Exploring the Need for Cultural Programming Beyond Major African Cities

Today, we look at the importance of taking opportunities to places outside Africa's major cities.

Author

Unpublished Africa
July 27, 2026

Welcome to African Visual Storyteller! Your weekly guide to African photographers, exhibitions, and creative opportunities.

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Panashe Chimedza - Inside Eastgate, 2025. Inside Harare’s Eastgate Centre, a landmark of eco-architecture. Its open, layered design draws the eye upward, echoing the city’s push toward modern sustainability while still carrying the texture of the past.

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The Need for Cultural Programming Beyond Major African Cities

Our paper, Distributed Cultural Infrastructure in Africa: Lessons from Unpublished Africa Photo Week, asks an important question: What happens when cultural programming reaches beyond major cities?

The Reality Beyond the Capitals

Across Africa, photographers and visual storytellers live and work in secondary cities and rural communities. They produce compelling work, yet many face the same challenges: opportunities for learning, exhibiting, networking, and professional development, which are often concentrated hundreds of kilometres away.

For many creatives, attending a festival or workshop requires significant travel, accommodation costs, and time away from work. These barriers mean that talent is not always matched by opportunity.

As a result, entire communities can become disconnected from the wider creative ecosystem, despite having artists who are eager to learn, collaborate, and contribute.

Rethinking Cultural Infrastructure

The paper challenges the idea that expanding Africa's creative sector depends on building more cultural institutions.

It introduces the concept of distributed cultural infrastructure, a model that focuses on connecting existing communities through partnerships, local organisers, and shared programming.

Rather than asking photographers to travel to one central location, programmes are brought directly into the communities where people already live and create. Local organisers shape activities to reflect their own context while remaining connected to a larger continental network.

This approach recognises that cultural infrastructure is not only about buildings; it’s also about relationships, knowledge sharing, and creating opportunities that are accessible to everyone.

What Unpublished Africa Photo Week Demonstrated

Unpublished Africa Photo Week has become a practical example of what this model can achieve.

Between 2024 and 2025, the initiative expanded from three cities in three countries to 15 cities across nine African countries. The festival collaborated with local photography groups, cultural organisations, and volunteer facilitators who hosted events within their own communities.

One of the paper's most telling findings came from Nigeria, where almost 45% of registrations originated from cities outside Lagos and Abuja. The data demonstrates that demand for photography education and cultural programming extends far beyond Africa's largest creative hubs.

Why This Matters

Expanding cultural programming beyond major cities is about more than increasing participation, it is also about creating a more representative creative landscape.

When photographers from smaller cities and underserved communities gain access to workshops, exhibitions, mentorship, and professional networks, they bring new perspectives, untold stories, and diverse visual languages into the conversation.

Communities also benefit from local events because they strengthen creative networks, encourage collaboration between organisations, and inspire the next generation of artists without requiring them to relocate in search of opportunities.

Looking Ahead

The paper concludes that Africa's creative future does not depend solely on building more cultural centres, but depends on building stronger connections between the communities that already exist.

Investing in local facilitators, supporting community-led initiatives, embracing hybrid programming, and fostering partnerships across borders can make cultural opportunities more inclusive and sustainable.

As the creative economy continues to grow, the challenge is no longer whether talent exists beyond Africa's major cities.

The real opportunity lies in ensuring that cultural programming grows alongside it, reaching photographers wherever they are and recognising that creativity thrives in every corner of the continent when communities are empowered to lead.

To read more, click the link below:

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More conversations, walks, and opportunities ahead.

— Unpublished Africa