Baaba Maal's recommendation seems to have been crucial in the appointment of Kwame Kwei Armah as FESMAN's artistic director. This emerges from a newspaper article by Hannah Pool that incorporated extensive quotations from a Skype interview conducted while Armah was in Senegal for the Festival. Armah told Pool about the opportunities and challenges offered by his role in the Festival and hinted at some of the issues that confronted him. The appointment meant that he was working on a very much larger scale than he was used to and in a very different context. His participation led to some criticism – see above – and gave him – see below – considerable satisfaction.

Armah brought out the ‘large scale’ quality of the challenge he had taken up when he told Pool: ‘The last thing I directed (2008 Let There Be Love) had seven actors, and here I am directing a stadium, with 1,000 performers and with 40,000 people cheering’. He drew attention to the quality of the performers, listed in Niang's article, who took part in the opening ceremony.

He responded with enthusiasm to the Festival's theme of Renaissance. It was his view, as quoted by Pool, that, even in Britain, ‘there is a black British renaissance – whether it's fashion with Ozwald Boateng, in architecture with David Adjaye, or in the visual arts with Yinka Shonibare or Chris Ofili.