Ghanaian rapper M.anifest has criticised the growing use of the prefix “Afro” to describe African music genres and their modern offshoots.
The musician, whose real name is Kwame Ametepe Tsikata, said the trend risked limiting the creativity of African artists.
Speaking on the African Imagery Podcast, the No Shortcut to Heaven hitmaker said he was frustrated by what he described as the widespread habit of attaching “Afro” to new musical styles.
“So now everyone wants to do, Afro this, Afro that. Where is the camera? Can I look at it and make a statement? We are very innovative people. Every genre we create doesn’t have to be ‘Afro’ something. We can create new forms. We have to let our imaginations run free,” he said.
The use of “Afro” in music terminology has a long history. Guy Warren, also known as Kofi Ghanaba, was among the earliest musicians to apply it to a genre, coining “Afro-Jazz” to describe his work.
His term emerged before Nigerian musician Fela Kuti developed Afrobeat, which was spelled without the “s”.
Professor John Collins documented Ghanaba’s musical direction in Highlife Time 3, writing: “…in 1951, Kofi Ghanaba and most of the other members of the Tempos Band split and left for Liberia. The reason for this was that E.T. Mensah, who owned the musical instruments, wanted to create a synthesis of highlife with calypso and Latin American music, whereas Ghanaba was more interested in fusing jazz with Afro-Caribbean drumming.”
Collins added: “…what Ghanaba was doing then preceded the later generations of Afro-fusions artistes in West Africa.”
By the 1980s, “Afro-pop” had become an established broad description for African popular music. The music was initially promoted internationally under that label before London-based record companies and music journalists adopted “World Music” as a wider marketing category in 1986/87.
The term “Afrobeats”, with the final “s”, gained popularity in the mid-2000s after being promoted by DJ Abrantee. It became an umbrella term for West African pop music.
Nigerian artists subsequently adopted and developed the label into a commercially successful brand, helping bring substantial recognition to both Nigeria and the wider African continent.
However, several leading Afrobeats artists have since voiced reservations about the name. Some prefer to describe their music using labels such as Afrofusion, AfroSoul, AfroRock or AfroDancehall.
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