Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at the changing nature of public performance in relation to the new, privatized African city. I examine the relationship between corporate sponsorship and the making of national audiences in Ghana through artistic events.

Paper long abstract:

This paper looks at the changing nature of public performance in relation to the new, privatized African city. Artistic labor that goes into making performance events is central to how neoliberal Africans imagine their relationship to urban space as well as globalization. I examine the relationship between corporate sponsorship and the making of national audiences in Accra, Ghana through musical/artistic events. I focus on a recent major musical event, the Vodaphone 020 Festival, which was sponsored by a major corporate mobile phone provider though celebrated Ghanaian national and Pan-African imaginaries. It featured African American R&B musicians and local Ghanaian rap artists. This event is significant because it shows how Ghanaian artists play out the contradictions between national/linguistic identification and global Pan-African and corporate aspirations. It also demonstrates the changing nature of artistic labor ways in relation to new digital music production and staging forms that go into producing major public arts events, as well as the tensions between high art and popular tastes. In understanding how artistic value is made in public urban events, this paper explores the tensions inherent in the privatization of the African urban landscape.