying to crack the code: Ife Idowu, the Licensing and Contracts Manager at FilmOne Entertainment, the largest distributor of Nigerian content to Netflix, shares his experience selling to the platform, while Netflix Africa Originals Manager Dorothy Ghettuba speaks to CNN about developing content in Africa during the pandemic.
Only the second global VOD platform to launch across the continent, the British BritBox has announced that it will expand its service to be accessible from Africa. BritBox is a joint venture between the BBC (via the BBC Studios) and ITV. According to Britbox, the Africa move is part of a global extension drive to expand its service to other parts of the world from its current markets of Britain, Canada and the United States.
CONTENT DISTRIBUTION
Despite the major progress brought about by the arrival of Netflix on the continent, the distribution and monetization of African content remains a challenge, especially for non-English language productions. Alain Modot, founder of distribution company Diffa (who recently brought the company back from previous owner Lagardère Studio), brings a Franco-centric perspective to the matter in this interview. According to Modot, Diffa now represents about 140 producers from 35 African countries, including around 15 Ivorians. He praises Ivory Coast as the only country in Francophone West Africa with a clear audiovisual policy, mostly executed through Fonsic, a European fund managed by the Ivorian Ministry of Culture and intended to support not only Ivorian films but also pan-African and Afro-European co-productions.
CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
Pan-African pay TV leaders Multichoice and Canal+ have joined forces for the first time to co-produce an ambitious epic series called Blood Psalms. Inspired by a Xhosa legend, it tells the story of Zazi, a fierce African queen who battles a world-ending prophecy to lead her people through complexities, politics and endless wars. The 10-episode series will be available to stream on Multichoice’s VOD platform Showmax in 2021. This groundbreaking collaboration is a major development for the African TV space as it will pave the way for much larger production budgets for TV series.
And to wrap up this week, we take a look across the Atlantic, where African and diaspora creatives continue to collect accolades and high-profile projects. While Issa Rae, Yvonne Orji, Trevor Noah and Uzo Aduba all received Emmy nominations, Kenya’s Wanuri Kahiu has come on board to direct Once On This Island, a feature adaptation of the 1990 Broadway musical based on the Rosa Guy novel My Love, My Love; or, The Peasant Girl, for Disney+. One must wonder where she will find the time as Kahiu is also developing an adaptation of the YA novel The Thing About Jellyfish for Universal, and an adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed for Amazon. Another exciting announcement comes from former Netflix exec Erik Barmack, who has teamed up with renowned “Afro-French” (her term) artist Nicholle Kobi on Queens, a high-concept, stylish animated series about six extraordinary real-life African queens. Barmack and Kobi are also in development on La Femme Noire, an animated Sex and the City-type animated series for ViacomCBS-owned BET.
HUSTLE & FLOW #21: Loon’s balloons take flight in Kenya, Mr Eazi launches $20M Music Fund, Showmax Pro allows sports streaming, and more
Dear colleagues and friends,
This is 2020 and every week we are reminded that reality truly is stranger than fiction. For the past few days, Nigeria’s startup world has been in shock over the gruesome murder of Bangladeshi-American entrepreneur Fahim Saleh, the well-known and well-liked CEO of Nigerian motorbike-hailing startup Gokada. Saleh was found dismembered in his Manhattan apartment, the apparent victim of an incomprehensible act by his 21-year-old personal assistant Tyrese Haspil. Saleh had recently discovered that Haspil had stolen money from him but had chosen not to report him to the police, putting him on a repayment plan instead.
Meanwhile, the normally subdued world of French-language African cinema was also being rocked by its own scandal, as it was revealed that actress Annabelle Lengronne had been edited out of the latest edition of Canal+ Afrique’s Ciné Le Mag show for mentioning Assa Traoré as an example of an inspiring Black woman. Assa Traoré is an activist and the sister of Adama Traoré, a young French-Malian who died in police custody in 2016. In response to what they considered blatant censorship from program director Frédéric Dezert, host Claire Diao and her team resigned. This is actually far from the first incident of censorship at Canal+, which is owned by Vivendi, a conglomerate with business and political interests across Africa and whose management certainly tried - in an incredibly clumsy way - to avoid stirring up anti-French sentiment on the ground.
As we collectively shake our heads at people making terribly bad choices (Kanye that includes you), we can take comfort in the fact that exciting things do continue to happen in the African entertainment space. In this edition of HUSTLE & FLOW, I’ll talk about internet balloons bringing connectivity to remote areas of Kenya, Mr Eazi’s mogul move creating new financing models for African music artists, and Showmax Pro introducing live sports streaming to Africa’s VOD space.
For those of you currently on their summer vacations, enjoy and feel free to ignore this email. For those of us in Nigeria or the US whose work life knows no respite, don’t hesitate to send me your comments, questions, or corrections at marie@restless.global. Previous editions of HUSTLE & FLOW are available here. Watch out for the next one in two weeks.
Happy reading to all,
Marie
CULTURAL INFRASTRUCTURE
The Nigerian government has officially handed over Lagos’ iconic National Arts Theater to the country’s Bankers Committee, which will shepherd its renovation. The landmark location used to be Nigeria’s primary performance center and had its heyday in 1977 when it hosted the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (Festac '77), but has since gone into disrepair. The Bankers Committee, which brings together commercial banks CEOs and officials from the Central Bank of Nigeria, has announced that it would invest no less than $51 million (N20 billion) in the project. Besides the rehabilitation of the facility, which is supposed to be completed in 18 months, the project aims to create economic activities in music, film, fashion and ICT around the National Theater, targeting 1 million jobs in the next 5 years. Lagos has been crying for proper infrastructure to support its booming creative industries, and the idea of a Media and Tech city built on the model of Dubai’s Media City has been going around for a while. Depending on the final plans, the National Theater project has the potential to fulfill that role. However, some question whether the timeline and expected results announced by the Bankers Committee are realistic, especially in the current context. Let’s hope that this initiative doesn’t turn out like the 12,000 federal projects reportedly abandoned across Nigeria.
INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE
Alphabet’s Loon has officially begun operating its commercial internet service in Kenya, in partnership with Telkom Kenya. The fleet of 35 high-altitude balloons will essentially work as floating cell towers, drifting 20 km above ground on currents in the Earth’s upper atmosphere to provide 4G LTE service across 50,000 square kilometres in central and western Kenya. The balloons, which are about the size of tennis courts, were launched from the US and navigated to Kenya using wind currents (which, yes, seems totally crazy). According to Loon, this is the first balloon-powered internet project to launch in Africa, and the first non-emergency commercial deployment in the world.
In rather less uplifting news, the Ethiopian government has only partially restored the Internet across the country, after two weeks of a total internet outage. The government had justified the shut down as a measure to prevent the spread of hate speech after the shooting of prominent Oromo singer and activist Haacaaluu Hundeessaa led to violent unrest. According to internet monitoring group NetBlocks, most fixed-lines and some wifi users have regained access, while mobile internet and data services - which are used by a majority of Ethiopians - remain inaccessible.
MOBILE
Sonatel, Senegal’s leading telco, is seeking to raise up to $170 million (including $50 million through a bond issue) through the Private Infrastructure Development Group and the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund, to upgrade its service platforms and extend its 4G plus network across the country.
In South Africa, MTN has switched on its 5G network in the cities of Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth. Through its agreement with Ericsson for the provision of 5G radio access networks equipment, the telco now plans to roll out its 5G service across 20 of its markets in Africa, starting with Nigeria.
Despite a substantial fall in voice and data prices in Africa in recent years, a recent International Telecommunication Union report shows that Africans still spend a lot more on mobile costs as a share of gross national income than the rest of the world. As Quartz writes, African users pay nearly 200% more than the global average for voice and three times more for data, relative to average income.
E-COMMERCE
The merging of finance and e-commerce solutions continues in Africa’s biggest market. TradeDepot, a four-year-old startup solving supply chain issues in Nigeria’s informal retail market, has raised $10 million from Partech, IFC, Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-FI) and MSA Capital and will now be expanding its operations to include financial services and credit facilities to its customers. In a country where informal stores account for 98% of all retail sales, TradeDepot uses technology to connect consumer goods distributors including Nestle, Nasco, Unilever and Kelloggs, to some 40,000 micro retailers in the informal sector. The TradeDepot platform already processes order payments and offers inventory management, which puts it in the position to aggregate data on its merchants’ businesses and use it to build credit ratings. Including this latest round, TradeDepot has raised a total of $36 million since its launch in 2016.
Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe, writing on the Tekedia Institute website and referring to OPay’s recent shutting down of several of its verticals, has some words of advice for companies that have big ambitions in the consumer sector in Nigeria: you cannot grow faster than the environment. Ekekwe’s take is very insightful and worth quoting at length: “Nigeria cannot be growth-hacked in the way Beijing, London, New York and other areas can. Our gestation period to profitability is legendary and one of the longest in the world (...) If you do those flashy things (yes, one million Facebook likes, top ten local ranking in Alexa, etc), you will burn. More so, as OPay goes into ecommerce, it needs to slow down and not try to grow faster than Nigeria: Nigeria is a slow-po country and no marketing gimmicks will change that. The hardest job in life is finding jobs for people where there are no jobs. The second is making sales to people who have no money! My Response: My principle is to model that Nigeria has only about 30 million “people”. That is a very pessimistic model. It gives me room to navigate. Another strategy is to become a parallel entrepreneur: be in many things and forget Harvard preaching of core competency and domain focus. If you visit one of the owners of a bank in Nigeria, his office has 27 companies with the bank as one. While we know these rich guys for their banks, they are super-diversified that one policy change will affect one business while benefiting another. There is no govt policy in Nigeria that will not help one of the firms and at the end, everything is neutralized and wealth is preserved.” Words to keep in mind as Nigeria enters what is likely to be a long-term recession.
FASHION
Dior Men Creative director, Kim Jones, has partnered with Ghanaian painter and portraitist Amoako Boafo for the brand’s Spring-Summer 2021 menswear collection. Jones, who grew up between Ethiopia, Kenya, Botswana and Ghana with his hydro-geologist father, had wanted to work with an African artist for a while when he encountered Boafo’s work at Art Basel in Miami last year. The collection was modeled by an all-Black cast and released as a short film on YouTube. Dior will also ensure this particular collection leaves a lasting legacy by supporting Boafo’s newly created foundation for young artists in Accra.
Kenya’s ban on the importation of used garments in late March, as a precautionary measure against the spread of COVID-19, could help the country revive its own textile industry, writes the New York Times. The textile sector in Kenya, like in several other African countries, was wiped out in the late 1980s as the continent started opening its markets to foreign competition. A couple of years ago, East African countries had already attempted to ban second-hand clothing imports to boost local manufacturing, but all except Rwanda had to back down after the US threatened to suspend them from the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which provides reduced or duty-free access to the American market. While for Rwandan president Paul Kagame, wearing hand-me-downs not only compromises the development of the local economy but also the very dignity of its people, in Kenya, searching for hidden gems in second-hand markets and upcycling or styling them has become a creative industry in itself. Nevertheless, coronavirus restrictions might have finally provided Kenya with a window of opportunity to start shaping the future of its textile manufacturing sector.
FOOD
Nigerian company Pedro's, founded by Lola Pedro and Chibu Akukwe, is redefining ogogoro, a local West African alcoholic drink extracted from palm trees, for the global market. Ogogoro is a type of gin that is often served to guests, including at traditional wedding ceremonies, or consumed at local bars. Pedro’s team works with communities in southern Nigeria to collect locally filtered palm saps, before distilling them a second time to match global tastes. The drink targets high-income earners across Africa and the world, and is currently distributed in high-end restaurants and bars in Accra, London, and Lagos.
VISUAL ARTS
Senegalese photographer Omar Victor Diop’s series “Liberty”, although produced in 2016, remains extremely topical today and is worth revisiting, especially if you are not yet familiar with Diop’s striking work. “Liberty” chronicles events linked to Black protests across eras and countries through the lens of allegory. It includes a photograph of Diop playing the role of young Trayvon Martin, who was shot and killed in Florida in 2012, and another, played by Diop's friend Dija, of Aline Sitoe Diatta, a Senegalese hero of colonial resistance who led a boycott against the French government's seizure of rice harvests during World War II and died in prison for her efforts. "The art I produce is an attempt to build another bridge between these [groups of] people that are actually one people -- that were separated by history and slavery and the colonial era," Diop said.
On the topic of French misdeeds in Senegal, France has officially confirmed the handover to its former colony of a historic saber which belonged to the entourage of El-Hadj Oumar Tall, a 19th century warlord and Muslim scholar who conquered an immense territory straddling Senegal, Guinea and Mali, and fought against the French colonial army. France will follow this up with the upcoming restitution of 26 works of art belonging to the kings of Abomey in Benin and currently housed at the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac Museum in Paris. Looks like the restitution is finally being concretized.
MUSIC
Remember when I prophesied (yes, prophesied) that Mr Eazi would become the Jay-Z of Africa? Well the award-winning artist has just announced the launch, in partnership with lead investor 88mph, of a $20 million Africa Music Fund (AMF) through which he wants to create a new funding model for music artists on the continent. Selected artists will be given funds upfront based on their existing and projected streaming revenue, so that they can expand their catalog of music content. The investment will then be paid back in installments as the artist's earnings start to rise. Does this sound familiar? Yes, this is exactly the same model as TradeDepot’s new credit facility for informal merchants that we just talked about. Digital tools now allow knowledgeable investors like Mr Eazi to extrapolate the future growth of an artist from precise metrics such as streaming revenue, YouTube views, or social media data, so that he can provide that artist with the money he or she needs to scale their production. And because money is only one aspect, AMF also plans to support its artists grow their audience by helping them book shows and distributing their music on its upcoming platform Cinch Distro, developed in partnership with music technology company Vydia.
And the audience is showing up. OkayAfrica has a great article on the rise of stan culture in Afrobeats. The term “stan” was coined by Eminem in 2000 to refer to an excessive form of fandom. Since then, social media democratized "stanning," which now simply refers to a group of loyal fans who may not necessarily be that obsessive (you may have heard of K Pop Stans’ recent foray into political activism). Read the article for more on D’Banj’s Koko movement (rape allegation still pending, let’s not forget), 2Face's "African Queens", P-Square's "Omoges", Korede Bello's Belovers, Olamide’s "YBNL Gang", Davido's "HKN Gang," Yemi Alade's "Warriors," Burna Boy's "Outsiders", Naira Marley's "Marlians," and, most powerful of all, Wizkid’s “Wizkid FC”.
SPORTS BUSINESS
Nigerian-born mixed martial artist Kamaru Usman beat Jorge Masvidal in Abu Dhabi last weekend to retain his welterweight championship belt, delighting fans and even prompting the Nigerian President to send him a congratulatory message. Usman is the UFC’s first ever champion from Africa, and he remains unbeaten after 16 bouts. The dominance of Usman and of his compatriot, New Zealand-based middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, is now leading more Nigerians to look into MMA, despite the current lack of structure for the sport in the country.
French Development Agency (AFD) continues to roll out its Sport and Development initiative, which finances micro-projects across Africa. These initiatives must be supported by small French associations in partnership with local actors. The second call for proposals is open until September 30, 2020. AFD also just released a new magazine dedicated to women in sports titled Women Sports Africa.
BROADCAST
As Bundesliga, La Liga, Premier League and Serie A returned last month, sports streaming surged to pre-COVID level across Europe, according to Conviva, returning to about 30% of total viewing time, up from 2% at the height of the pandemic. However in Nigeria, MultiChoice is still considering not renewing its license for Premier League and other sports rights, which have become overpriced in the tough economic environment. MultiChoice used to be able to buy sports rights in bulk for the whole continent, until the now-defunct HiTV came into the market and argued that the Nigerian rights should be sold separately. However, this proved unsustainable. Should MultiChoice decide not to renew its EPL rights, it would open the door for competing bids from Pay-TV operator StarTimes or from public free-to-air channel NTA, although it seems improbable that either of them could come up with anything close to the $250 million last paid by MultiChoice for the Premier League.
One piece of content that MultiChoice Nigeria is unlikely to let go of any time soon is Big Brother Naija, which premiered yesterday and swiftly took over social media. The online auditions, conducted in May, received more than 30,000 applications. If you are curious about the 20 housemates who made the cut, head over here. They will be fighting it out over the next 10 weeks for $220,000 worth of gifts. According to their enlightening profiles, I would say that about 97% of them promise to bring either “fun” or “drama” to the house, while some 74% are interested in “the money”. Get ready.
Finally, Mo Abudu has announced that her EbonyLife TV channel will no longer be broadcast on Multichoice’s DStv satellite platform. This means that Abudu is essentially shutting down her linear broadcast business (which had reportedly been struggling for years) and focusing fully on her production activity. All her current and future content will now move to her VOD platform EbonyLife ON, and of course to Netflix, with which she recently signed a major deal.
VOD
Comcast-NBCU’s VOD service Peacock launched in the US last week, and with that, the global streaming wars’ fight card is complete. Coming last to the market after competitors HBO Max, Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and of course Netflix, Peacock is differentiating itself by its ad-supported model (AVOD), backed up by live sports.
I have talked in previous editions of HUSTLE & FLOW about the huge potential appeal of both the AVOD model and of live sport streaming in Africa. Well, the second one is about to get tested as Showmax has launched Showmax Pro, which bundles the existing Showmax service with music and news channels, as well as live sport from SuperSport. Showmax Pro, which has begun rolling out in Kenya and Nigeria and will go live across sub-Saharan Africa within the next few weeks, features all Premier League, Serie A, La Liga and PSL games, IAAF Athletics, professional boxing, the world’s biggest marathons, and more. Now this is starting to look like proper competition for Netflix. Showmax didn’t stop there and also announced new investments in local content, although these seem limited to South Africa at the moment.
Meanwhile, Netflix has released its global Q2 results, which showed the addition of 10 million new subscribers in the past 3 months, bringing its total footprint to 193 million. Netflix has repeatedly cautioned that it might not be able to maintain this momentum throughout the year, forecasting “only” 7.5 million additional subscribers for the second quarter. This would nevertheless bring the streamer’s global audience above the 200 million subscriber mark, which is a staggering number. Besides its considerable head start in terms of reach, Netflix also finds itself in the enviable position of not having to play catch up on Black content, contrary to its competitors who are now scrambling to “diversify” their library. The New York Times has the fascinating story of how that came to be. It may have helped a little that Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos, who was just named Co-CEO, happens to be married to a Black woman. And when it comes to Africa, YNaija has an interview with Netflix execs Ben Adamasun and Dorothy Ghettuba in which they share some insights about the way the streamer approaches partnering with local producers, which it often does as early as the pitch phase, to develop authentic local content that can travel.
