Globalisation and enterprise support in African arts and culture: A Ghanaian context

Globalisation is about interdependency, yet Ghana is offered a minor role in this regard and is instead very much in a dependent position. Globalisation is largely driven by technology and its democratisation, which is fundamental to the growth of the SMEs in the arts and culture sectors of the Ghanaian economy. Like the Kente fabric described above, there are many symbols and icons of African and Ghanaian culture which are manufactured internationally at cheaper production costs, thus economically encouraging Ghanaian entrepreneurs to become passive consumers in the resale of their own identity. To build a stronger picture of the experiences of cultural and creative entrepreneurs in Ghana this chapter now describes qualitative interviews with seven business owners in the sector to better understand the key issues and challenges being encountered. This chapter adopts a qualitative approach to gain a richer picture of enterprise experiences in the cultural and creative sector in Ghana.