Rabat hosts 8th MOCA festival to promote Africa's cultural industry

Africa makes up only one percent of the world's Cultural and Creative Industries, but the eighth Movement Of Creative Africas festival in Rabat sought to change that last week.

The continent's stories, dance, talent and artistic production have inspired creators all over the world but that has not always resulted in an equal amount of economic growth.

MOCA's founder Alain Bidjeck said that its objective is "to promote this African culture today that never ceases to amaze the the world and to marvel at itself, and above all to change the face and the look that we have on our continent."

Forty six countries were represented at the festival in Rabat, which is currently the African Capital of Culture. The United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA), an umbrella group, awarded the city the title. The UCLGA's Secretary General Jean-Pierre Elong Mbassi said: "it is time for Africa to recover and take its place in this market."

Mani Nordine, the Moroccan born president of the American Artists Company, said the young were the future of the continent's cultural production.

"Why it is always about the young? Because the young are the world of tomorrow. Many people in Africa are too much concerned with protocols and the elders, whom we respect enormously, but if African youth does not take action, nothing will be done culturally," he told Africanews.

Over four days the MOCA festival brought together the artists, entrepreneurs and the industry's decision makers from across the continent and beyond.

And it held the workshops and meetings and shows to encourage the creativity and cultural entrepreneurship that Africa now needs to foster.