‌Coda

108. Youssou N’Dour in concert, Dakar.

In his book My Festival Romance (2017), Thomas Brooman, co-founder of the WOMAD festival, includes a chapter titled ‘An Albatross called World Music’. He describes the unfortunate elision which occurred between the term world music as it was conceived by himself and other UK promoters and labels to market music other than reggae, blues, jazz, folk or classical, and its subsequent interpretation as a musical genre that caused its artists to feel alienated from the mainstream. As Brooman puts it,

Intellectually it was deeply frustrating and many artists felt uncomfortably caught up in the whole thing. Youssou N’Dour, a world music artist? Well, no thank you very much. How about an artist from Senegal? What’s so wrong with that? And while we’re at it, how about a great artist from Senegal?1

Back in 1993 Youssou’s compatriot, Baaba Maal, had already expressed his concerns to UK journalist Chris Salewicz: ‘World music has become the refugee camp of the record business: only a handful have succeeded in escaping its confines and getting permanent residence in the West.’2

In 2015, British journalist Anita Awbi noted how African music continues to conquer the world: ‘African music has burst its banks, spilling out from its “world music” categorisation and its concert hall programming to flood the mainstream, the underground and beyond.’3

In 2018 Nigerian German musician, producer and social activist Ade Bantu explains how, in the twenty-first century, perceptions have changed:

African music is now generally considered to be hip, cool and sexy. At one time, all you had was world music to gain access to an audience in Europe or America. Now you don’t have to take that route. In an R & B club in Berlin they are playing Nigerian music and second- and third-generation Africans are walking with pride because of that.4

All the same, the ‘world music’ tag allowed many artists to achieve worldwide fame, and though the number of record labels marketing this music is in decline, the world’s musicians are listening to each other from the four corners of the earth and many are on the move. There has been a marked increase in collaborations between African musicians and those from outside the continent, a trend set by Youssou N’Dour and Neneh Cherry, Ali Farka Touré and Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabaté (to name just a few). In 2006, British pop star Damon Albarn and journalist Ian Birrell established the Africa Express collective, which offers African musicians and their collaborators a platform for musical meetings and experimentation. Juldeh Camara, the remarkable ritti player from Gambia, teamed up with UK guitarist Justin Adams as part of this collective.

One of the most successful so-called fusion albums, Clychau Dibon, released in 2013, features Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita, now based in England. This deft duetting between harps from two different continents has been described as ‘intricate, ethereal and entrancing, an elaborate pas de deux’.5 The album Ladilikan by Trio Da Kali and the Kronos Quartet, recorded in just four days in a studio in Switzerland, features traditional musicians from Mali: the rich and ravishing voice of Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté, daughter of singer Kassé Mady Diabaté; the ngoni of Mamadou Kouyaté, son of xalam player Bassekou Kouyaté; and the virtuoso balafon of Lassana Diabaté. David Harrington, founder and artistic director of the Kronos Quartet, who are famous for their musical adventures outside of the Western classical tradition, has described this album as one of the most beautiful the quartet has ever made.

Youssou’s 2016 album Africa Rekk was classified, tellingly, as pop music and not as world music, and it is resolutely pan-African in style and tone. In an interview with Ibrahima Khalil Wade of Dakar magazine l’Enquête Youssou said this:

Africa Rekk is a cry of hope, a pan-African message for everyone and especially for Africa’s young people, who need to take responsibility for their continent. Given the mixed achievements of the last fifty years, it is they who must now work peacefully and resolutely towards sustained success in every domain. As well as the talents of a new generation of poised and promising artists, Africa Rekk also showcases the beauty of African sounds and rhythms. This album points to a positive future for Africa.6

Youssou’s guests on Africa Rekk include Nigerian guitarist Femi Leye (‘Bull Ko Door’) and his compatriot Spotless (‘Dawal’), Congolese singer Fally Ipupa (‘Ban La’) and Senegalese American superstar Akon (‘Conquer the World’). In what is undoubtedly the most powerful song on the album, two strong voices express their admiration for each other’s talent. ‘If you open my heart, you’ll find You there,’ sings Akon before affirming triumphantly, ‘As long as I have you in my soul I will conquer, conquer the world.’

By 2050 it is estimated that around 2.2 billion people could be added to the global population, and more than half of that growth will occur in Africa. Nigeria alone is projected to have over 300 million inhabitants.7 Following years of poverty and war, Africa, the second largest and second most populated continent on earth, is developing at a dizzying pace, and six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies are now African. This burgeoning prosperity is reflected in a similar surge in creativity in the arts, fashion, music and sport. Africa is set to reveal its twenty-first-century face to the world.

It was in Lagos, a town of 30 million inhabitants in the most populous country on the African continent (one in seven Africans is Nigerian) that Sony Music set up its African head office in January 2016. Interviewed for the French newspaper Le Monde by Joan Tilouine, Sony Africa CEO Michael Ugwu said, ‘We believe that the moment has come for our artists to take their place on the international stage and we see this as the beginning of a cultural revolution in Africa.’ For Tilouine, young artists like Tiwa Savage, Wizkid aka Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun and Davido aka David Adeleke are now able to negotiate important contracts while preserving their artistic freedom. They are key players in a new generation of confident, enterprising young artists who know what they want and are proud to be African.^‌8

In the BBC TV series Africa: A Journey into Music, transmitted on BBC Four in 2018, Ghanaian-born presenter Rita Ray visited three countries – Nigeria, South Africa and Mali – and noted how in Nigeria in particular a space has opened up for women artists like Tiwa Savage, often dubbed the Beyoncé of Nigeria, who have moved into the mainstream. Today’s Afrobeats have become a global phenomenon and, as Rita Ray observed in the series, ‘Africa is owning her culture and identity in a thrilling way.’ You might say that, thanks to the struggles of a Fela Kuti or a Youssou N’Dour, these rising stars have the talent, the imagination, the momentum and the media tools to finally break free of the confines of the ‘world music’ label and take their place alongside Jay-Z or will.i.am. In short, they have the ambition to conquer the world.