FILM
The Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria has appealed to the federal government and President Muhammadu Buhari to include the cinema sector in its financial intervention plans to prevent an “imminent collapse,” and to speedily allow cinemas to reopen in line with the approved reopening of air travel, arguing that both activities present similar health and safety challenges. Like in many other countries, the Nigerian film sector came to a complete stop in March. Among the numerous negative impacts of the lockdown is the build up of a substantial backlog of unreleased films, in a country that normally produces up to 50 movies a week. Pre-COVID, some of the most anticipated films of the year were, interestingly, remakes of 1990s Nollywood classics such as Domitilla, Glamour Girls, Rattlesnake, and Nneka the Pretty Serpent. Quartz has a good article about this new trend, which follows the huge success last year of Living In Bondage: Breaking Free, a sequel to its 1992 original.
CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
Meanwhile in Hollywood, African projects and talents continue to gain ground. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood is now attached to direct Viola Davis in The Woman King, inspired by the 18th century Dahomey Kingdom’s all-female military unit known as the Amazons, which fought against the French and neighboring tribes. Apple has signed a first-look deal with Idris Elba and his production company Green Door Pictures to produce series and films for its platform Apple TV+. And finally, Ghana-born multi-disciplinary artist Blitz Bazawule has signed with leading talent agency CAA. Bazawule’s feature directorial debut, The Burial of Kojo, was acquired by Netflix through Ava DuVernay’s Array Films. His work is also featured prominently in the upcoming Beyonce visual album Black Is King, which will debut internationally on July 31 on Disney+, and in Africa on Mnet and Canal+ Afrique.
CONTENT DISTRIBUTION
Acomart TV, a new platform that brands itself as “the first-ever virtual screening room exclusively for Afrocentric films and TV shows” kicked off a few days ago. Producers can now upload their content to the platform to promote it to potential buyers. Acomart says it currently has over 15,000 hours of film and TV series content from Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon and South Africa available for licensing.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Is TikTok’s reign already over? Facebook is scheduled to launch Instagram Reels, its answer to TikTok, in a matter of weeks in the US and more than 50 other countries, after piloting it in Brazil, France, Germany, and India. The global launch, which has been in the works for over a year, comes as TikTok is facing scrutiny from Washington over its handling of user data. Like TikTok, Instagram Reels lets users make and share 15-second video clips set to a vast catalog of music, as well as borrow and remix audio from other people's videos. May the best social media giant win.
VIDEO GAME
And to wrap up this bi-weekly summer edition of HUSTLE & FLOW, I recommend any reader interested in the African video game space to watch Africa in Colors’ excellent webinar (in English and French) on the topic. At the speakers explained, this is a sector with tremendous potential in Africa but where everything still remains to be done, from growing and measuring audiences (the lack of market data is a challenge), to building schools and infrastructure with the support of governments, and creating flexible business models based on diversified revenue streams, including outsourcing from global studios.
HUSTLE & FLOW #20: Geographical Indication could protect Africa’s traditional IP, Afcon postponed to 2022, the Oscars welcome new African members, and more
Dear colleagues and friends,
2020 is certainly the gift that keeps on giving. Over the 4th of July weekend, a providential Black personality with global influence has emerged to save Americans from an uninspiring choice at the ballot next November. Unfortunately, it’s not Michelle Obama but Kanye West, who announced his candidacy for the presidential elections on Saturday. It doesn't come as a complete surprise as Kanye had already threatened to run last year (but was aiming for 2024). Democrats are now concerned that Kanye will pull a Nader and cost them the Presidency, to the benefit of the rapper’s erratic soul brother and current occupant of the White House. Seems like we haven’t reached the depths of the absurd yet.
Meanwhile in Ethiopia, popular Oromo singer and activist Hachalu Hundesa was shot dead last week, sparking protests from outraged fans and prompting the government to shut down the internet. This is not the first time that Ethiopia’s leadership resorts to this tactic to quell dissent, which is not a good look at a time where the country is purportedly opening up. It is also very expensive. In 2019, a similar two-week blackout is estimated to have cost Ethiopia $66.87 million.
This week in HUSTLE & FLOW, I’ll talk about how a type of legal certification called “Geographical indication” could be the way to protect Africa’s IP over its traditional crafts such as Ghana’s kente cloth, how the postponement of the African Cup of Nations to 2022 may disadvantage African teams at the World Cup, who are the African artists who have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures this year, and more.
Also, as my readers in the western hemisphere are preparing to take some time off over the summer, I’ll temporarily reduce the frequency of HUSTLE & FLOW to one edition every other week until the end of August. This will also give me a little bit more time to absorb your great feedback and reflect on new ways to continue serving this community.
Please continue to reach out at marie@restless.global, to consult past editions at www.restless.global/hustleflow, and to subscribe here!
Happy reading to all,
Marie
COVID IMPACT
Speaking to the BBC’s Business Daily podcast, Moses Babatope, co-founder of Nigeria’s largest cinema chain FilmHouse, estimates the loss of revenue over the past 5 months at $13 million for the Nigerian film sector and $50 million for the Nigerian creative industries as a whole, with 50 to 150,000 jobs at stake, while PwC’s Chijioke Uwaegbute believes the total loss could eventually reach up to $200 million. HEVA Fund’s George Gachara has also spoken out about the shock that the pandemic has caused to the fragile East African creative ecosystem.
As the scale of the impact on the African creative sector becomes clearer, the rescue and support measures that have been announced so far seem clearly insufficient. More recently, the Goethe Institut has launched a $3.4 million support fund for African creative and cultural organizations impacted by the pandemic. These approved organizations will be able to access up to $28,000 in funding for the September-December 2020 period. Meanwhile, the Africa Technology and Creative Group has launched the 'ATCG COVID-19 Response for African Creative Industries Fund', which seeks to raise donations to support creatives across Africa who have lost their income source due to the pandemic or are looking for innovation support to test out new ideas or create new COVID-related projects. Applicants can receive a maximum grant of $500 or innovation support up to $2,000.
However, as Aubrey Hruby and Roberta Annan write in The Africa Report, the long term trends (rising popularity of African music, film and fashion, fast digitalization, decreasing data costs, interest from companies like Netflix and Universal Music, to which I would add the new global Black empowerment movement that is changing the perception around Black content) continue to support the investment thesis in Africa’s creative economy. I shared more of my thoughts on this topic (and in French for once) on the panel organized by Africa in Colors last week.
INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE
Africa Data Centres, part of the Liquid Telecom Group, has consolidated its position as Africa’s largest carrier-neutral data center provider by acquiring a major site in Johannesburg from Standard Bank. The facility is “widely recognized as the most prestigious and highly specified data center anywhere in Africa, offering world-leading levels of security, resilience and capacity”.
Paris-based content and technology provider Summview has chosen Rack Center to host its services in Nigeria. Summview specializes in the development of applications and multimedia services for smartphones, tablets, connected TVs, IPTV and OTT, such as EbonyLife TV’s VOD platform. Rack Center will provide the company with a direct connection to the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria, over 35 of the major carriers and ISPs and all five undersea cables serving the South Atlantic coast of Africa.
MOBILE
The Ethiopian Communications Commission has announced that it has received twelve bids for the country’s two available telecommunication licenses, including nine from telcos (The Global Partnership for Ethiopia (a consortium made of Vodafone, Vodacom, and Safaricom), Etisalat, Axian, MTN, Orange, Saudi Telecom Company, Telkom SA, Liquid Telecom, Snail Mobile), two from non-telcos and one incomplete submission. The Global Partnership for Ethiopia is the clear favorite, although others likely made very compelling cases as well. For more on this, this Jeune Afrique article digs into the value proposition of several of the bidders (in French and behind the paywall).
In South Africa, MTN has called for the release of additional spectrum in order to enable its implementation of its 5G network expansion plans, which aim to cover 10 million people within 12 months. Authorities in South Africa have made temporary spectrum available during the lockdown, but have not yet allocated permanent spectrum.
E-COMMERCE
Chinese-owned startup OPay, which had been aggressively pursuing a super app strategy in Nigeria, is putting several of its verticals “on pause”, including its ride-hailing services (ORide and OCar) and its logistics delivery service (OExpress). Just last year, OPay had raised a massive $170 million round of funding, but it proved to be no match for the current “harsh business conditions” which include a global pandemic, a lockdown, as well as a government ban on motorcycle taxis. OPay plans to focus on its payment solutions, which it claims are profitable, and on growing its e-commerce operations.
With Whatsapp payments now operational in Brazil, an Africa launch cannot be far away. Although Facebook’s payment platform is likely to be a hit with sellers and consumers alike, the risk is that it might make some homegrown African fintech solutions redundant. Nigerian fintech startup Carbon, however, has already anticipated this moment and is now positioning itself as a potential future partner for the social media giant. The startup’s keyboard-based Carbon Express solution allows users to perform financial transactions within any conversation on their mobile devices, and already works on Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Twitter. Facebook typically collaborates with local partners to facilitate its services in different countries, so working with Carbon could be a convenient way for the platform to connect with the Nigerian financial ecosystem. That is not the first smart move from Carbon, who is also one of few private companies in Africa that voluntarily releases and discusses its financial reports. All the way back in 2013, when co-founders Chijioke and Ngozi Dozie launched the first incarnation of their lending product, they made the bold choice of commissioning a satirical ad featuring the crooked Nigerian pastor character from my show (spoiler alert: that didn’t quite work). Those ads have now disappeared from the internet, but click here for a taste of Pastor Chinedu and his Desperately Single and Bitterly Married Seminar.
FASHION
Vogue highlights Industrie Africa this week, a two-year-old platform dubbed the “wikipedia of young African designers” which showcases a directory of over 80 brands from 24 different African countries. Already a solid fashion content destination, in May 2020 Industrie Africa went one step further by launching an online store, with a catalog available for worldwide delivery thanks to a partnership with the ubiquitous DHL. Industrie Africa is the brainchild of Tanzanian Parsons School of Design graduate Nisha Kanabar who worked in fashion publishing for a decade across various markets before founding her own venture.
Last week I talked about Vlisco’s wax prints and Nigeria’s aso oke. As an example of IA’s great content, one of its recent in-depth features digs into the history and symbolism of kente, Ghana’s traditional fabric, and why its use by some members of the US Democratic Party to demonstrate solidarity with Black America a few weeks ago irked many. Writer Sefa Gohoho Boatin also exposes the apparition of fake printed “kente” cloth from China (the real kente is woven by master craftsmen) and recent efforts to patent or protect Ghana’s intellectual property over the cloth, with one option being “Geographical Indication”, a label that ties the production of a particular item to its region of origin, just like it is done for champagne, cognac, or even South African rooibos tea. Geographical Indication could be used to protect many of Africa’s traditional products and crafts, and efforts to implement it across the continent should be backed by development institutions that have a mandate to support the African Creative Industries.
VISUAL ARTS
The couple of (possibly looted) Igbo sculptures presented at Christie’s Paris’ June 29 auction have sold slightly below their estimated price for $239,232 to an online bidder. If it’s any consolation, the Nigerian Urhobo sculpture which was on sale for around $1 million did not find any takers. For the French speakers among you, Le Monde has the story here.
LITERATURE
Nigerian writer Innocent Chizaram Ilo has won the Commonwealth Prize Short Story prize (Africa) for When a Woman Renounces Motherhood, which can be read in full on Granta’s website. At 23, Ilo is the youngest-ever writer to be awarded the Africa region prize.
MUSIC
Three African artists are among the winners of this year’s BET awards, which took place last Monday. Nigeria’s Burna Boy confirms that 2020 is his year by winning Best International Act, while Zimbabwe’s Sha Sha won the Viewer’s Choice award for Best International Act, and Brown Skin Girl, WizKid’s collabo with Beyoncé, her daughter Blue Ivy, and rapper Saint Jhn, won the BET Her Award.
Nigerian record label Mavin Records has partnered with Seattle-based music licensing startup SyncFloor to bring the label’s catalog to more potential sync buyers. Mavin was launched in 2012 by star producer Don Jazzy, notorious for working briefly with Kanye West, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, and for over a decade with D’Banj, with whom he used to own Mo’ Hits Records. Mavin Records, which secured major investment from Kupanda Holdings (backed by TPG Growth) last year to back an ambitious growth strategy, represents local artists such as Johnny Drille, Di’ja, D’Prince and Korede Bello, whose breakout hit Do Like That has racked up over 200 million YouTube views. I did a quick test on SyncFloor, whose tagline is “Finding Music Naturally”, by searching for the key word “Nigerian”. The response I got: “We noticed the core genre in your search is underground.” Hmm.
SPORTS BUSINESS
The Africa Cup of Nations, which was set to take place in January 2021 in Cameroon, has been postponed to January 2022 by the Confederation of African Football as a result of the pandemic, while the women's version of the tournament has been cancelled. This means that the Afcon will now take place in the same year as the World Cup, which risks disadvantaging African teams at the World Cup by giving them an extended season of competition.
Multichoice’s SuperSport is reportedly considering not renewing the broadcasting rights for the English Premier League and the UEFA Champions League, for which it pays around $250 million and $100 million respectively, citing rising prices and an unfavorable economic environment. Both properties are currently barely breaking even on the platform, according to SuperSport executives.
BROADCAST
The Independent Broadcasters Association of Nigeria has called for the Nigerian National Broadcasting Commission to put on hold the implementation of its controversial new Broadcasting Code, which seeks to ban content exclusivity in the country, to make way for a fresh process of wide-ranging stakeholder consultations. Meanwhile, the NBC has indicated that it would move forward with the implementation. The arm-wrestling continues.
Still in Nigeria, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said that the still-ongoing digital switchover is expected to eventually generate more than $1 billion, mostly from spectrum sales, and more than 1 million jobs in the areas of set-top-box manufacturing, content production and advertising services. After repeated delays, the digital switchover is currently completed in only 5 of Nigeria’s 36 states. No word about the impact of COVID on these plans, despite the fact that the broadcast industry has been hard hit globally by the loss of advertising revenue. In Kenya, for example, Nation Media Group has had to let go of 175 employees.
However in Ivory Coast, which has experienced a less severe lockdown than most and whose broadcast market has recently been energized by the launch of new DTT channels, advertising revenues have grown 37.7% in May 2020 compared to May 2019. TV advertising revenues are still twice lower in Ivory Coast than in Senegal though, despite Ivory Coast’s GDP being double the one of Senegal.
FILM
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (whose members vote for the Oscars) has invited 819 new artists and executives to join its class of 2020, including several Africans such as Kenyan documentary producer Toni Kamau, Nigerian actress and director Genevieve Nnaji, Zimbabwean post-production coordinator Sue-Ellen Chitunya, Kenyan short film director Wanjiru Njendu, British-Nigerian actress and singer Cynthia Erivo, Nigerian director Akin Omotoso, British-Ghanaian actor David Gyasi, French-Senegalese director Mati Diop, Mozambican director Inadelso Cossa, Egyptian-American short film director Miranda Yousef, French-Malian director Ladj Ly, and Sudanese documentary filmmaker Hajooj Kuka. Congratulations to all new Oscar voters, many of whom have already been showcased in this newsletter for their groundbreaking work.
Disney-owned Searchlight pictures has signed on to produce a movie based on the improbable life of “Black Mozart” Chevalier de Saint-George, who was born the illegitimate son of an African slave and a white planter in the French Caribbean colony of Guadeloupe and rose to become a champion fencer, classical composer, virtuoso violinist, and conductor of the leading symphony orchestra in Paris. The project was pitched by Atlanta writer Stefani Robinson and will be helmed by Jamaican-born Watchmen director Stephen Williams. Do I wish that French producers and financiers would invest that boldly in projects that reflect on their own colonial history? Yes I do. But there is also no question that Disney will be more effective in bringing the story of Saint-George to a mass audience. A note to African writers: now is the time to polish all these African historical hero projects that have been sitting in your drawers for years.
VOD
Netflix has tapped Ghanaian-American Marketing Maven Bozoma Saint John as its new Chief Marketing Officer. Saint John is leaving entertainment company Endeavor, where she had been CMO since 2018. Previously she held senior brand and marketing positions at Uber, Apple Music and Pepsi. Saint John has been involved behind-the-scenes in shaping Ghana’s roots tourism strategy and in bringing Black American stars to the country for its Year of the Return celebrations last year. Just before the global lockdown, she took her Endeavor team to Accra to explore business opportunities and collaborations with local creatives. Her appointment at Netflix is great news as it can only strengthen the streamer’s current push into African content.
CONTENT PRODUCTION
I’ve already talked about Yvonne Orji’s HBO special Momma, I Made It, which is getting great reviews in the US. I must admit that I have not yet watched it myself, but this thought piece from writer Damilola Oyedele seems to echo the ambivalent feelings of Nigerians on the ground for Orji’s comedy show. Oyedele talks about a certain type of “performative Nigerianness” plaguing some Nigerians who have been away from their home country for so long that they have partially embraced the American view of it, and might even unknowingly contribute to perpetuating certain stereotypes. “It is crucial to make clear that Nigerian-Americans are one type of Nigerian, one small slice of the experience of being Nigerian,” writes Oyedele. “There are so many other ways to be Nigerian. Some Nigerians continue to remain in Nigeria, with the means to immigrate but with no interest to do so. Some were born in Togo. Others have lived in countries like Tanzania, South Africa, Germany, Nigeria, the UK, and the US. Some, like me, migrated in their 20s for education and remain here as reluctant economic migrants. All these experiences are different. Their stories matter. And these stories must not be silenced by a caricatured story of a Nigeria that doesn’t even exist anymore.” This is valid for Africa as a whole.
HUSTLE & FLOW #19: African Art Sells, Beyoncé announces Black is King, #AfricaOnNetflix is #AdCampaignGoals, and more
Dear colleagues and friends,
As the Black Lives Matter movement continues to send ripples through the world in general and the Entertainment industry in particular (more in this edition), Nigeria is fighting its own fight against rape culture, which is a different but not unrelated topic.
As Quartz reports, a concerning 717 cases of rape have been registered with the police in Nigeria since January, leading to outrage and protests, and pushing state governors to declare a state of emergency on the issue. More recently, accusations of sexual misconduct have even rocked the more progressive worlds of tech, after a woman called out the CEO of Lagos-based ISP Tizeti for sexual harrassment, and music, with rape allegations made by Seyitan Babatayo against Afrobeats superstar Dbanj. The story of how Babatayo was arrested and intimidated by the police after she spoke out is deeply disturbing.
And that’s where the two issues intersect. Where Black men are at high risk of police or gun violence in the US and in other countries worldwide, the type of violence exercised on Black women often takes other shapes such as sexual violence or gaslighting. In another shocking reveal last week, a group of former employees of OkayAfrica, a prominent platform for African culture, came out to denounce CEO Abiola Oke’s abusive treatment of women in the workplace. Oke resigned from his post two days later. This wokeness wave might very well turn into a tsunami.
This week in HUSTLE & FLOW, I’ll talk about two African art auctions including a very controversial one, Queen Bey’s surprise announcement of her upcoming new visual album Black is King, Netflix’s gorgeous #AfricaOnNetflix campaign, and more.
