We are an on-chain collective of creatives of African descent harnessing the power of the blockchain in order to redefine what agency means to us in the art world. We are currently building systems to manage ourselves and grow our creative careers on the blockchain in a way that serves us and our communities.

We are storytellers, artists, designers, curators, and collectors. We represent the best and the future of the creative economy in Africa. We believe in the power of web3 in revolutionizing how Africans share and consume works of art.

We are acutely aware that creatives of African descent have consistently been undervalued in the art world. This is why we will ensure history does not repeat itself in our corner of the crypto art world. We have no doubt in our ability to move and inspire audiences with our work, and we will ensure that we get our fair share of the crypto wealth pie.

This is our first fundraiser, and we are hoping to raise 57.5 ETH in order to fund our operations through Q1 of 2023. To raise these funds, our collective has created 11 NFTs interpreting the theme “Africa is not a country”. Each artist who contributed a piece will be getting at least 50% of the sales revenue for their work, but can choose to donate more to the DAO’s treasury.

Make sure you scroll all the way to the end to see all 11 pieces

01/11 - Auction - ‘Africa is a not a country’ interpreted by Moonsun Diamond

02/11 - Auction - ‘Africa is not a country’ interpreted by Arclight

📌 Why we exist

Cyber Baat exists so that we can move on our own terms in the crypto art world. By pooling our resources, platforms, and efforts together, we strive toward self-reliance, leverage in negotiations, and space to make decisions that serve both our individual and collective interests. Our main objectives are:

✊🏾 PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY

We believe that in order to thrive, we need to carve a space in the crypto art world where we feel safe, cared for, and accepted for who we are. Therefore, our curatorial efforts extend beyond art. Members of our community are selected for the quality of their work as well as their efforts in celebrating the beauty of their African heritage.

💾 CULTURAL PRESERVATION

We believe that it is our responsibility to preserve our knowledge systems, cultures, traditions, mythologies, and languages through blockchain technology. As a continent whose cultural expressions have been consistently appropriated and undervalued, we are committed to bringing our authentic voices to the blockchain and cementing our agency through our contributions to it.

🔗 COMMUNITY

We believe that community (on and off-chain) is our most valuable asset. We trust in 🤝the power of the collective: finding our tribe, sharing resources and ideas, exchanging energy, supporting and celebrating each other, among other things. The blockchain is a large and complex space. We navigate it with ease and playfulness by pooling our intentions and efforts together and showing up as one.

💪🏾 FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT

We believe that having the resources to support ourselves, our families, and create freely should not be a right of the privileged few. We seek fair and equitable opportunities to sustainably build our creative careers and make strides toward financial freedom.

03/11 - Editions - ‘Africa is not a country’ interpreted by HVR Memoirs

04/11 - Auction - ‘Africa is not a country’ interpreted by Serge Agnide Dade

05/11 - Auction - ‘Africa is not a country’ interpreted by Afroscope and Ava Silvery

🙌🏾 What you’re supporting

There are two 1/1 NFTs and eight edition NFTs ranging from 10 to 50 in this fundraiser. Collectors of any of these pieces will not only be supporting one of our 5 strategic priorities for 2022, but will also be entitled to the following:

1. A 1/1 or an edition of an NFT by some of the top selling members of our collective
2. A membership into our Collectors’ Club on Discord where we will host private auctions with Cyber Baat artists
3. Seasonal airdrops of editions of works commissioned from Cyber Baat artists
4. Free passes to mint the Cyber Baat quarterly Zine
5. Invitations to Cyber Baat’s private and public IRL events
6. Invitation to members-only online events

Direct donations to the DAO will also be considered as ‘collectors’ and be entitled to the same benefits listed above.

Allowing members of our community to participate in our DAOs governance is important to us. We want to lay the right foundations to do this in a way that allows artists to retain their agency. Therefore, we will be airdropping tokens to founding members of our community at a later date.

