In the 30 years since it was torn apart by an ethnic genocide, the tiny central African nation of Rwanda has sought to be a model of reconciliation, forward-thinking economics and – recently – a leadership role in the global transition to green energy.
It now seeks to become a cultural hub that showcases a mental transition driven by younger generations of Africans who refuse to be defined or limited by their continent’s troubled past. That idea is at the heart of an ambitious arts festival that opens today in Kigali, the capital.
The Kigali Triennale reflects “the broader issue of recovery, of rebirth after genocide,” the organizers wrote. “As elsewhere in Africa, where many decolonizations have failed, it is a question of knowing how to start again, as Africans … to let people know that these young people have something to say to the world, in a radically new way. “
In just 26 years, 1 in 4 people on the planet will be African. The continent’s rapid growth – its population is set to double by 2050 – marks a youthful contrast to graying trends in Europe, Asia and the United States. The generations of Africans born after the Cold War, apartheid in South Africa and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda have dramatically new views of themselves and their place in the world.
Better educated than their parents and impatient with faltering governance, they are harnessing technology to drive innovation and affirm trust, optimism and dignity. A 2023 survey by the Geneva-based Foundation for Higher Education for Good found that African youth desire a sense of purpose and achievement more than material success.
“We feel like the opportunities are limitless for us right now,” Jean-Patrick Niambé, a hip-hop artist from the Ivory Coast, told the New York Times in October.
African sensibilities are spreading globally. From 2018 to 2023, the number of Africans or African diaspora participants in the Venice Architecture Biennale rose from two to 89. The 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, the field’s most prestigious award, was from Burkina Faso. The Brooklyn Museum presented a fashion exhibition last fall featuring works by 40 designers from 20 African countries.
The 10-day festival in Kigali brings together the works of more than 400 artists from 25 African countries (and some from Europe and the Middle East). They represent a wide range of creative expression – in painting, drama, film-making, literature, fashion, sculpture, dance, music and gastronomy.
The Rwandan government hopes the festival will be a catalyst for economic development. If so, it may be due to the deeper purpose of art to stir the higher tones of thought that enrich human achievement with purpose.
“We cannot continue to live in this stranglehold of economic and mental poverty where all our resources are exploited,” said Niyi Coker, a Nigerian filmmaker and director of the School of Theater, Television and Film at San Diego State University. “We define ourselves… and tell our own historical truths.” The next generation of Africans, he told iBand Magazine, should “have a story about who they are and where they come from.”