During a recent visit to Cameroon, I had the chance to visit the international artisanal center of Yaoundé where I was able to admire the exhibition of works by local contemporary artists. I particularly exchanged with the artist Bita’a Mani Tarcicius whose painting on covid-19 particularly caught my attention (see video).

I mentioned to him the phenomenon of the blockchain and the possibilities of digital to open up to the world of art. Despite his good general knowledge, he had never heard of NFTs, at best only bitcoin evoked something for him.

I propose a case study on the possibility of opening contemporary artists from Africa south of the Sahras (Senegal, Cameroon,...) to the world of digital works with the possibility of offering some of their creation in the form of NFTs.

The Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs), often traded in cryptocurrencies, are digital assets encoded in the form of a smart contract through a blockchain for art or collection items like in the in-game world. They became popular through the record sale for $69.3 million, of a digital artwork from the artist Beeple, Everydays: The First 5000 Days. It could have been conjured a fad, but several other record sales clearly indicate that NFTs are dominating the contemporary art market: the first tweet or music video are sold for millions of dollars.