If you have received this newsletter from a colleague, please make sure to subscribe here. Previous editions of HUSTLE & FLOW are available on my website at www.restless.global/hustleflow. And as always, don’t hesitate to reach out with your comments, questions, tips, or Zoom call invites at marie@restless.global.
Happy reading to all,
Marie
INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE
The Internet Society has released an update to its 2012 original report on Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) in Kenya and Nigeria. Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), by enabling local traffic exchange and access to content, are a key element to the development of fast and affordable local internet ecosystems. In 2012, which coincidentally was the year Jason Njoku launched IrokoTV and I launched Buni.tv, approximately 30% of internet traffic in both Nigeria and Kenya was localized. Now it is 70%. “The growth of the IXPs in each country was exponential, as were the cost savings”, says the report, with the cost of 500BM of prepaid data dropping from $5.92 to $2.92 in Kenya and from $12.75 (!) to $3.37 in Nigeria. In 2012, Google Global Cache was the only Content Delivery Network available locally, whereas the local CDN ecosystem now includes Akamai, Amazon Web Services, Cloudflare, Facebook, Google Global Cache, Google Edge, Limelight, Microsoft and Netflix. As you know this is a space I am very bullish about.
MOBILE
MTN Group has announced that it has topped 100 million active data customers for the first time. This corresponds to 39% of the telco’s total subscriber base of 257 million across its 21 markets in Africa and the Middle East. However, about 60% of rural populations in Africa remain unconnected. To support smartphone adoption, in 2019 MTN distributed 675,000 cheap, data-enabled handsets across 12 markets, launched a digital literacy programme, and reduced entry-level data rates across its footprint by 60%.
In South Africa, MTN and competitors Telkom and Vodacom are gearing up for a “Battle Royale” over 5G spectrum, which is largely unassigned in the country but that the regulator, ICASA, has promised to auction by the end of the year. Vodacom currently has the lead since it switched on Africa’s first live 5G mobile network in May in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town, thanks to temporary additional spectrum made available by ICASA during the lockdown. But Telkom is reportedly so focused on implementing its 5G plans that it decided not to pay its shareholders any dividends and reinvest instead in acquiring 5G spectrum and building related infrastructure.
E-COMMERCE
Nigerian digital payment startup Paystack has launched Paystack Commerce, “a collection of free tools to help African brands sell more physical and digital products online”. The new features and the demo video are beautifully done. In 2016, Paystack was the first startup from Nigeria to enter Y Combinator and it has since raised $10 million in funding from Stripe, Tencent and Visa.
I’ve talked about the recent forays of Nigerian payment companies into e-commerce in several previous editions of HUSTLE & FLOW. Techcabal has a very good in-depth piece on the topic this week, which explains how the context has dramatically evolved since the first generation of (failed) Nigerian e-commerce startups, namely Jumia and Konga. Since then, while Nigeria’s economic macros have weakened, underlying challenges such as payments and logistics are being solved, with a little help from COVID. Merchants have also changed attitudes and expectations and now prioritize a direct relationship with their customers, which benefits solutions proposed by fintech startups versus global e-commerce platforms. How these new, fintech-driven local solutions will fare once Facebook Pay arrives on the market is another question.
FASHION
Are virtual fashion models here to stay? This week serial innovator Sarah Diouf, in partnership with Ghanaian studio Balm.labs, launched Tongoro’s digital magazine MADE, which includes an editorial on the future of fashion and a photo spread featuring digital models. I have a lot of respect for Sarah’s work at every level, and props to her for continuously pushing the envelope. However I have to say that I find these giant and vacant-eyed virtual models quite creepy. One great thing about Anifa Mvuemba’s 3D fashion show for Hanifa was that she used realistic female bodies to model the clothes (with no face, probably a smart choice).
Lagos-born LVMH Prize winner Kenneth Ize has been tapped by Karl Lagerfeld, the late designer’s namesake brand, to design a capsule collection that will be released in April 2021. Ize, who is the first Black designer to ever collaborate with the brand, will likely bring his trademark Nigerian weaving technique aso oke to the collection. ”Our vision is to combine Karl’s Parisian-chic aesthetic with elements of traditional African artistry,” he said. This already sounds like a winner.
Talking about African fabrics, it is now a reasonably well-known fact that African wax prints are not, indeed, African. If this information has passed you by, the BBC has a nicely illustrated history of the wax print, from its origins in Indonesia to its current design and production in the Netherlands, most famously by Dutch company Vlisco, and in Asia. The BBC article, however, misses the last chapter of this story. In January this year, Afreximbank signed a term sheet with Kojo Annan’s Made In Africa Inc. to provide the company with a $190 million facility to finance the acquisition of Vlisco. If the deal is confirmed in this post-COVID world, it would bring the wax print under African ownership - a pretty major symbol.
VISUAL ARTS
The pressure is mounting on the controversial auction of African artifacts taking place today at Christie’s in Paris, which includes a pair of sculptures representing Igbo Alusi deities. The artifacts were initially bought by French collector Jacques Kerchache in 1968, during Nigeria’s Biafra war, and are estimated for sale between $280,769 - $393,077. Nigerian scholars and government officials, as well as more than 2,000 people who signed a petition titled "Stop Christie's from selling STOLEN Igbo Sculptures. #BlackArtsMatter”, question how these sculptures could have been legally acquired when the region they originate from was literally a war zone at the time. Which, you must admit, is a very good question. At the time of writing, the sale was going on as planned, with the most expensive item - another Nigerian sculpture - expected to fetch up to $1 million.
More auction news, with last Wednesday’s sale by Piasa of 172 contemporary artworks by 106 artists from 19 African countries. Le Monde highlights some of the works here (in French), which include paintings by DRC’s Cheri Samba and Eddy Kamuanga, Nigeria’s Wole Lagunju, or Uganda’s Joseph Ntensibe, whose Tropical Garden 4 (my favorite) more than doubled its estimate to sell for 67,600 euros. But many other works from well-known artists were far more affordable: you could have walked away with a Malik Sidibe print for 3,640 euros or a Yinka Shonibare lithograph for 1,560 euros.
Talking about Yinka Shonibare, the British-Nigerian superstar of the African contemporary art scene has had to adapt his Guest Projects residency program, which he normally runs from his London studio, to today’s socially-distanced world. The call for proposals for his newly-minted Guest Projects Digital residency is open until July 12th.
MUSIC
Stop the presses -- yesterday Beyoncé unveiled the trailer for Black is King, the new visual album that she will be releasing on Disney+ on July 31st. Black is King is based on music from The Lion King: The Gift, the Lion King remake soundtrack album produced by Beyoncé and featuring top African artists like Wizkid, Burna Boy, Mr Eazy, Tiwa Savage and Yemi Alade. I loved The Gift so much that I had to stop listening to it because I couldn’t get it out of my head. The visual album, which is set to feature appearances by some of the soundtrack artists, is described by Disney as "a celebratory memoir for the world on the Black experience. The film is a story for the ages that informs and rebuilds the present. A reunion of cultures and shared generational beliefs. A story of how the people left most broken have an extraordinary gift and a purposeful future." Well played Beyoncé, and well played Disney. That’s hitting the zeitgeist’s bullseye.
In the past few years, interactions between the global and African music industries have been growing at a fast rate (film and TV are next, sit tight and keep reading). Pulse has an in-depth explainer this week on the evolution of the global music market and how Africa fits into it, which is a good read especially if you are an investor interested in the space and looking for where to start. As a rule, what I tell my clients is: platform-building is for global players that have scale and unlimited resources. Anything that requires deep on-the-ground knowledge (talent spotting and development, content creation, tech features plugging a gap between local markets and global solutions - for example in payments or data collection and analytics, ability to leverage telcos relationships) are opportunities for investment.
BROADCAST
Successful Ivorian advertising and media entrepreneur Fabrice Sawegnon has launched his first TV station, Life TV, positioned as a general entertainment channel focusing on local content. Life TV is one of five free-to-air stations to win a broadcast license to exploit Ivory Coast’s new Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT - TNT in French) market, after Canal Plus’ A+ and RTI3. It is owned by Sawegnon’s Voodoo Group and French channel M6 which holds a 12,5% share, down from the 33% that were initially announced for M6 in 2017. Check out HUSTLE & FLOW #2 for an explainer on the misdirected enthusiasm of French broadcasters towards Francophone Africa’s DTT space.
ViacomCBS has promoted Monde Twala, senior vp of ViacomCBS Networks Africa, editorial and general manager, to the additional role of peer lead for BET International, tasked with growing the BET brand outside the U.S. Despite its positioning, cultural relevance, and worldwide reach, BET (Black Entertainment Television for the non-initiated) has so far been pretty tame when it comes to leveraging the global Black experience to expand its business worldwide. With the emergence of a global Black consciousness now dominating the headlines, it seems obvious that BET has missed a big opportunity. Perhaps it is not too late to course-correct, even though other Hollywood players, including HBO and Netflix, have been much bolder in terms of creating Black content that can drive global conversations.
Finally, a recently released report by Accenture shows that MultiChoice invested just over $2.1 billion in Nigeria between 2015 and 2019, including $400 million in the development of local talents within the creative industry. I would love to see the detail of what they include in that last number.
FILM
Realness has announced the selection for its 5th screenwriter’s residency, which will take place online from July 1st to September 1st, 2020. In the five years since its inception, Realness has supported 30 feature film projects from across Africa, the first two to be produced going on to screen at Venice, TIFF, Sundance, IFFR and Berlinale.
Moonlight director and Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins will be writing the film adaptation of the BAFTA and Oscar nominated documentary Virunga for Netflix, which Leonardo DiCaprio will executive produce. According to Netflix, "the film tells the story of those who worked to save one of the world’s most bio-diverse parks & the endangered gorillas inside." I’ll be interested to see where this project ends up filming (Rwanda, Kenya?).
VOD
There is no stopping Netflix’s methodical and enthusiastic advances in Africa. Last week the streamer gave other media brands a lesson in aspirational African marketing when it released its new #AfricaOnNetflix campaign, a beautiful video featuring some of the biggest African stars with content on the platform. The promotional content quickly went viral of course, with the stars themselves actively sharing the material on their pages. In a nice - but also strategic - move, the campaign also includes directors, such as Nosipho Dumisa or Kunle Afolayan, writers like Malenga Mulendema (Mama K’s Team 4), and Netflix’s own executives Dorothy Ghettuba and Ben Amadasun, both veterans of the African TV space whom everybody in the industry knows and respects. This signals to all African creatives that Netflix is the place where they can strive. I’ve said this before, but the goodwill that is being built here will be very hard for other players to compete against when they eventually come to the continent.
Talking about Netflix competitors, I’ve been hearing that Amazon Prime Video is looking for its first African projects. Meanwhile, it is gearing up to launch a linear TV offering in its home market of the US, which is not a bad idea considering that AVOD seems to be taking off, that live sports are one of streaming’s next frontiers, and that Amazon Prime has already established itself as an aggregator of third-parties on-demand channels (HBO, Showtime, etc).
CONTENT PRODUCTION
One of the exciting side effects of the global Black Lives Matter movement is that media companies and financiers are rushing to shift resources toward the production of Black and diverse content. LeBron James' SpringHill Entertainment (behind projects like Netflix's Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker and Top Boy) raised $100 million from investors including Elisabeth Murdoch, production company Sister (Chernobyl, Gangs of London), Guggenheim Investments, The University of California's UC Investments and private equity firm SC Holdings, and signed an overall deal for scripted TV with Disney’s ABC Studios. Meanwhile across the pond, the BBC has launched its Creative Diversity Commitment, which will prioritize £100 million of the broadcaster’s existing commissioning budget over three years (from 2021-2024) towards diverse and inclusive content. The BBC will also implement a new mandatory 20% diverse-talent target in all new network commissions from April 2021, and is looking for ways to make concrete changes sooner. This of course is great for all African diaspora talent working in the US or the UK, but I believe that it will also change how studio heads and TV commissioners view Black content in general, including African content.
Remember the Ikorodu Bois, the young Nigerian “mimickers” famous for their bare-bones and hilarious remakes of music videos and movie trailers? Well they are heading to Hollywood. The kids behind the videos, brothers Muiz (15), Malik (10) and Babatunde (23) Sanni and their cousin Fawas Aina (13), received an invitation from Extraction producers the Russo brothers after their homemade remake of the movie’s trailer went viral. Securing US visas and flights for Hollywood-obsessed Nigerian kids in this climate will be another issue though.
ANIMATION
African animation continues to make inroads and lands a prime profile in Forbes this week, which is worth reading in full. The article highlights the key structuring role played these past few years by the African Animation Network (AAN) led by the South African Nick Wilson, who has been tirelessly advocating for African animation for over a decade. Behind-the-scenes support from AAN has helped the emergence of several African talents on the global scene, such as Ridwan Moshood from Nigeria, winner of Cartoon Network Africa's Creative Lab competition with his genius original property Garbage Boy & Trashcan. Also worth noting is the role played by US story consulting company Baboon Animation, which has been working with African creators for years to develop their storytelling skills with great results, and is now partnering with Moshood to launch his new studio Pure Garbage. This is a model to explore for investors interested in the African content space. In recognition for this recent flurry of activity, Africa was supposed to be Annecy Animation Festival’s territory of honor this year, but the showcase has now been postponed to 2021.
Another leading initiative in support of the African digital creative space is Digital Lab Africa, run by Institut Francais. DLA unveiled the nine winners of its fourth edition last week in five categories: immersive realities, video games, music, animation and digital art.
CALL FOR PROPOSAL
And I’ll finish with a global call for proposals, also supported by Institut Francais and by AFD, the French Development Agency. Accès Culture seeks to offer finance and support for cultural projects presented by African and French cultural organizations working in partnership. The projects should encourage cultural cooperation and be oriented around community arts outreach, and the deadline for applications is July 30th, 2020.
HUSTLE & FLOW #18: Orange eyes Nigeria expansion, Decathlon's aggressive Africa strategy, Animation studio Triggerfish opens up in Ireland, and more
Dear colleagues and friends,
Last Friday the world celebrated Juneteenth, an annual holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United-States. Previously, Juneteenth had been relegated to American-American communities where it was celebrated almost confidentially, while the rest of the country and the world remained blissfully ignorant about it. But thanks to the global Black Lives Matter movement, its meaning now resonates widely, with companies like Twitter and Spotify offering employees a paid day off and efforts currently underway at the US Senate to make Juneteenth a national holiday.
In Africa, the flag of pan-Africanism has been captured by Ghana, which held a memorial for George Floyd and invited African-Americans to “Come home”. Ghana has long courted the descendants of enslaved Africans to “return home”. In 2019, its “Year of the Return” celebrations attracted a number of Black American personalities and even culminated in a naturalization ceremony where over 100 African-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans became Ghanaian citizens. This strategy by Ghana to leverage shared culture and history to attract talents (and money) is nothing short of visionary, and makes Ghana a prime investment destination - I plan to unpack why and how in a future edition of HUSTLE & FLOW.
Meanwhile the new global awareness over systemic racism has also reached South Africa, a country that has so far not distinguished itself favorably on that topic, to say the least. Streaming service Showmax has pulled several films from popular white South African comedian Leon Schuster for review. Schuster’s films have raked in millions at the box office, making him probably the most successful filmmaker in South Africa. Schuster’s oeuvre includes a film in which he uses blackface, and another where he plays a white sangoma.
This week in HUSTLE & FLOW, we have a bit of an Ethiopian theme going on, which is fitting as Ethiopia is one of only two African countries (with Liberia) never to have been colonized. But I’ll also talk about Orange eyeing expansion into Nigeria, sports goods retailer Decathlon’s aggressive Africa strategy, and South African animation studio Triggerfish opening up in Ireland.
Please continue to share HUSTLE & FLOW with your friends and colleagues and to send in comments and contributions at marie@restless.global. Subscribe here to receive this newsletter directly into your inbox every Monday, and head over there to catch up on previous editions.
Happy reading to all,
Marie
INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE
Amazon has added 3,000 new virtual customer service jobs in Johannesburg and Cape Town, bringing its total permanent workforce in South Africa to 7,000 people. The new roles range from customer service associates to technical staff and the employees will be working virtually from home to provide round-the-clock support for Amazon customers in North America and Europe.
This is just the latest in a series of major moves from the world’s tech giants as they continue to make strategic advances on the continent. As Kofi Yeboah writes on Global Voices this week, Facebook and Google (and to a smaller extent Amazon) are on a race to build Africa’s internet infrastructure and capture the world’s last virgin market. Although these companies have achieved faster, greater results than governments, their dominance in the provision of what has become a public good should be of concern as “Africa is vulnerable to mass mis- and disinformation, market monopolization, exploitation and misuse of personal data”. Besides issues around privacy and data use, there is the question of course of the takeover by the tech giants of huge chunks of countries’ digital economies with the concerned nations not reaping any benefits. In Europe, France has led the charge for a GAFAM tax that would be imposed on revenue accrued inside the country, even if the tech companies are headquartered elsewhere. If handled correctly and in a way that doesn’t dissuade investment, such a tax could be a new and welcome source of revenue for African governments.
MOBILE
According to reports by Reuters, French telco Orange is reportedly exploring ways to enter two of Africa’s biggest markets, Nigeria and South Africa, in the next few months. Orange is France’s largest mobile operator, and its portfolio across 18 countries in the Middle East and Africa is its fastest-growing market. Orange acquired four of Airtel’s units in Africa in 2016 and reportedly considered snapping up Etisalat Nigeria (now 9mobile) in 2017. This comes at a time when MTN Group is pressing on with its plans to dispose of 15% of its 79% stake in MTN Nigeria to local investors. No one knows if MTN Group would be ready to unload more, but it sounds like there is an opportunity there for Orange to slide in. In any case, the news of a potential arrival of Orange on the Nigerian market has sent waves of excitement among industry observers as the French telco certainly would have the weight to cause some serious (positive) disruption.
Meanwhile across the continent in Ethiopia, MTN and Vodacom are reportedly in the process of forming a partnership to bid for one of the country’s new telco licenses. To be continued.
E-COMMERCE
You read it in HUSTLE & FLOW first: Whatsapp is indeed rolling out its payment solution, starting with Brazil. And as I mentioned last week, Whatsapp Business catalog with Facebook Pay is stealthily being tested in Uganda, so we can expect things to move fast from now on. Enabling payments on Whatsapp, but also Facebook and Instagram, will be a game changer for small businesses, artists and creatives across Africa who are already heavy users of these platforms. It also hints at the future development of a “super app” ecosystem on the continent. S&P Global Market Intelligence has an in-depth article about the various models and strategies for super app development which is a must-read if you are interested in this topic.
FASHION
Ethiopia’s burgeoning garment industry has been hard hit by the slowdown in production caused by the COVID crisis, a recent report by the International Labor Organization shows. Managers are concerned about employee retention as mass layoffs loom. However, as many western economies lift their lockdowns and stores reopen, with only 60 COVID-related deaths from a total of 3,630 cases, Ethiopia is well positioned to hit the ground running to fulfill new orders. The Industrial Federation of Textile, Leather, Garment Workers Trade Union has launched a campaign to raise awareness of best health and safety practices in Ethiopian garment factories to limit the risk of a spike as business picks back up.
