Paper short abstract:

Accra’s new arts scene is characterized by a renewed sense of social conscience, manifesting in active attempts to circumvent or disrupt colonial assumptions and institutions. Their success in doing so has implications for cultural diplomacy and how civil society is defined.

Paper long abstract:

Residents of Ghana's capital city Accra witness a mushrooming of art and new culture in the public space.

This follows years of decline under military rule, during which many creatives migrated or went underground. Within this period there was an ossification of political engagement within local youth culture.

As both an intellectual and a DJ who has been an active practitioner in the Accra creative scene over the past decade, my cursory observations reveal that this recent resurgence is characterized by increasing political commentary, and active attempts to circumvent or disrupt colonial assumptions and institutions.

These observations pushed me to investigate this phenomenon through interviews with key participants in these creative communities (for example, those in digital media, visual arts, and the performing arts).

Drawing from these interviews, it is clear that participants in Accra's arts scene actively bridge, for example, 'traditional' African cultural practices with their new realities. In doing so, they move away from 'art on walls' towards art as a social transformative tool.

Without much support from the State, these 'youth creatives' combine consistent production with social media mastery to form a networked community that spills over from the virtual into the material world, furthering arguments for a bottom-up definition of civil society (Von Lieres, 2014). This cultural economy leverages the goodwill and services of creatives, audiences and communities - both local and foreign - to actively convince local society, the Diaspora and the broader international community of the social relevance and transformative potential of their work.