African Culture Fund (ACF) is a continental funding mechanism for cultural projects in Africa.
The African Culture Fund (ACF) call for proposals for the Solidarity Fund for Artists and Cultural Organizations in Africa (SOFACO), Lot n°3 “Special Covid–19/ Individual Artists & Cultural Organizations” was launched on 21 April 2021 and closed on 20 May 2021.
The main objective of SOFACO is to strengthen the resilience of artists and cultural organizations through support for the creation and reconstruction of the social fabric of the arts sector in Africa during the Covid–19 crisis. At the close of the call, 694 applications were registered, of which 320 were French–speaking and 374 English–speaking, namely 439 individual artists and 255 cultural organizations. Applications were received from 37 African countries and 2 from the diaspora.
The selection process was carried out in three stages: registration and screening of the applications, which allowed the creation of a purged database, as well as pre–selection and evaluation and final selection by an autonomous and independent Jury.
The jury composed of: Dr Jean-Luc Gbati Sonhaye (Togo) ; Dr Robert Nantchouang (Cameroon) ; Donikpo David Koné (Côte d’Ivoire) made the final selection and deliberation of the applications on July 5th, 2021.
At the end of the deliberation, 55 laureates were selected, including 25 cultural organizations and 30 individual artists. The laureates are from 22 African countries, including 10 French–speaking countries, 9 English–speaking countries, and 3 Arabic–speaking countries. The classification according to the category of laureates is as follows: –25 laureate cultural organizations, of which 10 are English–speaking and 15 French–speaking.–30 individual laureate artists, of which 21 are French–speaking, 4 Arabic–speaking, and 5 English–speaking.
The African Culture Fund would like to reiterate its thanks to the donor artists, patrons and its partners, notably the Moroccan Foundation for the Development of Contemporary African Culture, AFREXIM BANK, Foundation Festival sur le Niger, DOEN Foundation and Open Society Foundations for their support.
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Download the list of successful candidates here