African-made content is crossing over into the global cultural mainstream

By John McDermott: chief Africa correspondent, The Economist

OVER THE past decade Nigerian artists have blazed a trail for the continent’s musicians. Afrobeats, or Afropop, is an umbrella term for an amalgamation of sounds that is becoming increasingly popular in Europe and North America. It reached a new peak in August 2020, when the fifth album by Burna Boy, a Nigerian singer-songwriter, reached number one in the streaming charts in dozens of countries.

To date it has been male Nigerian artists such as Burna Boy, Davido and Wizkid who have led the way in taking contemporary African music into the global mainstream. They have signed record deals with leading American labels, racked up hit singles and headlined huge concerts. Their success is inspiring—but it has led some to worry that overseas audiences will come to think of African popular music as exclusively Nigerian.

Such worries should subside in 2021, however, as a wider variety of African musicians and sounds gain more global attention. South African rappers Nasty C and Nadia Nakai, among others, recently signed to Def Jam Africa, a branch of Universal Music Group established in May 2020. South Africa’s take on house music, which includes the genres of gqom and amapiano, is growing in popularity. Although these sounds are often adapted by Nigerian producers before they receive global attention, many listeners want to check out the original genre.

Other artists who are famous across much of the continent and on the verge of wider success include Innoss’B (from Congo), Sheebah Karungi (Uganda), Brian Nadra (Kenya) and Manu WorldStar (who is South African-Congolese). Tiwa Savage, a Nigerian superstar known as the “Queen of Afrobeats”, is likely to rival the popularity of her male peers. Styles developed in diaspora communities—most notably Afro Trap—will gain prominence, too. All these sounds, and more, are finding outlets in dedicated playlists on platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music.

Western audiences will have more African-made content to watch, as well as listen to, in 2021. Netflix will release several “African Original” shows, including “Far From Home”, a Nigerian series about a poor teenager catapulted into the world of the country’s elite, and “Jiva!”, a South African drama. “Blood & Water”, a popular teen series set in Cape Town, is returning for a second season. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian novelist, is having her bestselling novel “Americanah” made into an HBO series by Danai Gurira, an American actress and playwright of Zimbabwean parentage.

Such programming should help update Western views of the continent. A study of American television found that, in 700,000 hours of shows broadcast in a single month (March 2018), there were just 25 significant storylines about Africa. Of those, about half concerned crime. In 2021 these stereotypes will be increasingly—and belatedly—challenged.

John McDermott: chief Africa correspondent, The Economist ■

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition of The World in 2021 under the headline “Afrobeats go global”