VISUAL ARTS
London-based gallery TAFETA, which is specialized in modern and contemporary African art, has launched the “SixforSix” initiative which offers the opportunity for collectors to live with up to three pieces from their “SixforSix” collection for six weeks before deciding whether they want to make a purchase. The collection features pieces by Arinze Stanley, Babajide Olatunji, George Osodi and more, priced between $970 and $9700.
The Dutch government returned a stolen ceremonial 18th-century crown to the Ethiopian government last Thursday. The crown went missing from a church in Ethiopia 21 years ago, and landed in “a suitcase left behind by a guest” in the apartment of Sirak Asfaw, a former Ethiopian refugee who is now a Dutch national. Asfaw waited 21 years to approach the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to let them know he was in possession of the object. Plot hole you say? We will not learn more about that mysterious guest from that CNN article unfortunately. The issue of the restitution of Africa’s artifacts seems to be gathering momentum though. Quartz continues to proactively cover the topic, publishing a new article this week, while Princeton art history professor Chika Okeke-Agulu called for the cancellation of a forthcoming auction in Paris of two sacred Igbo sculptures taken out of Nigeria during the Biafra war.
LITERATURE
This week OkayAfrica explores what happens when Nigeria’s vibrant literary scene moves online, as prominent events like Lola Shoneyin’s Ake Festival and Efe Paul Azino’s Lagos International Poetry Festival (LIPFEST) re-imagine themselves as virtual gatherings - and it’s not all bad as the loss of human physical connection is balanced by wider reach. According to the same article, the lockdown has also had a positive effect on local book sales, with bookstores reporting a surge in orders.
Meanwhile for the writers out there, applications for the 2020 Morland African Writing Scholarships will open on July 1st. Besides running this yearly scholarship, the Miles Morland Foundation also supports African writing and African literature through grants to literary festivals in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Somaliland, cultural initiatives in east, west, central and southern Africa, London’s Film Africa festival, the Caine Prize for African Writing, several African educational initiatives and the new Rhodes scholarships for Africans.
MUSIC
Universal Music Group (UMG) opened an office in Casablanca, Morocco, last week, as it seeks to expand its footprint in the MENA region to discover and promote new local talents. In sub-Saharan Africa, UMG already has offices in Abidjan, Lagos and Johannesburg. Two years ago it acquired Kenyan label AI Records, and it announced the launch of Def Jam Africa last month.
I talked last week about Tanzanian Bongo Flava superstar Diamond Platnumz and his mastery of YouTube, which he joined earlier than most other African artists in 2011. Well, a few days ago Platnumz became the first sub-Saharan African singer to reach one billion views on the platform, where he racks up 3.7 million subscribers. And he’s doing even better on Instagram where he has a staggering 9.7 million followers. Platinumz’s new song Quarantine also became viral on Tik Tok. The Tanzanian artist still ranks behind African performers from the diaspora such as Malian-born and Paris-based singer Aya Nakamura who has more than 1.7 billion YouTube views, or Senegalese-American rapper Akon who smashes them both with 3.5 billion views. Akon was also in the news this week but for a completely different reason: the global star and philanthropist announced that it had awarded a $6 billion contract to KE International to build and execute Akon City, his futuristic-cryptocurrency themed metropolis project in Senegal.
If charismatic African artists are the ones attracting the limelight, few know the name of the instrumental producers or “beatmakers” working closely with them to create their viral hits. African Shapers has a great run-down this week (in French) of some of the most talented beatmakers on the continent, from Platnumz’ collaborator Ayo Liser to Ghana’s Killbeatz or Nigeria’s Kel-P, who produced 10 of the 19 songs of Burna Boy’s Grammy nominated album African Giant.
SPORTS BUSINESS
Recession, what recession? French sporting goods retailer Decathlon is staying on track with its aggressive African expansion strategy and opened its second store in Abidjan last week. With over 1,600 stores in 57 countries, Decathlon is the largest sporting goods retailer in the world. In Africa, besides Ivory Coast the company also has stores in Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal, and its products are available online through a partnership with Jumia. Contrary to France where Decathlon also distributes leading brands such as Nike or Adidas, in Africa it chose to focus only on its own products.
Decathlon’s steady inroads on the continent are another strong sign that France is particularly well positioned to dominate vast areas of the sports market across Africa. I’ve talked previously about Vivendi Sports’ plans to create, develop and monetize (largely through broadcast rights) new sports leagues - including Afro-European MMA league ARES - across the continent. Earlier this month, ARES announced the signing of former WBO and WBA boxing champion Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam, who joins other high-profile fighters such as Senegalese wrestler Reug Reug, UFC veterans Eric Shelton and Danilo Bellaurdo, former Bellator champion Will Brooks, UFC standouts Nordine Taleb and Juan Adams, and ex-UFC title challenger Wilson Reis. Now, for a bit of inside baseball, or rather inside MMA, website The Body Lock zoomed into screen captures from N’Dam signing video to expose confidential details about his contract. We learn that N’Dam’s base pay is to be $20,000 per fight with a $20,000 bonus in case of a knockout or submission, among other juicy details.
BROADCAST
To continue with our Ethiopia theme this week, Balancing Act’s Russell Southwood looks at the country’s freshly liberalized broadcast market to find out what’s going on. As Russell reports, Ethiopia now counts nearly 20 local channels. Although almost all of them saw their audience grow thanks to the thirst for news about COVID-19, they were also hit hard by the drop in advertising revenue. To add to this contextual challenge, in April the Ethiopian government banned the advertising of alcoholic beverages for health reasons. Local breweries had been an important source of advertising for broadcasters. The tense economic environment has already led to the closure of JTV, one of the country’s new stations, with rumors that at least two others will follow.
Despite the industry uproar which followed the publication of Nigeria’s new broadcast code last week, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) confirmed its intention to break the decades-old monopolistic sports broadcast rights structure in Nigeria, re-affirming in a press conference that its licensees would be banned from acquiring exclusive sports broadcast rights. The first victim of this new regulation would of course be Multichoice, which owns most premium sports broadcast rights in English-speaking Africa. Coincidentally, Multichoice issued a report last week showing that its products and services were 55% cheaper in Nigeria than in most of its other markets on the continent including Ghana, Kenya or South Africa. Despite the country’s size and potential, Multichoice’s Nigeria operations only bring 10.89% to the Group's revenue and $300 million in profit, compared to the $600 million generated in South Africa. Multichoice Nigeria blames challenging market conditions for its underwhelming results.
In South Africa, the SABC is reportedly planning mass layoffs to reduce its staff bill by up to $40 million, in-line with its new operating model which I mentioned last week. Pre-COVID, the embattled national broadcaster had received a $185 million financial bailout from the South African government, but will be prioritizing those funds to pay off creditors, invest in content and maintain its critical broadcast equipment and infrastructure.
FILM
The Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) and Market (DFM), arguably Africa’s leading film rendez-vous which normally takes place every year in July in the South African coastal city, will be taking place virtually in September. Another opportunity to discover African films online is the relaunch of Cinewax’s Online African Film Festival (OAFF) with a Kickstarter launch party on June 24 and the free screening of Kenya’s Likarion Wainana Supa Modo. I mentioned the controversy around the production of this film in last week’s HUSTLE & FLOW - now is your opportunity to watch it.
Kenyan filmmakers have built a true expertise in navigating the complex (and political) world of international film festivals and film funds. The latest one to snag funding is the very talented animator Ng'endo Mukii, who received a script and development grant from the Hubert Bals Fund for her feature debut The Goat Sunday. Also in this year’s HBF Spring Selection are Sudanese director Ali Cherri, Mohamed Rashad from Egypt and Tariq Teguia from Algeria.
VOD
Not a big surprise considering the runaway success of its first season, but South African teen mystery drama Blood & Water was renewed for a second season at Netflix. The streamer’s strategy for its African originals is an interesting one. Indeed, Netflix could have chosen to produce and release both Queen Sono and Blood & Water as 12-episode series, which is the traditional TV format across Africa (except for soaps and telenovelas which have dozens of episodes per season). But by basically cutting the traditional series length in half to release short 6-part seasons, Netflix avoids putting too much pressure on producers for whom these projects are the firsts with truly global ambitions, while giving them more resources to focus on quality. At the same time, this approach also allows Netflix to limit their financial exposure on a new market, and the tactic of ending these short seasons on cliffhangers ensures that demand for a second season will be as strong as possible.
CONTENT PRODUCTION
Linear broadcasters on the other end need long-running series to fill their many hours of programming. Multichoice’s South African channel M-Net has announced the upcoming release of its new telenovela called Legacy, scheduled for September 2020. The show is described as a cross between HBO's Succession and The Bold and The Beautiful with some Brazilian telenovela undertones. Over the years, M-Net and its various African channels have built a strong expertise in that specific genre, producing successful long-running soaps such as Jacob’s Cross, Tinsel, or Hotel Majestic.
ANIMATION
Award-winning South African animation studio Triggerfish has announced that it will establish its first international production arm in Galway, Ireland. I have been a fan and a friend of Triggerfish since the launch of The XYZ Show in 2009 (there were few of us trying to do African animation at the time), and I was lucky to visit their beautiful Cape Town studio several years ago. The current success of Triggerfish, which launched all the way back in 1996 and is now widely recognized as the best and largest animation studio in Africa, is a study in dogged perseverance. More than ten years ago CEO Stuart Forrest and his team embarked on the seemingly impossible task of producing ambitious animated feature films in South Africa for a fraction of the cost that similar projects would have taken to get made in Europe or the US. The studio’s feature films Adventures in Zambezia (2012) and Khumba (2013), voiced by Hollywood stars like Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne or Liam Neeson, were released in cinemas worldwide and both reached the top 5 highest grossing films of all time in South Africa. Triggerfish then expanded to TV, working with UK company Magic Light Pictures to produce Annecy Festival Cristal award winner Stick Man, Oscar-nominated Roald Dahl adaptation Revolting Rhymes, International Emmy-winning Zog, British Animation Awards winner The Snail and the Whale, and Rose d’Or-winning The Highway Rat. Triggerfish management has always been concerned about growing animation capacity in Africa, and in 2015 the studio launched the Triggerfish Story Lab with the support of Disney to develop writers and directors from across the continent. One of the projects that emerged from the program is Mama K’s Team 4, which Triggerfish is currently producing for Netflix as the platform’s first original African animated TV series. Also on Triggerfish’s busy slate is their third feature film, the action-comedy Seal Team. In this context, the studio “needed more capacity to keep up with (their) ambitions,” and clearly they were not able, despite their best efforts, to expand fast enough in Africa. The opening of Triggerfish's Galway location received the support of the Irish government and is expected to create 60 new jobs over the next three years.
HUSTLE & FLOW #17: #KECreativesDeserveBetter, SA’s first virtual model, MultiChoice posts strong results, Netflix’s groundbreaking Nigeria deal, and more
Dear colleagues and friends,
The global Black Lives Matter movement, coupled with the restlessness created by months-long lockdowns that have aggravated existing inequalities, seem to have created a real powder keg of reclamation against injustice worldwide.
The wind of change reached the Kenyan film industry this week as prominent Kenyan creatives, led by Cape-Town based artist and filmmaker Silas Miami under the hashtag #KECreativesDeserveBetter, came out against the entrenched racism of some white or foreign gatekeepers by sharing shocking tales of mistreatment. In a heartbreaking Facebook post, director Likarion Wainaina talked about his experience earning so little from his work on Supa Modo, one of Kenya’s most successful films and the country’s entry to the 2019 Oscars, that he was unable to pay his rent, among other traumas and indignities. The exploitation of black Kenyan cast and crew in the local film industry has been an open secret for decades. Speaking up against well-established and globally recognized white producers who are often the main purveyors of jobs or opportunities in the Kenyan film industry demanded a lot of courage. These conversations are hard but they eventually need to take place, and people have run out of patience. Who’s next?
This edition of HUSTLE & FLOW is packed with big media news. MultiChoice posted strong financial results despite a challenging global environment, while Nigeria’s content industry lived through a schizophrenic week, tugged between the celebration of Netflix’s multi-title deal with Nigerian producer Mo Abudu and shock at the National Broadcasting Commission’s attempt to ban content exclusivity, a move that threatens to (but probably won’t) stop the growth of the continent’s most dynamic film and TV industry in its tracks. I'll unpack all of this and more below.
Please continue to share this newsletter with your colleagues and friends who have an interest in the African entertainment space. They can subscribe here to receive HUSTLE & FLOW directly in their inbox every Monday. Previous editions can be consulted there. I always enjoy hearing from you so do reach out at marie@restless.global or on your favorite social media platform @marieloramungai.
Happy reading to all,
Marie
INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE
Last week I mentioned the issue of Right of Way charges relating to cable infrastructure in Nigeria and linked to a Quartz article that incorrectly implied that Ekiti was the first and/or only state to lower such charges. However a HUSTLE & FLOW reader kindly informed me that several other states including Katsina, Plateau, Imo, Kaduna and Anambra had also lowered or even waived RoW charges in support of the national broadband plan. Please do not hesitate to drop me a line if you spot any mistake in this newsletter or if you have more information to share on a specific topic.
MOBILE
I received another valuable contribution from a loyal HUSTLE & FLOW reader this week who pointed me to this great resource: hyper-precise mobile coverage maps for 14 African countries made freely available by mobile network operators association GSMA and Masae Analytics. The lack of consumer data in Africa is a major challenge to decision-making for businesses, governments and development agencies, but satellite imagery and machine learning advances are starting to provide effective solutions. Tools such as Masae Analytics’ mobile coverage maps are not only useful for mobile operators themselves, but also for any business looking to leverage the mobile infrastructure to offer digital finance, marketing, e-commerce, or media services. Another leading player in the satellite data space is US-based startup Fraym, which has worked with organizations such as MasterCard and the African Development Bank to provide neighborhoods and rural districts level data.
No need to reinforce here how central and strategic the mobile telecommunications sector is to the development of African economies in general. In Ghana, the National Communications Authority has become concerned about the “significant market power” of MTN Ghana, which counts more than double the number of voice and data subscribers than competitors Vodafone and AirtelTigo. Ghana’s regulator is now looking at leveraging the playing field and curtailing MTN’s market dominance by implementing measures such as setting minimum and maximum prices for calls, texts, and mobile internet but also for mobile money services. Ghana has been Africa’s fastest-growing mobile money market in recent years.
One operator that has managed to avoid all attempts to regulate its dominant position so far is Safaricom. This week, the Kenyan telco launched new affordable data bundles (as low as $0.094 for up to 30 minutes) to use on YouTube content. According to Safaricom and to YouTube’s owner Google, both companies plan to exploit their digital capabilities and reach to deliver wide-ranging content in entertainment, education, news and sports to Kenyans.
FASHION
Back in May, HUSTLE & FLOW readers and pretty much everyone else out there loved Congolese designer Anifa Mvuemba’s groundbreaking 3D fashion show for her brand Hanifa, which quickly sold out as the Instagram video of the collection went viral. Last week in more Ex-Machina fashion news, South African “virtual model” Kim Zulu participated in the Russian Fashion Council’s Global Talents Digital event, which presented itself as the world's “first hybrid international online fashion project” combining real designer collections and digital ones. The brainchild of graphic designer Jason Campbell, Kim Zulu recently scored a modelling contract with international brand Kangol and is set to launch her first album and TV show. She was also listed as one of the top 12 virtual influencers to follow globally by Forbes, which made the point that “in the post-coronavirus reality of limited or inaccessible travel, the digital modeling domain is set to expand. In part, it is a practical question of easier logistics and simpler labor agreements.” Kim Zulu is far from the first or only black virtual model however, with the most famous ones being CGI-superstars Shudu and Koffi, who were controversially created by British photographer and 30-year-old white man Cameron-James Wilson. Wilson has since launched a digital-only talent agency. Confused by all this? Don’t know what to make of it? You are not alone.
Besides Kim’s coming out on the global fashion scene, Twitter and Instagram were flooded last week with beautiful images of black models thanks to the viral #VogueChallenge, where thousands of black creatives who have been largely neglected by the fashion industry imagined their own versions of Vogue covers. The challenge originated on TikTok in mid-May but took on a new meaning after the Black Lives Matter movement spread worldwide and Vogue editor Anna Wintour admitted that “Vogue has not found enough ways to elevate and give space to Black editors, writers, photographers, designers and other creators.” According to Teen Vogue, there has been only one black photographer to shoot a cover in the 127-year history of the publication, and only 21 black women have appeared on the cover on their own. Some of the artists even gave their covers the title Vogue Africa, a magazine that does not currently exist but whose concept Business of Fashion made a case for over two years ago.
London concept store Koibird is dedicating the summer to designers scouted at Lagos Fashion Week and committed to a sustainable approach to African fashion, using traditional materials and craftsmanship and supporting skilled local artisans. Koibird’s selection includes Studio One Eighty Nine, which produces its hand-dyed, woven and upcycled womenswear in Ghana, Nigerian androgynous brand Orange Culture, and South African shoe maker Galago. Nataal magazine profiles other sustainable African or produced-in-Africa brands such as Thebe Magugu, Ami Doshi Shah, Anyango Mpinga, Shekudo and Brother Vellies.
And finally, Anita de Werd, Head of Marketing and Business Development at world’s leading shipping line Maersk, talks to the AfDB’s Fashionomics platform about what her company is doing to facilitate the growth of Africa’s fashion industry and “push the #MakeInAfricaForAfrica ideal”. Maersk recently launched Twill, a new freight logistics service for small and medium-sized businesses that ships cargo door-to-door over land and sea. An important service for designers seeking to develop their pan-African market as, according to expert logistics company Solistica, close to 90% of Africa’s trade is carried out by sea.
MUSIC
I have talked at length in previous editions of HUSTLE & FLOW about the opportunities presented to the African music industry by the accelerated adoption of music streaming. Justin Norman has a good expose on the topic in The Flip where he tackles “the battle for African consumers”. Some notable insights are the challenges (adjusting prices on already slim margins, cost of data, piracy, and the importance of on-the-ground distribution strategy) that African markets represent for global players such as industry leader Spotify, which still operates at a loss globally. These challenges leave some room for competition from local players with distribution strategies involving telco deals. Norman also makes a good point by referencing Disney’s famous business model in which each product and business line (Disney+ platform, movies, comic books, theme parks, merchandising, etc) works to reinforce the company’s deep relationship with its customers in a highly profitable virtuous cycle. Telcos are the obvious top dogs when it comes to adopting such an integrated model to Africa, although Norman also mentions device manufacturers like BoomPlay owner Transsion (I’m a lot less convinced by that). I’d like to offer a third contender: super apps built on top of robust mobile payment systems such as OPay, Jumia Pay or even potentially Flutterwave.
