Music
George Darko and burger highlife: the Ghanaian sound made in Germany
In the early 1980s, Ghanaian musicians living in Germany created burger highlife, a version of highlife played with…
Music
immerse yourself in a symphony of genres, from the latest chart-toppers to hidden indie gems. Gospel, HipHop, Highlife, Amapiano, Afrobeats
Music
Fatai Rolling Dollar: the palm-wine guitarist who found fame again in his eighties
Fatai Rolling Dollar played palm-wine and highlife guitar in Lagos from the 1950s. After decades out of the…
Music
The Lijadu Sisters: Nigeria’s twin voices of 1970s Afro-funk
Twins Taiwo and Kehinde Lijadu recorded sharp, harmony-driven Afro-funk and Afro-rock in 1970s Lagos. Their records, long hard…
Music
Kassé Mady Diabaté: the griot voice of Mali who sang with Buena Vista veterans
Kassé Mady Diabaté, born into a griot family in Mali in 1949, was one of the great singers…
Music
Alemayehu Eshete: the “Ethiopian Elvis” of Addis Ababa’s golden age
Alemayehu Eshete was one of the stars of Addis Ababa's musical golden age in the 1960s and 1970s.…
Music
Geraldo Pino: the Sierra Leonean soul bandleader who changed West African music
Geraldo Pino and his band the Heartbeats brought James Brown-style soul to Freetown, Accra and Lagos in the…
Music
Orlando Julius: the Nigerian saxophonist who fused highlife with soul
Orlando Julius Ekemode, a saxophonist and bandleader from Ekiti, blended highlife, juju and American soul in the 1960s,…
Music
Sauti za Busara: the Zanzibar festival that fills an old fort with African music every February
Sauti za Busara, meaning "sounds of wisdom" in Swahili, is an annual festival of African music held in…
Music
Mohammed Wardi: Sudan’s great singer, Nubian voice and voice of protest
Mohammed Wardi, born in Nubia in northern Sudan in 1932, became the most celebrated singer in Sudan, singing…
Music
Marrabenta: the dance music of Maputo’s suburbs and Mozambique’s national sound
Marrabenta grew in the suburbs of colonial Lourenço Marques, today's Maputo, in the mid-twentieth century. Combining local rhythms…