COVID-19 Cripples Creative Arts Industry
Desmond Tunde Coker
The Chairlady of the Arts and Craft Centre situated at Lumley Beach Road, Jenneh Lahai, has said in an interview
with Premier News that the outbreak of the coronavirus in Sierra Leone, has
caused a fall in the income and prices of artworks produced by creative artists
in the country.
She said that since May 2020 sales had been very low and she had been facing serious difficulty in providing for her survival. She added that she has now shifted to another trade to make ends meet.
Hannah Turay produces necklaces and
wrist bands made out of beads and fish bones which she sells to the Centre. She
also produces and sells dresses sewn with gara-tie-dyed fabrics designed with
beads at the crest, and bedsheet made of that same fabric. Turay said that
since the Coronavirus emerged sales in her beads, gara-tie-dyed fabrics and
other products has drastically fallen. She added that it is now common for her
to sit at her selling booth a whole day without selling a single item.
She said mostly the people who buy
artworks from them are tourists visiting the country from abroad, adding that after
the initial outbreak of the Coronavirus in the country, the government closed
all international borders. That affected the inflow of tourists rendering them
lack of patronage.
Turay noted that before COVID-19
business was good and the art industry was booming in the months leading up to
the country reporting its index case. She attributed the boom in sale during
pre-COVID-19 period to the demand from Sierra Leoneans and tourists who
frequently bought their products.
“Because of the stagnation of business
in the past months, I had to spend moneys I had set aside for other purposes in
order to provide food for my family. Even though government has reopened the
airport, we are yet to realize an increase in sales. It has to take sometimes
before we can again reach our peak,” she added.
She explained that she was trained to
produce the art works which she now produces and sells by the present chairlady
of the Centre in the year 2000. She recalled that back then they displayed
products in a small kiosk which was located at the frontage of Mammy Yoko Hotel
in Aberdeen because the environment there was busy with vehicles plying
regularly. She said that for the safety of their children who were mostly at
that spot where they did business, the UN Women decided to relocate them to
their present location with the intention of making them comfortable.
A Creative Art Artist, Idrissa Kamara, also cited that since the Creative Art Industry is a fundamental pillar of the Tourism sector, it is believed to have been amongst the sector that has been negatively impacted by COVID-19.
He reiterated that their trade
flourishes when they have tourists into the country, but because government
closed the airport in a bid to curtail the spread of the coronavirus the
creative art business has not been good.
Kamara called on government to
provide the requisite support to the creative arts industry to get it back on
its feet.
The Ministry of Tourism and Cultural
Affairs said in a statement that the government had provided relief package in
the form of cash to businesses in the tourism sector whose activities were negatively
impacted by COVID-19, but artists said such fund is not enough to compensate
for the revenue loss they suffer as a result of the coronavirus.
Note: This story was produced with support from Journalists for Human Rights (JHR), through its Mobilizing Media in the Fight Against COVID-19, in partnership with Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ).
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