Talking about monetizing music, Pulse Ghana has a list of Africa's richest musicians which includes the estimated net worths of artists like Akon, Don Jazzy, Wizkid and Davido (no word about Tiwa Savage and Yemi Alade). I have absolutely no faith in these numbers but who doesn’t like lists? Meanwhile Burna Boy, who only gets a “notable mention” from Pulse for his net worth guesstimated at $4 million, cements his popularity on the French market as his single “Be honest” with Jorja Smith goes Platinum there. Burna Boy even tops Billboard’s list of 15 Sub-Saharan African artists based on global views, followed by Tanzanian bongo flava artist Diamond Platnumz and Davido. The Billboard article is worth reading for its analysis of the YouTube strategies of the African artists who have broken internationally as they could teach a thing or two to Western artists, according to YouTube music trends manager Kevin Meenan. Diamond Platnumz, for example, posted 600 videos in the span of a year, often following up on an official music video with a lyrics video, a dance version, a karaoke version without vocals and an animated rendering. That’s some real work right there.
SPORTS
The NGO La Guilde has announced the 13 winning microprojects of its Sports & Development program supported by Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD). The projects, which span 10 African countries and various disciplines from football to basketball, rugby, handball, triathlon and Basque pelota, will receive between 10 and 20,000 euros each to further educational, gender equality, health or environmental sustainability goals through sports. The Summer 2020 call for proposals is currently open until September 30, 2020. AFD has big ambitions to support the development of sports in Africa so we can hope to hear more from them soon.
Multichoice's SuperSport is adapting to the return of English Premier League and Spanish LaLiga matches and is warning fans that the broadcast of these matches will look and sound different from what they are used to because of the lack of live audiences. Broadcasters are expected to use virtual stands to simulate images of fans in the stadiums. On the plus side, new camera angles might now be possible from areas that would have previously obscured the action for live spectators.
And to wrap up this sports section, another aspirational list with what appears to be more solid numbers from our friends at Pulse: the richest African footballers of 2020.
BROADCAST
In South Africa, the embattled SABC has announced a switch to a new operating model called the "Target Operating Model,” which should allow it to be more financially sustainable and less reliant on government assistance. The state-owned enterprise, once a key player of the country’s television industry, embarked on a restructuring program in 2018 after admitting it was technically insolvent due to years of mismanagement.
On the other end of the spectrum, while the global broadcast industry is facing a major crisis due to the combined effect of the COVID-induced fall in advertising revenue and increased competition from VOD platforms, pan-African Pay-TV provider MultiChoice has released strong financial results for the year ending in March 2020. Its report shows a 38% growth in "core headline earnings" to $150 million and a 59% increase in consolidated free cash flow to $310 million, driven primarily by improvements from its businesses in the "Rest of Africa" (meaning outside of Multichoice’s home market of South Africa), which have in the past been a drag on the company’s revenues, and tight cost control. In total, MultiChoice reported 19,5 million subscribers across the continent, with 8,4 million in South Africa and 11,1 million in RoA. Four new local content channels were launched over the reporting period in RoA, bringing the group’s total number to 10 across the continent. The Pay-TV player aims to increase its production of local content from the 3,850 hours it achieved last year. In total, MultiChoice reported some $279 million spent on “Programme and film rights” last year, which combines money spent on local and international content including sports license rights. Although the company warned shareholders about future challenges linked to the COVID-19 and oil price crisis in several of its major markets, CEO Calvo Mawela said that the group’s healthy balance sheet “positions MultiChoice well to weather market uncertainties going forward." Also noted by industry observers was the announcement that MultiChoice had inked distribution deals with two major international SVOD providers, presumably Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, while its own SVOD service Showmax had started trialing sports content.
Meanwhile in Nigeria, the content industry was shocked by the announcement of new regulation by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) which seeks to ban content exclusivity, forcing broadcasters and platforms to sub-license their programs while also regulating license prices. IrokoTV CEO Jason Njoku immediately voiced his strong opposition to the proposed measures as they would “100% destroy PayTV in Nigeria.” For both Pay-TV services and VOD platforms, exclusive content is a major if not the main unique selling proposition to gain and retain subscribers and the motivation behind the players’ sustained investment in local films or series. NBC’s new broadcast code would directly threaten the value of such investments by compelling broadcasters and streamers to sub-license content to competitors whether or not they have recouped their initial investment. The convoluted text also stipulates that a broadcaster cannot transmit premium international sports content unless it also acquires a minimum of 30% equivalent local licencing of the same category, such as football for example. While these revisions to the broadcast code are motivated by the valid goal of providing more opportunities for smaller local channels to compete, the NBC was clearly ill-advised on how to achieve this objective - or not-at-all advised, according to industry professionals who complained about the lack of consultation. Let’s hope that the widespread outrage will lead the NBC to seek qualified counsel to review the text.
VOD
YouTube has set up a $100 million fund to help amplify black voices through new content on the platform, lining up Bear Witness, Take Action, a global conversation on racial justice hosted by Common and Keke Palmer, as the first project. No word on whether African creators will be included in this initiative, but it does not seem impossible.
Back to Nigeria, Pay-TV operator StarTimes and MTN have announced a strategic partnership which will see StarTimes offer its VOD content catalog, including live European sports streaming channels such as UEFA Europa League, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Coppa Italia, as well as blockbuster movies, cartoons, news and documentaries to MTN subscribers at reduced data rates.
And I have kept the best for last, as without a doubt the most exciting news this week has been Netflix’s groundbreaking announcement of a multi-title deal with prolific Nigerian producer Mo Abudu’s EbonyLife to create two original series including one based on Lola Shoneyin’s best-selling debut novel The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, as well as a film adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka’s play Death and the King’s Horseman and multiple branded films. One of the unnamed projects is due to premiere on the platform in 2020. The deal is the first of its kind for Netflix in Africa and speaks volumes, both about the value the platform sees in Nigerian content, and about the foresight and dedication of Mo Abudu who started investing heavily to develop original content in Nigeria before anybody else even considered it. Abudu took to Instagram to talk about the 5 year journey to acquire and adapt Death and the King’s Horseman, while Secret Lives has reportedly been in development for 3 years. I for sure will be looking forward to watching those.
HUSTLE & FLOW #16: Black Lives #metoo moment, Whatsapp’s ‘Catalogs’ in stealth mode, Africa’s looted artifacts sold off, and more
Dear colleagues and friends,
Two weeks after the murder of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement has achieved a unique feat, uniting millions of people across the world in protest in spite of curfews and of a deadly global pandemic.
African intellectuals, writers without borders, artists, academics and journalists have weighed in on the historic moment, noting the failing moral leadership of the United States and the inseparable ties between the American civil rights movement and Africa’s anti-colonialism movements. Across the continent, the global rallying calls for justice have also found an echo with regular Africans familiar with police brutality at home and abroad. In Nigeria, the Black Lives Matter protests collided with a recent spate of rapes and killings of women, prompting Nigerians to combine various calls for justice under the hashtag #wearetired.
Is #BlackLivesMatter finally having its #metoo moment? Is this new incarnation of a 52-years-long (or 400-years-long) struggle the one that will finally succeed in bringing about change? It does feel different this time. Venture firms are rushing to support Black founders and investors, Softbank launched a $100 million Opportunity Growth fund to invest in founders of color, Alexis Ohanian (famously married to Serena Williams) quit the Reddit board to make space for a Black candidate, Sony Music Group launched a $100 million fund to support social justice and anti-racist initiatives, Republic Records banned the connoted word "urban" from its company lexicon, and Hollywood heavyweights jumped to support John Boyega following his emotional speech at a protest in London.
From where I am standing, this new awareness and willingness to correct historical injustices can only have a positive impact both on the appeal of African culture worldwide and on investment in the African Entertainment space.
This week in HUSTLE & FLOW, I’ll talk about Whatsapp quietly testing its potentially revolutionary “Catalogs” feature in Uganda, Africa’s artifacts being sold off online when no one is looking, Canal Plus’ planning the release of its 6th African original Cacao, and more.
If you’ve received this newsletter from a friend or colleague, make sure you subscribe here and visit the archives there for more insights, trends and opportunities in the African Entertainment space.
Happy reading to all,
Marie
INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE
For those of us working in Nigeria, Zoom calls are automatically done without the video and usually start like this “Hello can you hear me? Can you hear me? - Yes I can hear you. I can hear you. - Sorry, my connection is bad today.” We’re in 2020, and the largest market on the continent is still stuck in the bottom quarter of global broadband speed rankings. But there is light at the end of the tunnel as Quartz explains: the country’s new national broadband plan is aiming to deliver download speeds of at least 25 Mbps in urban areas (10 Mbps in rural areas) with “effective coverage” across 90% of the population by 2025. At least that’s on paper as, of course, implementation won’t come without challenges. One of them is an anachronistic oddity typical of Nigerian red tape: the hefty “right of way” charges that individual states charge telcos and internet providers before they can lay their cables. But Quartz shows how the example of Ekiti state, which recently cut its ROW charges by 96%, and the success of the Lagos neighborhood of Yaba, where an early decision to zero-rate charges eventually led to the birth of the country’s tech industry, might inspire other state governments to follow suit.
Regular readers of HUSTLE & FLOW know that one of the biggest investment opportunities in Africa right now is in data centers, as I’ve gone on and on about it in previous editions. This week Jeune Afrique has a good article (behind the paywall and in French) about this market, that was estimated at $500 million in 2018 and is growing between 30 to 40% every year.
MOBILE
E-commerce giant Amazon is reportedly in early-stage talks to buy a 5% stake worth at least $2 billion in Bharti Airtel, the third-largest telecom operator in India which also operates in 14 countries in Africa. If the deal is confirmed, it would give Airtel the firepower to push its competitive advantage across all its markets. As we saw in a previous edition of HUSTLE & FLOW, Airtel Africa reported strong 2019 numbers, with its mobile money and data services revenues growing by 33% and 36% respectively.
Meanwhile, MTN is planning to launch its 5G network this month in South Africa, with a promotion tied to the introduction of the 5G-enabled Huawei P40 smartphones on the market.
LOGISTICS
This week on Project Syndicate, Aubrey Hruby and Aubrey Rugo make a strong case in favor of investing in the African logistics sector as a necessary precursor for the long-hoped-for boom in e-commerce on the continent. “Supporting robust e-commerce growth in Africa will require infrastructure investment. (...) The expansion of both asset-heavy and asset-light local logistics companies is also essential,” they write. “Here, development finance institutions should take the lead, investing directly in asset-heavy logistics companies, while venture funds continue to focus on asset-light companies.” They make two crucial points here which are also valid for investors interested in the African Entertainment or Creative Industries sector: First, there’s only so much you can leapfrog with a mobile app. The sector needs cables and towers, data centers (ok, ok), factories, cinemas, art galleries, and stadiums, even more so than online platforms or tech solutions. Second, different types of investors have a role to play, with the DFIs being better suited to finance asset-heavy projects (possibly through public-private-partnerships that can involve a mix of debt and equity) and VCs asset-light companies with a higher risk-reward profile.
E-COMMERCE
Guys, I had to do some real detective work on that one and I believe this might be a HUSTLE & FLOW exclusive: my sources in Uganda tell me that Whatsapp’s catalog for small business is operational there. There hasn’t been any official announcement anywhere, but this is likely to mean that Facebook (owner of Whatsapp) is currently testing the product before a full Africa roll-out. Remember how I lamented that creative entrepreneurs and artists were not able to monetize their huge fan bases on their two platforms of choice, Instagram and Whatsapp? Well, this might change very soon and if that’s indeed the case, this is BIG. Now, what’s ‘catalogs’? WhatsApp introduced the new feature to its Business app last November in various markets including the US, the UK, Brazil, Germany, India, Indonesia, and Mexico. It enables businesses to display their products and services to potential customers with photos and prices, rather than being limited to text-based conversations. Basically, it’s turning ubiquitous Whatsapp into a simple, light, hyper-local, mobile e-commerce platform that would only be missing a universal payment solution... such as Facebook Pay, another new feature the social media giant recently introduced in the US, with the goal to eventually connect various payment methods (including Paypal and Square) to Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. See where this is going?
So, compared to what could be a revolution for African small businesses, Jumia’s announcement last week of new partnerships with VOD platform IrokoTV and Mastercard is rather underwhelming. Jumia Nigeria’s new agreement with IrokoTV will see the e-commerce player offer free IrokoTV subscriptions to members of its Prime loyalty program, while its new deal with MasterCard will offer a 25% cashback to MasterCard holders who buy the 12-month Jumia Prime membership. Meh.
FASHION
Another interesting op-ed this week comes from Stewart Paterson writing in the South China Morning Post, who argues that manufacturers pulling out of China as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic should consider Africa to diversify their supply chain. He points to Africa’s rapidly growing working-age population and to the creation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as attractive factors. Such a dynamic would no doubt benefit the African textile and fashion sector. African governments are aware of the opportunity of course (and of their own needs to diversify their economies), so we can cross our fingers for a perfect storm here.
VISUAL ARTS
While we’re all being distracted by a deadly virus, a global economic crisis, and shocking racial injustice, Africa’s looted artifacts are being put up for sale at auction, Quartz reports. After years of vigorous debate, the matter of the restitution of African artifacts stolen by European powers during the colonial period seemed to be edging towards resolution as countries like France, Germany and The Netherlands announced plans to return the items to their original home.But now, some of those prominent and controversial pieces - valued between $34,000 and $4,5 million - are being quietly sold off in online auctions by Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Not a good look.
However, Prince Yemisi Shyllon, a Nigerian art collector and founder of Lagos’ brand new Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art who was interviewed for the Quartz piece, makes a thought-provoking point from a different angle: the value ascribed to these artifacts actually depends on their current location. “There is a working industry and infrastructure [in Europe] to support the works of art. The moment those works come back to our control, they will lose value just like the ones that are here. The conversation moving forward should be to claim ownership and then claim annual royalties to these works of art even as they remain where they are.”
LITERATURE
OkayAfrica launched South Africa Reframed, a series of personal essays from some of the country’s best young writers. In the first essay of the series, Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh argues that the pandemic chaos was not predicted by political analysts or economists, but by world-builders like fantasy writers and rappers. "The Ghost Virus was quick, violent and efficient… Very soon, the country became a Ghost Town where most of what made people feel secure fell away," wrote Mohale Mashigo in her short story Ghost Strain N. An opportunity to learn about South African authors like Mpofu-Walsh and Mashigo, but also Lauren Beukes, Patrick Rothfuss, and Martha Wells.
MUSIC
An info I had missed last month (thanks Yoann) is the announcement of Universal Music’s new strategic partnership with Lagos entertainment company The Aristokrat Group, best known for discovering and developing breakout talent Burna Boy. The partnership consists of both a label deal and a publishing deal through Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG). Talking about Universal Music, Jeune Afrique has a good article (in French) about the recent restructuring of its Africa team, including the promotion of Franck Alcide Kacou, also known as the rappeur Black Kent, as Managing Director, and the arrival of Laëtitia Kandolo as artistic director. At just 28 years old, Kandolo has already collaborated as a stylist with Beyonce, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Madonna and Kanye West.
SPORTS
After more than two months of a strict diet, major sports leagues are slowly making plans to resume their live games and competitions. Most relevant to Africa is the return of the English Premier League on June 17, albeit behind closed doors.
Meanwhile in e-sports news, yesterday’s virtual charity cycling race in South Africa featuring Chris Froome, Kevin Pietersen, Mel C and Darren Gough saw great uptake on the home cycling app Zwift, while also being broadcast live on SkySports and on the Zwift Youtube channel. Early in South Africa’s lockdown period, Zwift South Africa reported over 30,000 concurrent users.
BROADCAST
As live sports return to TV screens across the globe, South Africa's pay-TV operator DStv launched a text message campaign to lure back subscribers who had cancelled their DStv premium subscription.
Over in Nigeria, the government has set up a task-team to define the policy framework for "an objective and scientific audience measurement system." According to Minister of Information Lai Mohammed, the goal is to "demonstrate the value of content to advertisers, consumers and broadcast stakeholders". Despite Nigeria’s population being three times bigger than South Africa’s, its media industry only makes 25% of South Africa’s advertising revenue. Of course South Africa’s GDP per capita ($6,374) is also three times bigger than Nigeria’s ($2,028), but I do believe that Nigeria’s free-to-air market is under-exploited and under-valued.
FILM
The Cannes Film Festival has announced its 2020 selection, which includes only two films from Africa. En route pour le milliard by Dieudo Hamadi, a documentary on the 2000 conflict in Kisangani and the first film from DRC to ever come to Cannes, and Souad, by Ayten Amin, an Egypt-Tunisian co-production. No big surprise here as, contrary to the Toronto or Berlin film festivals, Cannes has never always been particularly interested in African films, despite its various initiatives such as La Fabrique and Cinémas du Monde meant to support world cinema. I attribute it in large part to France’s patronizing view of Africa (try to find an African film nominated at Cannes that doesn’t prominently feature sand and dirt besides Rafiki).
Remember what I said in a previous edition about Kenyan documentary filmmakers? Well another Kenyan project, How to Build a Library by Maia Lekow and Christopher King just received a grant from Sundance’s Documentary Fund. The film follows two ambitious Kenyan women navigating Nairobi’s politics and its problematic colonial history as they pursue their mission to revitalize Nairobi’s libraries.
CONTENT PRODUCTION
Canal Plus is teasing the June 15 release of Cacao, its 6th original African series, a sweeping family drama set in the world of Ivory Coast’s cocoa industry. The series, directed by experienced filmmaker Alex Ogou and produced by Ogou and former Canal Plus Director of Programming Francois Deplank, will bring together some 70 actors from Ivory Coast, Gabon, Congo and Senegal for 12 episodes of 50 minutes. Ogou was already behind Invisibles, Canal Plus’ most successful African original so far. Another noteworthy Canal Plus production in Africa (and my personal favorite) is Sakho and Mangane by director-showrunner Jean-Luc Herbulot. Over the past few years, Canal Plus has emerged as one of the major commissioners of African series alongside Mnet/Africa Magic/Showmax, SABC in South Africa and now, Netflix.
M-Net prestige original series Trackers, adapted from the crime novel by Deon Meyer and co-produced by HBO Cinemax and Germany’s ZDF, was reportedly M-Net’s top-performing show of 2019. Now it is coming to Cinemax’ global broadcast channel (and perhaps to newly launched HBO Max?), and it will be interesting to see how it performs with international audiences. As an action-packed 6-part series about organized crime in South Africa featuring gorgeous landscapes, diamonds, terrorists, and black rhinos, it certainly has the potential to be widely appealing.
Another big success for African content this week (we’ll claim them all), is Nigerian-American Yvonne Orji’s HBO Comedy Special, Momma, I Made It!, which premiered last week to rave reviews. The "documentary-music-video-comedy-show" takes viewers all the way to Lagos and to the United-States’ DMV area where Orji grew up. Orji, who exploded four years ago with HBO’s Insecure, has always been vocal about and proud of her Nigerian roots. She is currently developing a TV series based on her experience as a first generation Nigerian immigrant called First Gen, with Oprah Winfrey and David Oyelowo on board as producers.
