A few months ago, a young student walked into my training center with a deep desire to learn graphic design and website development. His eyes were filled with hope, yet behind them sat a quiet frustration—a longing for something more than just software skills. As we talked, I quickly realized he wasn’t just another student. He was an artist—one of the many raw, brilliant, and often overlooked African creatives whose potential goes unnoticed in our systems.

And that’s when the painful question hit me:

Are we losing track of our artists in Africa?

Have we, as a continent, relegated our artists to a fading role of simply painting ancestral tales and cultural memories? Have we reduced their place to drawing old images in classrooms and exhibitions while the world builds its future through visionary design and disruptive creativity?

It’s time we acknowledge a sobering truth: many of our African artists are slowly becoming members of a class that no one wants to belong to. A class that feels forgotten, underfunded, and unappreciated—when in fact, they are among the most essential architects of our future.

Art Isn’t a Hobby; It’s Infrastructure

Look around you, every building, every product, every technological interface, befvisualisedore it was real, it was imagined. Before it stood, it was designed. Before it functioned, it was visualized. Art is not the decoration of development. It is its foundation.

We must stop treating artists as though they exist on the periphery of progress. Design is not luxury; it is language. It is how civilisations express possibility. And Africa, now more than ever, must become fluent in that language if we are to build a continent worthy of the dreams we carry.

A Call to Governments and Leaders

To those in power, to policymakers, educators, and funders, design is your opportunity for reinvention. When you support art, you don’t just support paintings. You ignite innovation. You activate culture. You fuel industries like fashion, architecture, tech, entertainment, product development, education, and beyond.

We must start building Design Ecosystems in our countries:

• Schools that teach both traditional art and digital design.
• Policies that protect and promote intellectual property.
• Funding that empowers art-tech startups and creative entrepreneurs.
• Collaborations that link art to engineering, agriculture, education, and even governance.

To All Africans Reading This: Rethink Art

The continent’s future won’t only be built with steel and concrete—it will be built with vision. And our artists are the carriers of vision.

Let us create a world where African children grow up not fearing to say, “I want to be an artist,” but are excited knowing they’ll shape nations through their imagination.

Let’s give space for the artist who redesigns the identity of African cities.
Let’s invest in the designer who will inspire the next breakthrough in wearable technology.
Let’s believe in the illustrator who will tell our stories with dignity, pride, and futurism.

Imagination is Our Greatest Currency

Art is not just about beauty; it’s about belonging. When we see ourselves in the designs, visuals, and creations around us, we begin to believe we matter. And in a continent as diverse and youthful as Africa, nothing could be more powerful.

So, let’s not just remember our artists—let’s reintegrate them into the heart of development.

Because when you empower the African artist, you awaken a continent’s ability to see what has never been seen and create what the world has never known.