There is no better time to be African than now, and trust when I say that being or identifying with the African culture is the new and current trend. Please don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to be racist or ethnocentric, I’m only pushing a point here, that the African culture is taking over the world and it is here to stay.
Recently, African culture, its sounds, way of life, dressing, food, movies and a host of others are being appreciated and copied on a global scale now. Even global celebrities like Beyoncé, Chris Brown, Drake, Jidenna, Major Lazer and a host of others are beginning to incorporate African Sounds like Afrobeat, Afropop and Afrofusion in their crafts and have even gone as far as featuring or working with some top African celebrities like Wizkid, Davido, Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage, Yemi Alade, Mr. Eazi, Tekno, Shatta Wale, Nasty C and a host of others.
In fact, some celebrities who necessarily do not have African roots, are beginning to take great advantage of this maleficent phenomenon, like Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake, Cardi B and so many others have at some point in their career or currently incorporated or appropriated African or Black culture in their music. But it should be pointed out that some of them, have for long been doing this. Some might call this culture appropriation or king fishing; well, it might be that or it might just be a chosen interest in that form of art.
Even Hollywood is beginning to see the great potentials of Africa, as a result, the first black superhero movie was shot, the movie Black Panther paid homage to the great cultures of Africa, though the kingdom of Wakanda was fictional, it showed us an Africa that was beautiful and not undeveloped but advanced and well developed in all areas of life. This feat alone proved that Africa was a force to reckon with, this movie break records, made box office smash around the world, won various awards and even an Oscar, the first-ever for Marvel Studios.
Not forgetting the most recent feats by our very own homeboys Wizkid and Burna Boy who made history on March 14, 2021, by becoming the first Nigerian indigenous acts to win the most prestigious music award in the world, the Grammys for the best music video and best global music album respectively. The trifecta Burna Boy achieved at the 2021 BET Awards a precedent he set since 2019 for BET’s best international act, enabling history in the making. What a great time to be Nigerian!!!
Well, times have changed; I will like to say that they are becoming a bit better, or is it? But long-ago things were not this easy and acceptable, the African culture was regarded as savage or unreformed, her culture, music, way of life, dressing and even food were disregarded and unaccepted by the world. African was seen as a dark continent that was engulfed with poverty, disease, corruption, bad leadership, war, famine and every other horrible thing that you could think of in this life, was the label that was given to the great and industrious people of Africa. To the world, nothing good could and would ever come out of Africa and they were right nothing good could come out of Africa because Africa had gone beyond the realms of being good enough to be the best at the game.
Thanks to forerunners like late great Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, late Lucky Dube, late Brenda Fassie, and so many others, were at the forefront of the projection of the African culture and its great qualities to the world, with the help of their music they were able to tell the story of Africa, its great culture, music, way of life, dressing, food, problems, social ills and all issues that concerned Africa in a better and accurate light, rather than the make-believe theories and stories that were prominent at that time about Africa. They were to perform in world-class stages, push for the great cause of Africa, break boundaries and project an Africa that is beautiful, wonderful and proud.
In some cases, this level of activism got some of these stars into trouble with the government of their countries of origin but it did not stop them, they were able to make a great impact, bring Africa to the notice of the world and continue to inspire many artists of today in their various crafts. Some would say that many successful African artists of today are reaping the fruits of the labour of these great forerunners, others would say that these currents African artists had to make moves to achieve these great feats. I would like to point that though these current artists had to make a move to get this great recognition for Africa, these forerunners were the ones who first put Africa on the map and paved the way for this paradigm shift in arts to Africa, though it took a long time for us to get here. They were the ones that planted the first seeds of Africa’s greatness to the world.
This is great and believe me when I say that this is just the beginning of what is to come, the African Culture is so endowed, great and richly blessed that it just keeps getting better and better and the best is yet to come.
