Artists from Ghana, Ethiopia and Tanzania have combined efforts to urge governments to allocate more funds to arts and culture.
The performers are pushing for at least 1 per cent of the respective governments’ annual budgets be channelled to the arts kitty.
The artists, drawn from the three nations, made the petition in Ethiopia on Friday, Reuters reports.
Partnering with the African Union and Selam, a non-governmental organisation based in Ethiopia, the artists hope their project called Connect for Culture Africa (CfCA) will bear fruit within the next five years.
Selam Ethiopia uses film, music and circus performances to address pressing issues such as women rights.
“We want to empower artists. A lot of artists want to participate in these discussions about good governance, human rights but they are scared of the consequences,” Lucy Ilado, regional programme director at Selam, told Reuters.
CfCA organisers said they would seek the input of government agencies, research centres, artists and the civil society to propose bills on budgetary allocations that would have the potential of being adopted as law.
