Why are our African artists not taking advantage of international windfall by Africom

African artists poor unlike their cousins
The failure of African artists to cash in on the current international
windfall cannot be blamed on machinations by 'blood sucking western
capitalists' but on Africans' own failure to cotton on to a good thing -
even when it stares us in the face, writes  Osei G. Kofi.

Among the many godchildren of Globalization is the art business. It has
grown from several hundred million dollars a year into a multi-billion
dollar industry in a little over a decade. Bad news is that Africa is
missing out on this bonanza.

Today art, especially contemporary art, brings together a vast, growing
community of savvy artists, dealers, curators, galleries, museums, auction
houses, publishers, film makers and internet designers in an exciting new
marketplace where everyone seems to gain enormously. Unfortunately Africa
and Africans are sadly locked out of this burgeoning business.
And this time it is not due to any machination by "blood sucking western
capitalists" of the post-colonial order but by Africans' own failure to
cotton on to a good thing - even when it stares us in the face.

The just-ended Art Basel, the world's biggest art fair, held every June in
the Swiss industrial city of Basel, is a case in point. For five
action-packed days last month the three hanger-size exhibition halls at
Messeplatz on the banks of the sleepy Rhine, throbbed with feverish activity
as the who-and-who of global art cut deals over an array of eye popping,
heart thumping goodies.