For those who don’t know, I am West African. To be more specific, I am Ghanian. I didn’t always take pride in it —many of you are probably wondering… “Why Not?”— I was ridiculed for being African and got called some pretty harsh things. One phrase peers used to call me and many other Africans was, “African Booty Scratcher.”
When I was at home, that wasn’t the case. from the food and music, I loved it all. It wasn’t until high school and beyond when I truly began to embrace my, “African-ness.” One of the biggest catalysts was Afrobeats.
For those wondering, Afrobeats is a genre of music that is a combination of traditional Nigerian, Ghanaian, jazz, highlife music and chanted vocals, fused with percussion and vocal styles, popularized in Africa in the 1970s. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrobeat)
I can’t lie although Hiplife, the dominant genre of music before Afrobeats, was good, it just felt that it was catered towards my parent’s generation. I used to remember all the times at family gatherings I, and all the other kids, would sit and be bored out of our minds as our parents danced to Daddy Lumba, one of the most popular Hiplife artists of all time.
Then came 2010. Hiplife was on the decline and Afrobeats was beginning its takeover. With it came many new dances. one, in particular, was the Azonto. Azonto for myself and others made it “cool” for us to take pride in our roots. It was a chance for us to put our imprint on our respective African cultures for the future. We finally got our chance and the rest was history.
Link to Azonto: