It’s an ordinary day on the web for a diverse group of African creatives; or at least, as ordinary a day as it has been since they found a new and exciting way to advance their careers.
“Ordinary” now involves a daily gathering on Twitter Space for a long chat. The creatives mostly come from Nigeria (Lagos, Enugu, Lekki, Port-Harcourt, and other cities), but they rarely, if ever, see one another. Photographers, painters, animators… just six months ago they didn’t even know of each other’s existence. Yet, today, they have a strong community, working together to build names and sell their art on NFT marketplaces, like OpenSea, Tezos, Foundation, and others.
NFT stands for Non-Fongible Token. It’s a digital asset based on blockchain technology (the same that is used for cryptocurrencies), that includes the name of the owner of the asset, in the blockchain. This allows the platform on which the NFT was created to keep track of who is holding it or trading it – a viable solution for artists who lack a marketplace to create financial value from the artwork they produce.
“It helps artists to secure their work and control their revenue. He has access to the international market from where he is – in a country like Cameroon, for example. He will be able to get his royalty paid to him in perpetuity. Anytime the piece of art is resold, the artist will have an opportunity to earn a royalty”, explained Frisco D’Anconia a.k.a Kofi Akosah , the president of Africa Blockchain University, an organisation which promotes blockchain technology adoption across Africa.
To leverage NFT opportunities, African artists are building communities to provide mutual support and promote each other. An example is the Art Support System, which came about when 24-year-old Nigerian photographer “1Jubril” saw an opportunity to promote African artists and artwork on NFT marketplaces.
“Art support system is a community of artists-turned-friends, built out of genuine vibes and love to give artists the support within the blockchain ecosystem,” he said.
“The recipe is quite simple, it consists in engaging each other with art posts on social media by sharing, liking and commenting. It also consists in experience-sharing, he further explained. The ultimate vision is to promote genuine African art and to champion African values on the road to becoming a force on the global stage, making it together without leaving anyone out,” 1Jubril explained.
“Like anyone, I didn’t know anybody”, he recalled.
He followed a few people and joined spaces hosted by other artists. While he never got to meet them in person, he was inspired to create a group focusing on the opportunities for NFT art. From conversation to conversation, the space and the number of participants started to grow.
“There’s been massive support. We’ve been expanding our reach. On Twitter you can only have 75 people in the group. I periodically remove inactive people. So the group today is not the initial 75,” he said via Twitter messaging.
