Afrobeats Enters the Building 

Vanessa Obioha 

The campaign for Nigerian creatives to own their narrative is beginning to gain traction with the release of two documentaries on Nigerian music,  writes Vanessa Obioha

In 2017, the i-Represent International Documentary Film Festival (iREP) tackled the theme ‘Archiving Africa’. The conversations swirled around the importance of documenting our creative works as it will be the compass to navigate our past and project the future. It was agreed that archiving is key in telling stories about Africa.

That message rings true today as creatives are taking charge of the narratives emanating from Africa. A good pointer is the recent release of documentaries focusing on the evolution of Nigerian music which today is described as a culmination of sounds under the label ‘Afrobeats.’ Paradoxically, this coinage was made popular by non-Africans.

The origin of Afrobeats can be traced to different sources but the term is derived from Afrobeat,  the hybrid of highlife, jazz and soul music created by the late popular musician and activist, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. 

With many flavourful sounds springing up in the 90s, Nigerian artists found a way to incorporate cultural identity into their songs. Thus, genres such as Afro-pop were adopted as the identity of Nigerian music. All of that changed in the last few years when the successes of Nigerian music acts like Burna Boy, Wizkid, and Davido began to gain international recognition. Moreso, these artists started sampling Fela’s Afrobeat sounds. For instance, Wizkid’s ‘Ojuelegba’ gained popularity and rave reviews for his sampling of Fela’s sounds. A need to find a suitable name for Nigerian music became unavoidable, fetching it the holistic term Afrobeats, albeit christened so by Westerners.

Two new music documentaries released recently on streaming platforms seek to document Afrobeats. The first, ‘Journey of the Beats’, was released last week on Showmax. The documentary, a production of the creative entrepreneur Obi Asika traces the origin of Nigerian music from pre-independence to the Afrobeats rave. Featuring musicians, historians, art custodians, and journalists, the 10-episode series released weekly aims to document the rise of Afrobeats. Told in a narrative format, it captures the trends and beats of the era, juxtapositioning it with interviews with key players of that era.

The second, ‘Afrobeats’ was released on Netflix two days ago. It also features the artists of the Afrobeats movement, from the 2Babas to the Wizkids.

The explosion of these music documentaries signals a conscious effort to own the narrative of Afrobeats. Also, choosing to debut it on streaming platforms with a wider reach can be considered a strategic move to push the stories beyond borders.

To be sure, Nigerian music has enjoyed a certain degree of documentation. From Afrobeat to Highlife to Fuji and Juju music, these indigenous sounds have been researched by filmmakers and artists over the years. Last year, the musician Ade Bantu and his friend Siji Awoyinka premiered ‘Elder’s Corner’ at iREP. The documentary is a historical celebration of the country’s legendary musicians. 

With the recent documentary on Afrobeats, Nigerians are owning the narrative without filters. Just like Jazz music originated from the  African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, future generations will find invaluable pointers in trying to understand the origin of Afrobeats through these works and finding a way to project its future.