06/11 - Editions - ‘Africa is not a country’ interpreted by Linda Dounia

07/11 - Editions - ‘Africa is not a country’ interpreted by Ava Silvery

08/11 - Editions - ‘Africa is not a country’ interpreted by MDD

🛠 What we are building in 2022

🔦 Exposure, on our own terms

To increase our visibility in the space, we carefully select events to take part in and gather the resources through our DAO to show up in a way that makes us proud. As individual artists, these are events we would traditionally have relied on invitations by other organizations to attend. As a collective though, we can use our own resources to fund our participation. These events include but aren’t limited to:

• Global and local art fairs: We participated in Digital Art Fair Asia in 2021, and will be at Art Dubai in March 2022 for example.
• Group shows: We organized our first physical group show in Dakar in 2021, with the support of Foundation for the digital auctions. The show was a resounding success and Africa’s first physical NFT show. We plan to have another show in 2022 somewhere else on the continent.
• Commissioned shows: We collaborate with other DAOs and projects in the metaverse (examples include NFT Oasis, Refraction DAO, The VERSEverse) who commission our collective to create works around specific themes.
• Crypto conferences: We have sent representatives to notable crypto art events such as NFT LDN and will be attending the Non Fungible Conference in Lisbon for instance.

💿 Recording and archiving proofs of our presence

The crypto art world moves extremely fast. Part of this pace can be attributed to our reliance on social media to come together and make things happen fast. What we lose on however, are memories of these interactions, events, and notable moments. This is why we care about recording who crypto African artists are and what they get up to in the metaverse. When we look back at the foundational years of the crypto art revolution, we want to make sure that there are records of our presence, impact, and contributions to this space.

• Cyber Baat Zine: We will be publishing a quarterly zine about crypto art from Africa. This zine will be available to mint as an NFT, with some physical copies for early collectors.
• Cyber Baat Yearbook: We will also be publishing an annual roundup of the notable trends, events, and people in the African crypto art scene. This yearbook will be available to mint as a rare NFT. Collectors of the yearbook will receive physical copies.

🪙 Funding our dreams

Currently, the avenues for creators of African descent to raise funds for ambitious research and artistic projects are few and far between. When these funds are available, they often come with strings attached. We want to create a mechanism for members of our collective to co-fund each other’s projects. This allows us to retain agency over our projects - we can stay true to our core, be as experimental as well, share in each other’s successes, and in turn, create a safe landing pad for failed endeavors.

• Cyber Baat Creator Fund: Members of the DAO will vote on project proposals that the Creator Fund should allocate resources to. This way, artists are incentivized to keep the fund alive and growing organically through active contributions and donations.

💎 Investing together to build generational wealth

Investing together as a collective is one of the most accessible avenues for us to build generational wealth, as most high-yield projects in the space are inaccessible to the individual artist. Another aspect of investing we want to explore is making bets on emerging African artists in the space and helping steadily raise their floors.

• Cyber Baat Vault: We will periodically invest in NFTs for our vault - some from established artists and some from emerging artists, with a particular focus on artists of African descent.

⛱ Creating a space for us to build and collaborate in

Burnout has become a routine occurence for artists in the NFT space. Keeping up with the pace and dynamism of the crypto art world is a challenge for many members of our collective. This is why we want to create a residency program to enable our artists to have dedicated space to reflect, develop new ideas, experiment together, among other things.

• Cyber Baat Residency: We will fit out a live-in space with art supplies and fund trips for 2-3 artists from the collective at a time. Outputs from the residency will be shared in Cyber Baat group shows or sold in private auctions to our collectors club.

09/11 - Editions - ‘Africa is not a country’ interpreted by Vintage Mozart

10/11 - Editions - ‘Africa is not a country’ interpreted by Brook

11/11 - Editions - ‘Africa is not a country’ interpreted by Afroscope

🔜 Next steps

Following this fundraiser, we will be focused on the following:

1. Art Dubai: Come say hi at our booth if you’re around. We will be displaying a collection of artworks from our founding members on the theme of ‘sacred roots’
2. Non Fungible Conference, Lisbon: Come say hi at our booth if you’re around. There might be some printed copies of the Zine to pick up.
3. Cyber Baat Zine #1: Our first zine will go live in March! Look out for minting instructions on our platforms.
4. Onboarding more artists: There will be a chance for artists to apply to join Cyber Baat in the coming months.

To stay in touch with all things Cyber Baat, please follow us on Twitter and join our Discord.