Ghana’s contemporary art hits the streets

ACCRA: A satirical cartoon depicting a celebrity in Ghana schooling a British diplomat on how to speak pidgin English won laughter and praise from the crowd at a street festival in Accra.

The cartoon lampoons British High Commissioner to Ghana Jon Benjamin who back in April sent a tweet criticising television star Nana Anamoah’s grammar, sparking a heated debate on the West African country’s colonial past.

Contemporary artist Bright Ackwerh immortalised the inane moment with his signature style that recalls Mad Magazine’s portraits.

Ackwerh’s cartoon was just one example of contemporary art on display at the Chale Wote street festival, a showcase for up-and-coming artists held in Ghana’s capital at the weekend.

"A show like this is more for the avant-garde tastes," Ackwerh told AFP, explaining that art today in Ghana is so much more than gaudy sunset paintings and tribal masks.

"I feel like the space here has moved from that particular imagery and we are in a very modern space."

Along a historic street in Accra, crowds danced to the deep beats of local hip-hop and snapped selfies in front of colonial buildings decorated with elaborate, artistic graffiti.

Modern and contemporary African art has been on the upswing for years with a growing number of galleries -- chiefly in London -- selling art from the continent for millions of dollars.

Reflecting the bullish market for the continent’s art, this year major art broker Sotheby’s opened an African modern and contemporary art department with its first auction scheduled for 2017, said department head Hannah O’Leary.

"I think that West Africa is possibly the most interesting area of the continent at the moment," O’Leary said.

"What’s happening in Ghana is very exciting," she said.  "It feels like there is a new movement of graduates... it’s not just painting and pictures but a lot of sculpture and performance art, which is much less traditional."