ANIMATION
Alright, we all need a little pick me up right now so I’ll leave you with this cute video from several Nigerian animators who came together to respond to the popular #dontrushchallenge. The very catchy song is Bop Daddy by Falz.
HUSTLE & FLOW #15: This is America, the power of African brand ambassadors, Def Jam launches in Africa, Senegalese wrestling, and more
Dear colleagues and friends,
Last week we were celebrating and this week we are mourning, both the tragic, public death of George Floyd and the slow-motion-car-crash one of a certain idea of America.
The United-States is a country I know well and where I lived for several years with my ex-husband, who happened to be a hoodie-wearing Black man. It is a country that I love but which has become increasingly impossible to defend in recent years. HUSTLE & FLOW is not the place for personal political statements, but I say a bit more here.
The best and most humane analysis I found of last week’s “domino effect” is from Trevor Noah, a South African who knows a little something about institutionalized racism and inequality. If you haven’t done so already, watch his powerful video. While you’re at it, you should also read his memoir Born a Crime, his account of growing up as an illegal mixed-race child under apartheid. I promise you that he manages to make it funny.
Another reaction that rang true this week was British-Nigerian actor John Boyega’s emotional outburst on social media. Anger can be scary, but it is a valid and effective emotion when faced with social injustice.
It might seem trivial to be talking about investing in Entertainment when the matter at hand is one of life and death, but those of us who chose to work in the creative fields know that they have a role to play. At the very basis, racism comes from fear, which in turn comes from ignorance. When we watch a film, listen to a song, or attend a football game, what we seek is an emotional experience that connects us to other humans, through the medium of the artist or athlete, in a way that makes us feel understood. But this goes both ways. When we share these universal emotions with others, it also allows us to connect with their own experience of the world at a deep level - to know them, and thus not to fear them. We will always need more art.
This week in HUSTLE & FLOW, I talk about the largely-untapped marketing power of African celebrities as brand ambassadors and legendary music label Def Jam launching in Africa, but I will also get into new areas like e-learning for the creative industries and gaming.
Make sure to never miss an edition of HUSTLE & FLOW by subscribing here, but if you have missed one don't worry and just head over there. Finally, do connect with me by email at marie@restless.global, or on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @marieloramungai, and soon in person as borders reopen.
Happy reading to all,
Marie
GLOBAL RESCUE MEASURES
The African Culture Fund (ACF) has launched its Solidarity Fund for Artists and Cultural Organizations in Africa (SOFACO) in order to support the resilience of African artists and cultural actors who have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The Fund will support activities in many different sectors and disciplines, and the deadline for applications is June 30. Launched in 2017 in Bamako, Mali, ACF aims to challenge the perception of culture as folklore and position it instead as a creative industry. ACF has raised over $3 million so far through an innovative model where the funds are sourced equally from African artists themselves and from international donors.
MOBILE
South African mobile operator MTN has been named “most loved African brand” once again in a recent consumer survey conducted in 27 countries with a representation of about 8% of the continent's population.
E-LEARNING
French e-learning startup LAFAAAC (already operational in Francophone Africa) has announced that its online training program for Nigerian creatives will launch in September in partnership with Nigerian media group Wazobia, French film school La Fémis, and the French Embassy in Nigeria. The program will combine mobile learning, masterclasses, animated tutorials, virtual classes and workshops from well-known experts, and will start with an offer on the fundamentals of screenwriting. LAFAAAC received support from the French Embassy’s Solidarity Fund for Innovative Projects which is dedicated to the development of the Nigerian cultural and creative industries. The fund aims to stimulate cultural entrepreneurship, capacity building and governance policies in the audiovisual, interactive media and cultural heritage sectors in Nigeria.
Although LAFAAAC is the first company to launch an e-learning program dedicated to the African creative industries, the space has also been attracting interest from other players, and the COVID-fueled rush to all things digital is certainly creating an enabling environment. Media group TRACE plans to launch its own TRACE Academia in 2020, while Nigeria-based EnVivo Education (co-founded by AFRIFF’s Chioma Ude) already offers the Cisco Network Academy’s and Digital Marketing Institute’s curriculums and wants to expand to filmmaking training.
VISUAL ARTS
I’ve already talked about how leading Contemporary African Art Fair 1-54 moved to an online format this year in a previous edition of HUSTLE & FLOW. The fair closed yesterday, but I thought I would still share this article from Le Point for the French-speakers among you. This year, 1-54 showcased over 600 works by more than 80 artists from Africa and the diaspora, represented by 25 international galleries.
One platform that didn’t wait for the pandemic to go online is African Digital Art (ADA), a true pioneer turned pillar of the African creative ecosystem launched by Kenyan designer and artist Jepchumba some 15 years ago. ADA is a great place to discover a wide range of creative works from audio/visual production, animation, interactive projects, web, film, graphic art and design. This week it is launching a series of interviews with digital artists from across the globe about “their process, ethos, and ways of imagining future possibilities.”
E-COMMERCE
DHL is the logistics partner of choice for African fashion designers because of its substantial efforts in recent years to enable Africa-based vendors to ship their products across the continent and the world for a reasonable price. DHL is now doubling down on its commitment to African e-commerce through a strategic investment in Link Commerce, the UK-based e-commerce platform that has helped DHL develop its successful DHL Africa eShop platform.
FASHION
First, a shout out to two HUSTLE & FLOW favorites making waves this week in the global fashion world: Sarah Diouf‘s Tongoro is launching on prestigious French retailer Printemps’ online platform, while Lagos Fashion Week founder Omoyemi Akerele joins the Commonwealth Fashion Council board. Well-deserved congratulations to both.
Then, the Business of Fashion has an in-depth article this week about the marketing power of African Brand Ambassadors, which I recommend you read in full (careful with the numbers in there though, Lionheart was definitely NOT acquired by Netflix for $3 million). Although “celebrity marketing has fallen out of favour during the pandemic, when the strategy makes a comeback global brands need to act fast to tap more African influencers to access high-growth markets like Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa,” writes BOF. The article mentions examples such as South African Queen Sono star Pearl Thusi, who recently became the face of MAC cosmetics’ new MAC X Pearl collection, and Nigerian music heavyweight Wizkid, who successfully collaborated with Nike two years ago to create a quickly sold-out Starboy jersey. Nollywood stars would be natural marketing partners for global brands seeking to enter Nigeria, although, as Lagos-based Redrick PR's Ijeoma Balogun justly says, most celebrities would be considered too mass market to appeal to luxury consumers there. Brands targeting that segment should rather look at peer-to-peer influence from other high-net-worth individuals working in the creative industries as a more effective marketing strategy. The article doesn’t shy away from the difficulties of launching luxury brands on the continent, which include of course the lack of retail and digital infrastructure. However, the opportunity remains for those willing to “spend the time understanding the culture and the people before entering the market,” says Endeavor Chief Marketing Officer Bozoma Saint John. That is why I usually recommend starting with a customized market study and on-the-ground visit to my clients who are new to Africa - not all of them take the advice.
Finally, the African Development Bank’s Fashionomics initiative is launching its webinar series this Tuesday with a first session on “Thriving in a (post-) COVID-19 World”. Sign up here.
MUSIC
The top African Entertainment news of the week is Universal Music Group’s announcement of the launch of its iconic Def Jam division in Johannesburg and Lagos, with a focus on "hip-hop, Afrobeats and trap talent in Africa." Contrary to the US, where Universal operates different labels with their own DNA such as Republic, Interscope, or Capitol, in Africa it had so far been reduced to the Universal Music brand. “What Def Jam Africa allows us to do is create an aspirational label,” says Universal Music Sub-Saharan Africa managing director Sipho Dlamini. Def Jam Africa launches with a roster that includes South Africa's Nasty C, Boity, Cassper Nyovest, Nadia Nakai, Tshego, Tellaman and Ricky Tyler, and Nigeria's Larry Gaaga and Vector.
Not to be undone, Apple Music announced its new weekly show, Africa Now Radio with Cuppy, hosted by Nigerian DJ Cuppy and showcasing "the latest African sounds, be it amapiano, afrobeats, highlife, alte, house, hip-hop, afrobongo, or kuduro”. The show premiered yesterday and can be accessed here.
Meanwhile, Davido's "Fall" continues to break records three years after its release and was certified gold in the US and Canada this week with 800,000 and 40,000 sales respectively. In 2018, the video for "Fall" became the most streamed Nigerian music video on YouTube. It currently stands at 169 million views on the platform.
LET'S CALL IT LIVE DANCE PERFORMANCE
Besides live music concerts, another casualty of the COVID-19 lockdown has been Lagos' normally bustling strip club industry. But innovative nightclub owners, and in some cases the strippers themselves, have come up with a solution: raunchy private house parties. This makes complete sense in a city where money can buy you a private experience for everything from film screenings, to concerts, to fashion shopping and styling, and where specifically catering for that customer segment is a revenue stream in many business models.
SPORTS
I was able to catch some of the sessions of last week’s Future of Sports conference organized by the Africa Sports Ventures Group, which brought together prominent speakers such as Liberian President and former World Footballer of the Year George Weah. Of particular interest was the discussion on unlocking value from popular traditional sports such as Senegalese wrestling, also known as Laamb. According to Senegal’s Presidential Advisor on Youth and Sports Ndongo N’Diaye, wrestling is even more popular in the country than football, with big competition nights drawing crowds of up to 25,000 fans and prize money for fights reaching $16 million in 2016. And this type of traditional wrestling does not just happen in Senegal but in all Sahel countries. It is called Dambe in northern Nigeria or Boreh in The Gambia, for example. Years ago I filmed a story on Nuba wrestling while stuck in Khartoum for two weeks waiting for an elusive visa to Darfour. It was a scene straight out of Gladiator. And who doesn’t like Gladiator?
Moving from sand pits to pixels and bit rates, eSport promoters are now looking to expand across the continent, boosted by lockdown-fueled growth in South Africa. With a global audience expected to rise to 495 million with revenues up to $1.1 billion by the end of 2020, and market conditions across Africa now resembling China’s and India’s some five years ago, industry players such as Nodwin Gaming (investors in Global eSports), believe that the time is right.
FILM
The Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) has shared some numbers about the estimated impact of the pandemic on Nigeria’s film industry. Over 5,000 cinema employees (of which 75% are youths between ages 18 to 25) have been furloughed or fired since theaters were shut down more than two months ago. Some 4,000 indirect jobs (retail vendors, logistics companies, film distributors, security men, gardeners, housekeepers, etc) have also been impacted. The complete shutdown of the country’s prolific film production sector, which can employ up to 100 people per project, may have led to the loss of another 40,000 jobs. In total, CEAN estimates that “the general loss in revenue from the creative industry is about [$52 million], with approximately 250,000 jobs at stake.”
That’s certainly depressing news. More optimistic is Nigerian film exhibitors’ experimentations with drive-in cinema, which has seen a revival in other countries hit by lockdown measures. 7Eleven Entertainment was set to offer Lagosians their first drive-in cinema experience last weekend at The Lekki Coliseum, while a previous attempt in Abuja had to be aborted and rescheduled due to the heavy downpour. A few bold Nigerian filmmakers have also decided to resume shooting with reduced teams, such as on the TV series Meadows currently in production in Abuja, although no official greenlight has been given for film sets to reopen.
On the other side of the continent, the Kenya Film Commission (KFC) is rolling out its plan to cushion the country’s film sector from massive job losses by providing funding worth $940 per project to two short films in all of Kenya’s 47 counties. Meanwhile, Kenyan documentaries continue to perform well on the international stage, with Just A Band, a film about the trendy house/funk/disco Kenyan music group of the same name co-directed by the Canadian Anjali Nayar and Kenyan Mbithi Masya (also a member of the group), winning the second prize of the First Look Pitch Prize at this year’s Hot Doc Forum Festival.
BROADCAST
Still in Kenya, rival television stations K24 (owned by President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Mediamax Network) and KTN News (owned by The Standard Group) are set to work together on the first deal of its kind in Kenya. As part of the arrangement, K24 would scrap its own news programming to carry the one produced by KTN. Mediamax would also close down Kameme TV, its vernacular television station. Mediamax Network’s restructuring is motivated by the shrinking in advertising revenue due to the pandemic. This might be the first event in a consolidation wave to hit the African broadcast sector.
VOD
WarnerMedia’s Netflix competitor HBO Max launched last week in the US, and according to news coverage, it was either “a mess” or “a disaster”. According to Engadget, “Confusion and HBO Max practically go hand-in-hand. (...) So it's no wonder the collective response to HBO Max on social media has simply been: "Huh?" But here's the thing: These missteps won't matter in the long run. This isn't a Quibi situation, a fundamentally flawed service that has no place in the current media landscape.” As you may have gathered by now, I do love a snarky VOD insider review, especially if it includes a side jab at Quibi. The reason why HBO Max can still succeed is because it is the exclusive home for some extremely valuable content (such as Friends, South Park, and the entire HBO catalog). But it will have to fix its distribution, pricing, marketing, and the absurd cohabitation with HBO Now and HBO Go - so basically every single aspect of its product besides content. However, I hear that they are already looking for an African series, so I wish them all the best (we need them).
ANIMATION
The little novelty of the day is the “first animated series from The Gambia” produced by the family-owned and women-led Fyen network. The series, which stars characters such as Princess Halima, Bakary on Safari and Samba and Batch, was apparently 13 years in the making - yes, I know that struggle.
GAMING
And to finish this week, there is some good news for Africa’s video games industry: gaming development startup Carry1st has raised a $2.5 million seed round led by CRE Venture Capital. Adding some other money previously raised, Carry1st now has $4 million to deploy in game publishing across Africa. The startup has already launched two games as direct downloads from its site, Hyper! and Carry1st Trivia, which the company says was the number one game in Nigeria and Kenya for most of the year with about 1.5 million downloads. Carry1st’s ambition is to become the top gaming content publisher in Africa, which means not only developing African games but also serving as distributor for international gaming content into the continent. Now, I’ve always been puzzled by the discrepancy between the enormous revenue numbers reported for the African gaming industry ($570 million in 2018?) and the fact that I don't know any local gaming studio or developer, including the ones constantly touted by the press, that is thriving. In fact, many have folded and those who survive do so by producing graphic design and animations for corporate clients. Could this be a case of media-driven hype based on a serious dose of wishful thinking? How is the "African gaming sector" actually defined? Do these mysterious numbers also include sports betting, online gambling or premium SMS voting on Big Brother Naija? Where is the money actually being made? If that $570 million is just leaving Africa, then that doesn’t count. If you have that information, please educate me!
HUSTLE & FLOW #14: Afrikrea and Fashion’s e-commerce future, Why Mr Eazi is the next Jay-Z, Netflix's Blood & Water is Fire, and more
Dear colleagues and friends,
Happy Africa Day! I admit that I was going to make some snide comment about Africa Day being some kind of marketing ploy akin to Valentine’s Day or all these other Days (don’t get me started). But it turns out that the point and history of the Africa Day celebration was lost on me, as it is apparently on many.
Africa Day is actually the annual commemoration of the 1963 formation of the Organisation of African Unity (today the African Union), and is celebrated to acknowledge the progress made in liberation and social movements across the continent. So, I’m down with that. As with everything else these days, the celebrations are taking place online, and include a YouTube benefit concert, a Netflix African Collection showcase, and a Sport Business conference.
But today is also the 3-months anniversary of HUSTLE & FLOW. Since launch, this newsletter’s audience has grown 350% to reach 450 investors (68%), entrepreneurs (25%) and government representatives (7%) predominantly based in the US, France, Nigeria, UK, Kenya and South Africa, in that order. Despite the global lockdown, it has led me to connect personally with more than 20 of you to discuss your various businesses, investments, or initiatives.
So there is a lot to celebrate today. In this edition of HUSTLE & FLOW, I will do so by sharing a whole bunch of delicious tidbits that truly highlight the excellence of Africa’s creative sector from food to fashion, music, literature and TV. More specifically, I’ll talk about the success of e-commerce platform Afrikrea, why Mr Eazi is the new Jay-Z, and Netflix’s new standard-setting South African original Blood & Water.
My goal with HUSTLE & FLOW is to galvanize the sector and spur investment, so please do share this newsletter with anyone in your network who may have an interest in African Entertainment. If you have received this newsletter from a friend or colleague, please subscribe here so that you don’t miss any future editions. And to catch up on past ones, head over there.
Happy reading to all,
Marie
INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE
The COVID-19 crisis has intensified efforts by governments and the private sector to develop connectivity infrastructure. The African data center space in particular continues to register strong activity, and last week Raxio’s carrier-neutral data center has opened in Uganda with nine local data carriers on board, while Liquid Telecom Group's owned Africa Data Centres has announced the acquisition of a new facility in Johannesburg, South Africa. In this good overview, The Africa Report identifies competitive or diversified markets for both electricity and fiber connectivity as a main condition for a proper take off of the African data center space.
African countries still have, on average, the least affordable mobile data, fixed-broadband and even mobile voice services by global standards, and price remain a major barrier to mass internet adoption and usage across the continent. However, according to a recent report, Botswana, Nigeria And Seychelles are on track to meet the International Telecommunication Union's Broadband Commission affordability threshold target of 2% of the monthly gross national income. Mauritius and Gabon already provide the most affordable broadband services on the continent.
MOBILE
Lebanese telco group Africell has received Angola’s coveted third mobile provider license, which will see it compete against Movitel and Unitel for the country’s 15 million subscribers. Africell is already present in Uganda, DRC, the Gambia and Sierra Leone.
I’ve talked about Safaricom’s impressive results in previous editions of HUSTLE & FLOW. This week, Business Daily gives us more points of analysis: with a market value of $9.96 billion, not only is the Kenyan operator the 10th most valuable African firm in a ranking dominated by South African companies, but it now also represents a shocking 53.3% total investors’ wealth on the Nairobi Stock Exchange. If Safaricom isn’t a Harvard case study already, it really should be.
FASHION
For the African fashion sector, in which the lack of physical and digital distribution networks has long been a major challenge, the lockdown has had one positive impact in that it’s given a clear boost to e-commerce. In this great wrap up by Quartz, Afrikrea founder Moulaye Taboure says that the current crisis “is definitely a game changer in Africa”. Afrikrea mostly services clients in Europe and the US, but its orders from African customers have tripled over the past two months while an increasing number of African designers are also signing up to the platform. Founded in 2016, Afrikrea is a marketplace for African-made creative products from fashion, art and handicraft to beauty and fabrics. When the pandemic started in March, it was fresh off a successful funding round, having locked down $1 million to expand its footprint beyond its existing community of over 5,000 designers, which had already generated $5 million worth of sales across 101 countries. Moulaye contributed more insights in this webinar by Lagos Fashion Week. Of particular interest is his approach to competition from Instagram, which many African designers use to make direct-to-consumer sales. The key for Moulaye is to incentivize designers to sell through Afrikrea by solving real pain points (such as making shipping easier through their partnership with DHL), while “getting out of the way” of their need and desire to use Instagram as well as any other means at their disposal to advertise their business.
