EU National Institutes for Culture - EUNIC


Cameroon

Cameroon
Cameroonian Cultural Network
Charly Wassing performing at Pole Artcam de Bertoua. Photo: K. Bitakal & Grimo Art
Charly Wassing performing at Pole Artcam de Bertoua. Photo: K. Bitakal & Grimo Art
A group of five people sitting and standing in a recording studio, playing electric guitar, drums and electronic keyboard. Two other people are sitting to the left.
Photo: Gaza Club, Yaoundé
Result of mapping exercise: Scenes from Gaza Club, a cultural venue with the goal of sustaining and exporting culture and arts through cultural activities, contemporary arts and exhibitions.

Arts and Culture is a highly underestimated social, political, and economic sector in Cameroon. But it can play a more important role to enhance social coherence and to support a fair, democratic, and respectful dialogue between communities.

The local cultural sector depends strongly on international institutions and suffers from a lack of structural and national support. But how can the Cameroonian cultural infrastructure be strengthened? How can the production of high-quality art creation be reinforced? How can the local audience be more engaged in a dialogue with contemporary arts?

The creation of the Cameroonian Cultural Network answers to this need and facilitates the development of a more self-sustained cultural sector by using local knowledge and by establishing networks. In the long-term this could lead to the expansion of associated infrastructures that will function as competence hubs all over Cameroon, supporting other structures in the region beyond the pilot phase.

The project unifies for the first time European and Cameroonian stakehold- ers to develop a digital and physical platform in order to establish a strong network for artists, to tour art productions and to propose a capacity building programme for associated infrastructures. The network supports professionalization, structuring and connecting of the cultural sector in Cameroon, through an empowerment system based on learning-by-doing, peer-to-peer consultancy, transfer of knowledge and in particular the exchange of artists between urban and rural areas of the country.

Cameroonian Cultural Tours

Building this network was achieved in its pilot phase through regular cultural events, offering well-needed alternative visions and impulses for the grow- ing civil society in Cameroon. A special focus was given to the inclusive and decentral approach of the project, especially regarding possibilities to offer an equal exchange to cultural actors all over Cameroon from rural zones to urban zones and vice versa. The specially designed digital platform (ccnet- work.cm) is continuously fed with content, including a mapping and presenta- tion of cultural infrastructures and an event calendar, in cooperation with the wider Cameroonian cultural sector.

Early June 2022, ten cultural spaces and ten participating touring artists were selected to tour and host in different cities and regions in Cameroon. This was also the moment where the cultural spaces and the selected artists were matched and subsequently, worked together to plan touring dates. The project also included workshops on event management, risk prevention, communication strategies; a programme that continued throughout the tours. The tours of the selected artists cover dance, theatre, music, poetry, and visual arts, representing the different regions of Cameroon – including both francophone and anglophone artists.

Follow the network on the digital platform!



  • Capacity building
  • Cultural sector
  • European Spaces of Culture

Co-funded by the European Union Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.