Page 61 - Urban Kapital DECEMBER DIGITAL ISSUE

AFROBEATS

RECONNECTED

THE DIASPORA

Turn on your urban radio station right now // AFRICANS IN

and within 30 minutes, you are likely to
listen to an Afrobeats. “Afrobeats” as op- THE UK SEEMED
posed to “Afrobeat” (1970 genre invented TO IDENTIFY WITH
by Nigerian musician, Fela Kuti) is a music
phenomenon that exploded in 2012. And THEIR CARIBBEAN
frankly, 7 years later, I believe it is long
overdue. African immigration is not new COUSINS RATHER
to the United Kingdom and yet, France and
Belgium in particular, have always been at THAN THEIR
the forefront when it came to promoting Af-
rican music. BROTHERS IN THE

As early as 1999, Bisso Na Bisso, a con- MOTHERLAND
glomerate of French rappers with a Con-
golese heritage, released RACINES (Roots)
to celebrate their African-ness. That album
successfully blended Rap and RNB to clas-
sic African rhythms and melodies to spear-
head a movement that many followed in
the Francophone and Lusophone diaspora
community. Bisso Na Bisso looked to Africa
for inspiration. The lyrical content equally
addressed the woes of being black in Eu-
rope as well as la joie de vivre typical to
Africans.

Around the same time, Africans in the UK
seemed to identify with their Caribbean
cousins more than their brothers in the
motherland. One can question the reason
for this. Was it a sense of sharing a com-
mon British culture? Or was it a lack of
self-identity?

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