Central Africa: prospects for a cultural emergency

In recent decades, biennials and festivals have multiplied across Africa, proof of the growing dynamism of the cultural sector, to which private actors and governments take a special interest, for several reasons. Cultural reasons related to the preservation of diversity with the threat of globalization seen as potential factor of standardization. But also economics reasons on having turned the African creators into conquerors of markets. Based on the case of the countries of Central Africa –considered to be the Cradle of Humankind, as the oldest hominid fossil was found in 2001 in Chad–, the aim of this article is to determine cultural policies in this region. Also it highlights the challenges and the opportunities to carry out development mechanisms of the cultural industry from policies that generate wealth, jobs and, above all, to return dignity to peoples.