“The prejudice still surrounding Africa is absolutely rooted in a racist past”

Your new series, African Renaissance, explores the art of three African nations. How did you decide which countries to focus upon?

Given that Africa is a continent of more than 50 countries and incredible human, cultural, geographic and historical diversity, we wanted to focus on countries with a rich ancient culture and contemporary art scene. I felt that it was also really important to tell stories from the African continent that are less familiar to people in Britain, because we can sometimes follow slightly colonial patterns of tending to look at the nations that are most well-known as Commonwealth members or former British colonies.

The first country we explore is Senegal, a former Francophone French colony with a fascinating precolonial history and an interesting story of resistance against empire, which has produced some incredible art as a result of that journey. It’s also somewhere that I have lived, so I have a personal attachment to it.

Secondly, we went to Ethiopia, which has an ancient Christian tradition and a vibrant contemporary art scene. The third country, Kenya, is probably more familiar to British people – but although they may think of its wildlife and landscape, they probably haven’t fully engaged with its cultural history.

So each country had a story that we felt was a bit different to the ones that people are used to hearing, and each has so much to offer the world in terms of the sheer brilliance of the art that it’s now producing.

Is it too reductive to say that the art and culture of all three of these nations is, to some extent, defined by their struggles for liberation?