Music
Bongo Flava was never waiting for the West
Diamond Platnumz, Alikiba, Zuchu, Harmonize and Marioo: a guide to Tanzania's pop machine and why it never needed…
Music
immerse yourself in a symphony of genres, from the latest chart-toppers to hidden indie gems. Gospel, HipHop, Highlife, Amapiano, Afrobeats
Arts + Culture
Seventy-one generations of griots, one kora: Toumani Diabaté, who died in 2024
Toumani Diabaté, the Malian kora master from a long line of griots, won Grammys with Ali Farka Touré…
Arts + Culture
Mulatu Astatke mixed Ethiopian scales with jazz and Latin grooves. Jim Jarmusch put Ethio-jazz in Hollywood
Mulatu Astatke, the father of Ethio-jazz, blended Ethiopian modes with jazz and Latin rhythms in the 1960s and…
Arts + Culture
“Umqombothi” was a 1986 party song about home-brewed beer. Hotel Rwanda put it on screens worldwide
Yvonne Chaka Chaka, known as the Princess of Africa, became one of South Africa's first black teenage pop…
Arts + Culture
Lucky Dube sang about prisons and apartheid and sold reggae to a continent. A carjacker killed him in 2007
Lucky Dube, South Africa's biggest reggae star, began in mbaqanga before switching to reggae in the 1980s. Songs…
Arts + Culture
“Ebi Te Yie” was a song about animals in 1967. Ghanaians heard it as a warning about power
Nana Kwame Ampadu and the African Brothers Band released "Ebi Te Yie" in 1967, a highlife song built…
Music
Twelve years with Wizkid’s Ayo
Wizkid's 2014 album Ayo gave us "Ojuelegba" and set up everything from One Dance to Made in Lagos.…
Arts + Culture
Orchestra Baobab played Cuban-flavoured music in a Dakar nightclub in the 1970s. Their 2001 comeback made them world stars
Orchestra Baobab formed in 1970 as the house band at the Baobab Club in Dakar, playing a mix…
Arts + Culture
Oumou Sangaré sang against polygamy and forced marriage. Mali made her a star anyway
Oumou Sangaré, the Malian singer known as the Songbird of Wassoulou, became a star in 1989 with Moussolou,…
Arts + Culture
Kwaito was the sound of freedom in 1990s Soweto: slowed-down house, township slang and swagger
Kwaito emerged in the townships of Johannesburg in the early 1990s, as apartheid ended. Built on slowed-down house…