But the fashion industry has barely began to scratch the surface of what it could do with digital tools. In a bold move that has been labeled as “bar raising” and “standard setting”, Anifa Mvuemba, the US-based Congolese designer of contemporary brand Hanifa, debuted her latest collection on Instagram Live via 3D models on Friday. The viral video (which you really need to watch) shows “invisible” 3D models walk down the screen wearing the brand’s designs. The 29-year-old designer said she had planned the digital-only show before the pandemic hit, but clearly she couldn’t have found a better time to grab the world’s attention. A truly innovative way to use available technology that is likely to change the way we shop for clothes online forever.
MUSIC
Nigeria’s three Afrobeats Greats Davido, Tiwa Savage, and Mr Eazi are the subject of Billboard magazine's latest cover story “'This Isn't a Fad': Three of Africa's Biggest Stars on Making the Industry Come to Them”, in which they proclaim that the "next musical revolution is brewing in Africa." There are lots of gems in this article, which I encourage you to read in full, but I wanted to talk more specifically about Mr Eazi, whose business-savvy never fails to impress me every time I read or watch one of his interviews. Besides being a talented artist himself, at just 28-years-old he is an astute entrepreneur already building a Jay-Z-style musical empire. Contrary to Davido and Tiwa Savage, he turned down lucrative deals from global music labels to remain independent, and two years ago founded the talent incubator and label emPawa Africa, which helped cover video costs for 100 emerging artists from 11 countries with a first $300,000 round of investment. Mr Eazi is quick to point out that there are many kinds of music that get lumped into the “Afrobeats” genre, and emPawa doesn’t hesitate to support artists performing in a variety of sounds, such as Malawian folk singer George Kalukusha. In 2020 emPawa will award 30 artists grants of $10,000 each. Mr Eazi clearly is a mogul in the making.
In other music news this week, Global company Downtown Music announced that it has acquired South Africa-based Sheer Music Publishing. Building on a long-standing relationship between the two companies, the acquisition formally expands Downtown’s geographic footprint to the African continent, while Sheer will continue to function as a standalone business within Downtown’s portfolio of music publishing, distribution, monetization, artist and label services businesses. Sheer and Downtown also plan to develop new services specifically designed for the needs of African creators.
LITERATURE
The short list of nominees for the 2020 Nommo Awards for Speculative Fiction by Africans is out. The Nommo Awards are presented in four categories namely "Best Novel", "Best Novella", "Best Short Story" and "Best Graphic Novel" and will no doubt be of interest to HUSTLE & FLOW’s Hollywood-based readers. African fantasy or “Afrofuturism” fiction has been having a moment for quite a while now, with Hollywood studios actively snapping up IP in the genre across Africa and in the diaspora. This year, the Nommo Awards’ long list included Children of Virtue and Vengeance, the second book in 26-year-old Tomi Adeyemi’s Legacy of Orïsha Young Adult trilogy. In 2017, film studio Fox 2000 (now part of Disney) acquired Adeyemi’s first novel Children of Blood and Bones in one of the biggest YA debut novel publishing deals ever. Interestingly, the Afrofuturism genre is dominated by women, with high-profile screen adaptations of Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed and Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death and Binti in the works with Amazon, HBO and Hulu respectively. Also nominated this year are graphic novels Iyanu - Child of Wonder (long list), which I’ve talked about in a previous edition of HUSTLE & FLOW (and which has smashed its Kickstarter goal of $5,000 by raising $26,000 so far), and Beserat Debebe’s Hawi (short list), which is branded as “the first female comic to ever come out of Ethiopia” (I’m always suspicious of “first ever” claims and highly doubt this is correct here).
FOOD
African gastronomy is getting noticed in France thanks to a new generation of young chefs bringing an aura of cool to a cuisine often considered as too “traditional” in the west. Twenty-seven-year-old Top Chef star Mory Sacko was about to launch his first Afro-Japanese restaurant MoSuke when the opening was postponed due to the lockdown. If this first experience is successful, his dream is to later expand to Rwanda, Senegal or Nigeria. Meanwhile, ELLE Magazine recently profiled Sylvain Avajon and Romuald Metellus of Table Metis, Gabonese chef and Canal+ Afrique presenter Anto Cocagne aka Le Chef Anto, Rudy and Joel Laine of Le Maquis-New Soul Food, Fousseyni and Abdoulaye Djikine of BMK Paris-Bamako, MasterChef’s Georgiana Viou, and Freddy Lindou Chokote and Gaudrey Chokote of Les Tontons Afro, who made an impression on France’s version of Shark Tank last year. The pioneer of the bunch is 29-year-old Dieuveil Malonga, who also got noticed on television in Top Chef all the way back in 2014, and has since opened a restaurant-lab in Kigali and launched the chefsinafrica.fr platform to showcase the continent’s best artisans, food growers and chefs.
BROADCAST
The lack of precise audience data in most African countries generally prevents any in-depth analysis of the popularity or commercial value of specific programs. I also don’t believe that there exists a pan-African ranking of most-watched shows (if it does, please let me know). One player that does have its own audience data and makes proper use of it however is Pay-TV leader Multichoice. And Multichoice just renewed Big Brother Nigeria for its 5th season. Big Brother Nigeria is an offshoot of Multichoice’s Big Brother Africa reality TV franchise, which was launched in 2003 and produced by global format owner Endemol. Big Brother Africa brought together a pan-African cast and ran for 9 seasons before being cancelled. This type of reality show is way past its heyday worldwide, and yet, Big Brother Nigeria still survives. Now, I don’t have access to Big Brother Nigeria’s audience numbers. But based on my own, wholly un-scientific, empirical observations, I believe that it might be the most popular TV show in Nigeria. Here’s what I know: when Big Brother is on the air, conversations about the show take over Instagram for weeks. At Lagos Fashion Week last fall, I noticed that some of the models walking the runway were getting the audience buzzing with excitement. When I asked my 20-something neighbor what the fuss was all about, she explained that they were Big Brother contestants. Big Brother Nigeria is having a Tiger King-esque impact on the country’s culture, and if we set aside any moral considerations about this type of shows, they are money-making machines. Which leads me to two thoughts: one, I am not sure Multichoice realizes this fully and is exploiting this property to the maximum and two, in its quest to win over Nigerian subscribers, Netflix might want to get into the reality TV game (like it’s done in other countries already) sooner rather than later.
WarnerMedia is boosting its presence in Francophone Africa thanks to a new carriage deal with Pay-TV operator StarTimes for its CNN and Warner TV channels. The two new channels come to enrich WarnerMedia’s portfolio already available on StarTimes which includes TCM Cinema, Boing, Boomerang and Cartoon Network. This is the first time that Warner TV, which will propose American series from the Warner catalogue dubbed in French, becomes available in Africa. Warner TV is not a well-known brand of the WarnerMedia television portfolio, and is only available in Latin America, France, Southeast Asia, and now Africa. However, Warner TV started investing in French original series last year, a sign that it may eventually do the same in Africa.
VOD
The global streaming world was rocked last week by the news that Disney’s direct-to-consumer chief Kevin Mayer was leaving to become the CEO of TikTok and COO of TikTok’s owner ByteDance. Mayer is largely credited for the very successful launch of Disney+, but was nevertheless passed over as new CEO of Disney when Bob Iger chose Bob Chapek as his successor in February, which might have given Mayer some incentive to move on. He will bring the Disney aura to TikTok as well as the ability to manage at scale, and of course a strong connection to the Hollywood ecosystem. But he is also likely to be used as a buffer by the Chinese ByteDance in its delicate well… dance with US lawmakers in the context of the US-China trade war.
Meanwhile, a new player has entered the VOD arena in Nigeria, with the launch of Super TV, which describes itself as “Nigeria’s first zero data technology for on-demand live TV and VOD.” It will be open to both linear TV broadcasters and individual content distributors seeking to upload and monetize their content on the platform. In order to offer a zero data solution to customers, Super TV has negotiated deals with mobile operators 9mobile and MTN. If this actually works, it could be a big step forward for VOD adoption in Africa and I will, of course, keep you updated.
Now, I have kept the best for last. Blood & Water, Netflix’s second South African original was released on May 20th, and it is Fire! The series follows 16-year-old Puleng Khumalo as she investigates whether the girl she recently met at a party could be her kidnapped-at-birth older sister. Set in a gorgeous and exclusive high school in Cape Town (while also taking care to show less-privileged corners of the city), Blood & Water gives off some serious Gossip Girl vibes and promptly reached the number 1 spot on Netflix in numerous countries including South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya, but also the US, UK and France - an amazing feat by any standards. One needs to acknowledge Netflix’s strong commitment to its African originals, which have so far been supported with serious and efficient marketing campaigns. But the praise really should go to the Gambit Films team, who are the creators and producers of the show. Nosipho Dumisa, Travis Taute, Bradley and Daryne Joshua, and Benjamin Overmeyer may have official titles but also work within their own innovative structure that sees various team members share writing, directing and producing duties depending on the project. When I met them several years ago, it was already clear that they had what it takes to go far. For a while they kept their heads down as they continued to hone their craft, and the success of Blood & Water is the result of their talent and dedication.
HUSTLE & FLOW #13: Undersea cable links 2Africa, OPay plans “super app”, TV series’ budgets revealed, and more
Dear colleagues and friends,
As we enter the second half of May, Western media is catching on to the fact that the expected disaster hasn’t taken place in Africa and that the reason behind it may be based on more than dumb luck and a youthful population. In her piece entitled “What African Nations are Teaching the West about Fighting the Coronavirus?”, former New York Times East Africa bureau chief Jina Moore writes: “A rather obvious possibility stares us in the face: What if some African governments are doing a better job than our own of managing the coronavirus?”
Of course, we may choose to ignore biased reporting (after all, what’s new), but that would be to our own detriment. I strongly encourage you to read this fascinating essay by Nanjala Nyabola in which she writes: “Whatever journalists commit to print and broadcast during this period will be among the primary pieces of information that future scholars will analyze to try to understand what we were all doing as the world fell apart. But so far, when it comes to Africa, the first draft is an incomplete and inaccurate story of a continent waiting to be saved. If only the first story enters the archive, the creativity and agency of swaths of humanity will be lost, which will have consequences beyond the pandemic.”
One of these consequences may be the retraction of funding and investment to Africa, even when a key issue for African businesses is that they are chronically under-capitalized to begin with. But as you know, I always look for the silver lining, and when I see the enthusiastic readership of HUSTLE & FLOW, I continue to think that great things are on their way. This week, I’ll talk about the major new undersea cable project announced by a consortium including Facebook and various telcos, OPay’s plans to build Africa’s first “super app”, and how much it costs to produce TV series across the continent.
As always, please reach out with your comments, questions and requests for Zoom calls at marie@restless.global, and catch up on previous editions of HUSTLE & FLOW at www.restless.global/hustleflow.
Happy reading to all,
Marie
INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE
The big news last week was the announcement of a major new undersea cable by a consortium including China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC. The fully-funded project, called 2Africa, will connect 23 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe, with 21 landings in 16 African countries. Expected to go live in 2023/24, 2Africa promises to deliver more than the total combined capacity of Africa's current cables. The 2Africa cable has been designed to improve resilience and maximise performance in a context where fiber-optic incidents are still frequent - two major cable breaks greatly impacted connectivity throughout the continent this year.
Meanwhile, just a few weeks after launching in Kenya, Google’s high-altitude mobile internet solution Loon has signed a deal with Vodacom to expand the South African mobile operator’s network to remote areas in Mozambique.
MOBILE
Mobile operators’ Q1 results continue to trickle through, confirming strong growth overall in terms of data and mobile money usage. The MTN Group reported a 11% increase in sales, led in part by growth in data traffic in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, as well as 6.6 million new subscribers, for a total of 257.3 million. However, MTN also confirmed that it had reduced spending plans for the full year to $1.1 billion in order to focus on preserving cash and maintaining its networks as it navigates the COVID-19 pandemic. Airtel Africa reported a 21% decline in its total net profit at $65 million for the first quarter, mainly due to higher finance costs, but its numbers remain strong overall, with a 56% growth in data usage leading to a 39% growth in data revenue year-on-year, while mobile money revenue went up by 29.5%, driven by subscriber growth and a more robust distribution infrastructure. Airtel Africa announced that it had continued to invest in various future growth opportunities over the period as it expanded its distribution, modernised and expanded its network with 65% of sites now on 4G, and acquired new spectrum in Nigeria, Chad, Tanzania and Malawi.
In Nigeria, both operators lead the way in terms active internet users, with 56.49 million for MTN and 36.17 million Airtel, according to the latest industry report released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). They’re followed by Globacom and 9Mobile with 30.95 million and 7.94 million internet subscribers respectively. The country’s total number of active internet users increased by 3.29 million to hit approximately 132.01 million at the end of February this year.
E-COMMERCE
In this new episode of “Can Jumia leverage the pandemic for its own survival?”, Jumia’s Q1 earnings revealed a slight 4% narrowing of its operating losses (still at $47.3 million though) even as revenue dropped by 7%. The impact of COVID-19 varied by product category and country, with sales of consumer electronics, phones and fashion, as well as Jumia Food orders (linked to the closure of partner restaurants) dropping sharply. However, on the bright side Jumia saw a four-fold surge in grocery sales while Jumia Pay’s total payment volume reached $38.4 million in the first quarter, a 71% year-on-year increase.
However, a future competitor might be revving up its engines as Norway-based, Chinese-owned Opera continues to deploy its strategy to build a multi-service “super app” in Nigeria as the foundation to expand on the continent. The Opera mobile browser has long been popular across Africa. In 2018 the company launched its OPay mobile money platform in Nigeria, and a year later raised an enormous $170 million round to develop OPay as the financial utility to support a large suite of internet-based commercial products that now include OMall, a B2C e-commerce app; OTrade, a B2B e-commerce platform; OExpress, a logistics delivery service; OFood, for restaurant delivery; ORide, a motorcycle ride-hail service; and Olla, a mobile phone line pre-loaded with its apps. OPay’s strategy is to replicate the success of Asia’s super apps such as WeChat, Grab and Go-Jeck. The end goal wouldn’t be dissimilar to Jumia’s, which is also seeking to dominate several verticals, but the approach is different: rather than building everything on top of e-commerce, which is immature in Africa, Opera is starting where Africa is leading the world: fintech. And this seems to be working so far: between January and April OPay’s offline and online transaction volume increased by 44%.
FASHION
On the fourth anniversary of her brand Tongoro, Senegalese fashion entrepreneur and HUSTLE & FLOW favorite Sarah Diouf released ‘Made in Africa’, a 30-min documentary about her journey building her Dakar-based label Tongoro which highlights the importance of local craftsmanship on the continent.
Talking about craftsmanship, when we consider African fashion we mostly think of clothes and accessories, but rarely of fine jewelry, despite the fact that Africa is home to precious raw material such as gold or gemstones. CNN has a great article this week about the new wave of African fine jewelry designers such as Vania Leles from Guinea-Bissau or Sierra Leone-born Satta Matturi, who counts Rihanna as a client. Rosenkrantz Africa specializes in tanzanite, a deep blue gem that can only be found in a small mining area in Tanzania. Over a decade ago during my journalism days, I descended 400 meters into the ground to film miners excavating the precious stone with high-pressure water hoses - quite an unforgettable experience. The brand’s founder Iver Rosenkrantz recently opened Zimbaqua, Africa's first woman-only mine for aquamarine and tourmaline based in Zimbabwe. Now that’s something I’d like to see.
VISUAL ARTS
Over the past few years, photography has become one of Nigeria’s most exciting art forms, especially thanks to its quest to document Lagos’ thriving youth culture. This week, two of Lagos’ most promising young photographers/visual artists, each with their own distinct styles, get a shout out in the press: OkayAfrica talks to Thompson Ekong (aka TSE) about his eye-catching work which has landed him collaborations with Nike, Davido, Rema, Santi, Teni and 6LACK, while multidisciplinary creative Daniel Obasi is his own muse in inspired self-portraits for I-D.
Belgian non-profit Africalia has launched a call for proposals to support “the production of artistic works during, in reaction to or following the crisis”. Africalia will allocate 50 “Creativity is Life” grants of €1,500 per artist in its countries of intervention: Burkina Faso, Senegal, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Uganda. The submission deadline is June 2.
LITERATURE
While book events worldwide have been put on hold, the virtual festival Afrolit Sans Frontieres is using Facebook and Instagram to host frank discussions around writing, creativity, sex and violence through a series of hourlong readings and Q&A sessions. Afrolit already held two editions over the past two months, and will return for a third entitled “Future. Present. Past.” on May 25, to coincide with Africa Day. Meanwhile, the 8th edition of the Ake Arts and Book Festival, initially scheduled to be held in Lagos from October 22 to 25, will now take place exclusively online.
MUSIC
In previous editions of HUSTLE & FLOW, I’ve talked about how, despite the tough blow dealt to the African music industry by the cancellation of live events, many artists had quickly pivoted to social media to continue to grow and engage their audiences during the pandemic, while the forced digitalization of most activities was boosting music streaming. But for another, more traditional category of musicians who make a significant portion of their income from European “World Music” festivals, the closing of borders is an issue that may threaten their livelihoods over the long term. These artists, despite being internationally renowned, might rarely if ever perform in their home countries, do not have large digital-savvy local audiences, and are completely dependent on foreign festivals to survive. A World Music network of industry professionals is now exploring the idea of creating a specific solidarity fund to support them.
If you haven’t had enough of online telethons after Lady Gaga’s “One World: Together at Home” last month and Canal Plus’ “Africa at Home: Together against Corona” this past weekend, there’s more coming your way. On May 25, MTV and YouTube will partner to present an “Africa Day Benefit Concert #athome” hosted by Idris Elba, and I’m hearing that Trace TV is planning its own event as well.
SPORTS
The Nigeria Football Federation has disclosed that Pricewaterhouse (PWC) had been given the contract to recruit coaches for the national male (Super Eagles) and women (Super Falcons) teams, following a set of structured criteria. The Super Falcons’ coaching job is open to Nigerian and expatriate coaches indiscriminately, as long as they meet the standard set by PWC. I’m very curious to see the result of this process.
BROADCAST
WarnerMedia and Canal+ Group have launched TNT and Cartoon Network within Les Bouquet’s Canal+ pay-TV offer in Rwanda. This follows efforts by Canal+ to reinforce its English-speaking channel proposition in a country where half of the population counts as English-speaking. Canal+ is already the leading pay-TV operator in French-speaking Africa but has recently started to make moves that suggest it is looking at expanding beyond the language barrier, including the acquisition of ROK Studios in Nigeria and the planned launch of its pay-TV services in Ethiopia.
