Afrocentrism – THE AFRIKAN REVIEWER

If Beyoncé wrote a love letter to Africa through “The Lion King: The Gift”, then Burna Boy just penned down the marriage vows with his recently released album, The African Giant.

Infused with African culture, Nigerian history and musical melodies, this 19 track album awakens in each of us a renewed feeling of Afro-optimism in ways you couldn’t imagine were possible before. It took me a while to jump into the Burna Boy boat but listening to his album (which I have been playing on repeat all day) I dare question, is this the new Fela? Situating his music along a lineage of African greats, his Afro-fusion sound is Sankofa in practice. Not only does he create a new sound that the world is eating up in chunks, his melodies stand on the shoulders of those who came before him and introduced Nigerian or I dare say, African music, to the world. Continue reading The African Giant: From Burna Boy to The World

There is something beautiful happening in terms of the African renaissance globally.

Amongst many other reasons, the growing population of African diaspora is enabling Africa’s music, art and culture to be amplified in ways unimaginable to our parents and grandparents even merely 20 years ago. One doesn’t have to look to far with Hollywood films such as Black Panther and Beyoncé’s recently released album “The Lion King: The Gift” to show the contribution Africa is making in shaping global culture.

But what happens to a continent when we wash away its trauma to focus merely on what it can do for others rather than what has been done to it? How do we embrace the peaks we are now reaching if we cannot discuss and heal from the traumas of our past? Continue reading Making The Glocal Localized