Meanwhile in South Africa, local telenovela Gomora (not to be confused with gritty Italian crime drama Gomorrah) has become the most-watched TV show on all of DStv with 2,5 million viewers in April, just one month after its release.
FILM
Nigeria continues to slowly and gradually ease its lockdown, but there is no telling yet when the country’s 40-odd cinemas will be able to reopen. But Nigerians’ love for the big screen remains strong. A recent survey by the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) showed that 95% of respondents miss going to cinemas, especially for the cinema experience (88%), while 68% are willing to return to cinemas if and when safety measures are put in place. For now, AFRIFF, Nigeria’s most prominent film festival typically taking place in November, is going on as planned, and submissions are currently open until July 1.
VOD
If you are a regular reader of HUSTLE & FLOW, you know what I think of Jeffrey Katzenberg’s ill-conceived, mark-missing, “quick bite” mobile VOD service Quibi. When asked to explain its anemic downloads a month after launch, “I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus. Everything,” Katzenberg said. “Is it the avalanche of people that we wanted and were going for out of launch?” he said. “The answer is no. It’s not up to what we wanted. It’s not close to what we wanted.” Hmm. Well. Quibi is also not close to what users wanted, so that’s that. What do people want to do with their phones? They want to TikTok. And while Katzenberg is busy blaming the pandemic, young TikTok creators are amassing huge audiences and attracting the favors of everyone from top brands to Hollywood. Watch out Dance Glitch .
CONTENT PRODUCTION
Productions around the world are starting to reopen, as they did in South Africa a week ago. There, the Independent Producers Organisation (IPO) has criticized the South African regulator’s recent move to exempt television broadcasters from local content quotas during the pandemic, saying it contradicts the government’s plea to support local productions and could further weaken the already struggling sector. No such hand-wringing in Nollywood though, or anywhere else for that matter, as producers would just like to be able to go back to work.
Broadcast Media Africa took advantage of the slowdown to conduct an industry survey on “Creating ‘Quality’ Local Content For Global Digital Audiences” in which 56% of respondents identified the lack of structured financial infrastructure as the main barrier to creating “world-class” local content in Africa, while 30% mentioned the “expectation of higher production value and increased quality with reduced production budgets” as another big obstacle. Let’s talk about this a little bit because the widespread belief among western producers or broadcasters that “producing content is cheap in Africa” is indeed a profound misconception that regularly leads to frustrations and disappointment on both sides. In reality, Africa’s lack of infrastructure and scarcity of skilled professionals drive prices up in content production like in many other sectors. Here’s a down-and-dirty benchmark of TV series prices so that we can all know what we’re talking about: across Africa in small to medium markets, local free-to-air (FTA) stations may pay as low as $2,500 to produce a one-hour episode; in Nigeria producers may work with $5-15,000/episode (raised from sponsorships for an FTA broadcast or through a Pay-TV commission); in South Africa national broadcaster SABC used to commission shows for $40-70,000/episode; in Francophone Africa Canal+ can invest up to $60-100,000/episode (but only if it really really wants a show); and finally at the top of the range Mnet/Showmax can put up to $100-150,000/episode for its most premium South African projects. Does this mean that producing a one-hour episode of scripted TV in Africa actually costs that much? Not at all. These are just the prices that broadcasters are able to sustain based on their own business models. To meet these budgets, producers have to call in various favors to access free equipment or locations, and cast and crew often work for very little. If so much African content looks bad, it’s often because people are not paid properly so they will cut corners to go fast and move on to the next job. My personal assessment is that it would probably cost as much to produce a medium-range quality show in Africa than it does in Europe, so roughly between $150-600,000/episode. Thought that Netflix’s Queen Sono looked good? It was made for $400,000/episode.
ANIMATION
Remember Niyi Akinmolayan’s lovely coronavirus animation? Well people loved it so much that Anthill produced a second episode, turning what could have been a one-off PSA into “an educational series about two smart kids teaching everyone about good health, culture and science” for which the studio is now raising funds. That is exactly the right way to leverage a cause-led or charity-funded project: use an opportunity emerging from a particular context (in this case the need for an educational video during a global health crisis) to create or pilot characters (IP) that can outlive that particular context.
HUSTLE & FLOW #12: Africa’s visual artists make waves, UFC is 1st US sports league to reopen, South Africa’s TV industry returns to set, and more
Dear colleagues and friends,
If you’re like me, you may by now be experiencing some serious COVID-fatigue. Perhaps you have stopped keeping track of the number of deaths in your country (unless you’re in Madagascar or Lesotho or Uganda or any other country where the recorded number of deaths is actually 0). Perhaps you’ve reached peak Zoom while at the same time being filled with dread at the thought of having to face traffic or public transportation to return to the office. Perhaps you are dreaming of eating food that you have not cooked yourself.
In any case, with the easing of strict confinement measures and the establishment of new post-lockdown health regulations globally, there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel for several sectors of the Entertainment industry. And we are ready to go towards the light.
This week in HUSTLE & FLOW, I’ll talk about some of the continent’s visual artists who are making waves from New York to Mathare, why the UFC becoming the first major US sports league to emerge from the lockdown is relevant to Africa, and South Africa’s TV industry going back on set.
If you have received this email from a friend or colleague, please subscribe here to make sure that you don’t miss any future edition of HUSTLE & FLOW. Also remember that you can visit the archives at any time for more insights.
I always love to hear from you so do email me at marie@restless.global with your questions, comments, or suggestions.
Happy reading to all,
Marie
GENERAL RESCUE MEASURES
After a first phase understandably focused on the immediate health emergency, regional and international development actors are now bringing their attention to specific sectors, including the tech and creative industries. Pan-African infrastructure investment platform Africa50 has announced a $800,000 COVID-19 Relief Support Initiative, which aims first to support the continent’s fight against the pandemic, while a second phase will focus on the deployment of technology-enabled solutions through Africa50’s Innovation Challenge initiative. French entrepreneur-focused development bank Bpifrance has launched a challenge for African startups seeking to raise between 1 and 3 million euros to finance their expansion to Europe, and especially France. Qualified African startups would either already have small ongoing operations in France or Europe, or have secured partnership agreements or letters of intent from customers. Applications close on September 30th.
On the Entertainment side, guidelines for a potential response are starting to emerge. East African investment fund HEVA has released its report on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the Kenyan creative ecosystem, with the goal of informing future initiatives by the fund and its institutional partners which include the British Council, Goethe Institute, AFD and UNDP. The document confirms the brutal loss of revenue experienced by many practitioners, and proposes resilience and recovery measures such as the establishment of artist representation, savings and credit unions; the improvement of royalty collection mechanisms; various tax, financial and administrative incentives; and an ambitious scheme for the government to employ artists to produce or perform public social works around the country. HEVA is currently conducting similar studies in the other East African markets where it operates. Across the continent in Senegal, the Direction of Cinematography also recently released a report on the impact of the crisis on the country’s cinema and audiovisual sector which highlights the strength of the blow, with the postponement or cancellation of 47 film, series and commercial shoots since March, the halted construction of a 7-screen multiplex cinema, the delayed delivery of a feasibility study for a major AFD-backed Cinema Village project, the closure of film schools, and the cancellation of numerous festivals and events. Finally, the European Commission and the Organization of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP) have launched CultureXchange, a “knowledge and skills sharing platform” which aims to be a hub for stakeholders from the cultural and creative industries, and a project incubator highlighting funding opportunities and collaborative schemes from the private and public sectors.
INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE
Angola Cables has recorded 170% growth in traffic on its IP network during the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period last year. Although a large portion of the growth can be attributed to the rapid surge in demand following the lockdown, additional traffic has also been caused by the opening of points of presence in the primary global traffic exchange locations in recent months.
MOBILE
South Africa’s Vodacom has switched on Africa’s first-ever 5G mobile network in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria, with more rollouts scheduled for other parts of the country. Vodacom used the temporary additional spectrum allocated by the country’s telecoms regulator ICASA for the duration of the lockdown to fast track its 5G rollout. Vodacom expects the deployment of 5G to facilitate the management of the 40% increase in mobile network traffic and the 250% increase in fixed traffic that the telco has experienced in the past few weeks.
I’ve talked in previous editions of HUSTLE & FLOW about the big prize that Ethiopia’s liberalization of its 100 million consumer market represents for telcos, as the government gets ready to offer two new licenses and sell part of the state-controlled monopoly, Ethio Telecom. The Ethiopian Communications Authority’s consultation period on the terms of these first competitive telecoms licences ends today May 11th. Kenyan operator Safaricom, one of several serious bidders, is determined to enter the Ethiopian market despite the country’s central bank announcing that it would only allow locally-owned financial institutions to offer mobile money services. This means that Safaricom will need an Ethiopian partner to locally operate its M-Pesa service, which accounted for 33.6% of the telco’s total revenue last year. The winning bids are expected to be announced after Ethiopia’s August 29th general elections.
While mobile operators across the continent are leveraging the current surge in demand caused by lowering data prices and acquiring new customers, Econet Wireless goes Hara-Kiri in Zimbabwe. The operator reportedly hiked its data prices by up to 225% overnight last week. Cash-squeezed Zimbabweans took their anger to social media with the hashtag #EconetMustFall. Econet didn’t offer an explanation for its tone-deaf move, however it seemed to follow an April 20th letter to its suppliers in which the company said it was experiencing tough trading conditions and ironically asked suppliers to cut their prices by 20%.
FASHION
The COVID crisis has spurred unprecedented collaborations around the world, whether it’s been between governments and the private sector, citizens of different generations, or competitors in the same industries. In Africa, fashion is one of the areas in which this change of mindset is the most apparent. Designers are now collaborating to source material together in bulk and share factory space, while industry leaders from across the continent are joining forces to map out the future of fashion. The topic was central to the recent discussion hosted by Lagos Fashion Week’s Omoyemi Akerele, who brought together her counterparts from South Africa, Senegal, Uganda, and Ghana. The speakers shared various ideas, including developing a joint fashion education curriculum, standardizing the criteria for the selection of designers who show at the regional Fashion Weeks, share fundraising efforts, and coordinating Fashion Week calendars across the continent to allow more people (designers, buyers, journalists) to travel from one to the other, while at the same time also considering the option of limiting travel by having designers only show physically in their home countries and in the rest of the world through a joint online platform.
The underlying impetus for fashion industry leaders is to foster the development of a strong pan-African regional market and become less reliant on the West as the main export destination and on Asia as the main supplier of fabric and other raw materials. In this effort, the fashion sector is set to benefit enormously from the launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area which was initially scheduled for July 1st but postponed due to the crisis, as intra-African export tariffs are currently prohibitive. The mammoth AfCFTA project would unite 55 nations into a $3.4 trillion free-trade economic zone, the largest trading bloc since the World Trade Organization formed in 1994.
VISUAL ARTS
Quartz has a lovely piece this week on the remarkable resurgence of acclaimed Nigerian modernist painter and sculptor Ben Enwonwu, after the recent discoveries of some of his long-lost works in private homes in London and Texas. Enwonwu is widely considered to be one of Africa’s greatest contemporary artists and known for fusing Western techniques with indigenous aesthetics. The entire Quartz article is worth reading for its analysis of concepts such as artistic influence, the white gaze, and authentic Africanness, which at some point were used to question Enwonwu’s work. He passed away in 1994. In 2018, his Tutu (Africa’s Mona Lisa) sold at a record $1.6 million, and in 2019, his portrait of Christine sold at $1.4 million, or seven times its valuation.
Ben Enwonwu’s distinguished legacy can only inspire young Nigerian contemporary artists. For Oyinkansola Dada, founder of online art gallery POLARTICS, building art ecosystems in Africa implies not only supporting young artists but also inspiring younger Africans to collect: “A lot of the works being created by the artists we work with engage with themes that are relevant to African millennials, and I think it’s important that a great proportion of these works end up in their hands.”
Another leading contemporary African artist in the news this week is Billie Zangewa, who was just picked up for representation in New York by the prestigious Lehmann Maupin gallery. Zangewa hails from Malawi and South Africa and works with silk fabrics to create scenes that explore her own personal narrative and celebrate womanhood. Lehman Maupin is showcasing one of her pieces in its online booth as part of the Frieze New York art fair, which opened last week.
From the chi-chi New York gallery world we move to the overcrowded Mathare slum in Nairobi where a street artist called Msale is creating giant murals to bring public health messages about COVID-19 to half a million people. Msale is far from the only one in his line of work. In fact, Nairobi has a long tradition of using street art to incite positive change, and a vibrant community of street artists who are recognized on the world stage, showcased at global festivals and regularly commissioned by local or international organizations, businesses and NGOs for original murals. My personal favorite is the graffiti artist WiseTwo.
MUSIC
Following the recent news of its expansion to 17 new African countries, Apple Music has launched a month-long celebration of African artists with exclusive playlists curated by music heavyweights Angélique Kidjo, Davido, Sauti Sol, or Jimmy Dludlu. Meanwhile Spotify has rolled out its Premium Family plan in South Africa, granting six people access to Spotify Premium through one shared subscription for $5.39 per month. If you remember our music focus in HUSTLE & FLOW #10 and keep your ear to the ground, you will notice the rumblings of Africa’s long-awaited music streaming boom getting louder.
SPORTS
Football fans can breathe a sigh of relief as Germany’s Bundesliga, which had been on pause since March 13 because of the pandemic, has been given the green light to resume its standard calendar from May 16. However, games will be held behind closed doors and without physical audiences. No such luck for the French Ligue 1, which was not given the go-ahead to restart its season. One of the consequences of the COVID crisis in the sports sector has been the growth of esport, as we’ve discussed previously in HUSTLE & FLOW. Sébastien Audoux, the head of digital sports at Canal+, believes that esport will stick around post-COVID because it represents strong competition for second or third-tier sports, especially if these esports games are grudge matches between popular Ligue 1 stars and are properly advertised.
Meanwhile in America, the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s UFC 249 was the first major US sporting event to emerge from the shutdown when it took place last Saturday in Florida (where, in one of these inexplicable Florida quirks, employees of professional sports organizations are deemed essential workers). Founded in 1993, the UFC was valued at $2 million in 2001 and sold to Endeavor in 2016 for around $4 billion, so that's serious business. Pre-COVID, the UFC was in discussions with French media giant Vivendi and its newly launched Afro-European MMA League (ARES) to expand on a partnership that started with a first MMA event in Dakar in December 2019. While the UFC plans for at least three more events in the US in May, Vivendi’s ARES cancelled all its competitions previously scheduled to take place in Africa and Europe in 2020. But considering the commercial potential, “ce n’est que partie remise,” as we say in French.
BROADCAST
Nigeria’s Federal Government has granted a two-month licence fee waiver to terrestrial broadcast stations to support the sector during the pandemic, while South Africa’s ICASA has exempted national broadcaster SABC from the 65% local TV content quota which was becoming impossible to fulfill since many local production houses were forced to shut in March.
FILM
French sales group Wide Management has picked up worldwide rights (outside of Ethiopia) for Running Against the Wind, Ethiopia's official entry for the best international film Oscar directed by Jan Philipp Weyl. The film will be presented to buyers next month at Cannes' virtual film market, the Marché du Film Online.
The trailer for upcoming Nigerian-American fraternity drama Tazmanian Devil is here. The film, about a newly immigrated Nigerian student who "struggles to balance his conflicting desires of joining a college fraternity and bonding with his strictly religious father" is director Solomon Onita’s first feature. It boasts a pretty serious pedigree with Beasts of No Nation’s Abraham Attah and When They See Us’ Adepero Oduye starring and American music moguls Birdman and Benny Boom producing.
VOD
Netflix has announced that its second African original series Blood & Water, a youth-led drama series directed by the award-winning Nosipho Dumisa, would be released on May 20. Blood & Water will follow the story of a teenager who discovers shocking secrets about her family's past whilst trying to navigate life at a South African high school. Also coming to the service this week are Nigerian films Anchor Baby, Living in Bondage: Breaking Free, Delivery Boy and She is, as well as romantic comedy Cook Off, Netflix’s first acquisition from Zimbabwe. In parallel, the streamer has introduced its ‘Made in Africa’ collection, a curated list of African series, documentaries and films, to celebrate Africa Month and demonstrate Netflix’s commitment to the continent.
On a global scale, VOD has been a great winner of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the industry is starting to wonder about what awaits when the world emerges from the health crisis only to jump into an economic one where consumers will be rethinking their household expenses. Although Africa is still far behind and consumers there are not yet overwhelmed by a proliferation of streaming services like they are in the west, they might also experience a sharp drop in their disposable income. Bloomberg has an interesting opinion piece highlighting three ideas the industry should explore: incorporate ads but in new, inventive ways; reintroduce content and internet bundles (already the case in Africa); and make VOD apps more of a social community akin to Instagram and TikTok. All of these suggestions are very relevant to the perennially cash-sensitive African market.
CONTENT PRODUCTION
South Africa’s film production and film servicing industry (which normally caters to big budget Hollywood or European projects) has been hard hit by the coronavirus shutdown. Last week the first steps were taken towards the reopening of film sets and shooting resumed for several shows including SABC2's 7de Laan, kykNET's Binnelanders, and SABC1's Skeem Saam. Although South Africa has the most developed TV industry on the continent, many challenges still pave the way of TV series creators (even in a non-COVID context), as Tjovitjo director Vincent Moloi expressed in an enlightening Facebook post. The Tjovitjo pilot was shot 7 years ago and rejected by all South African broadcasters. The self-funded series sat around for 4 years before the SABC took a gamble and licensed it. Tjovitjo went on to break the South African viewership record for a drama series and won 7 South African Film & Television Awards. It is now on Netflix. Many African TV producers can relate to Vincent Moloi’s experience with Tjovitjo. When my team and I launched The XYZ Show in Kenya in 2009, we also had to fund the project independently, as broadcasters were not financing local content at the time. We offered the program to Citizen TV for free. It instantaneously became one of Kenya’s most popular shows, won some awards, made headlines around the world, and remains on the air more than 10 years later. Although the industry has seen progress during the past decade, many stubborn hurdles remain (such as broadcasters’ risk-averse stance) and the disruption caused by the arrival of Netflix and other global players is more than welcome.
ANIMATION
The coronavirus crisis has created a big opportunity for the global animation industry, writes producer and writer Aaron Simpson. Contrary to live-action, the animation sector has faced fewer layoffs thanks to a quick transition to a fully remote workflow, which has also allowed studios to respond to the surging demand for new content. What is preventing a similar phenomenon from taking place in Africa is largely access to funding (for equipment, team, development) - the quintessential African dilemma. Still, we know that African animators never stop working, even if their work is not always seen. Triggerfish, Africa’s leading studio based in Cape Town, is shedding the spotlight on young animators from across the continent through its “10 second animation competition.” The Triggerfish Academy’s next tutorial and competition will kick off mid May.
And I’ll finish this edition of HUSTLE & FLOW with the best video I’ve seen all week: Dance Glitch. They’re young guys, they're from Nigeria and they’re on TikTok, so you know it’s going to be good.