And so it came to pass that an idea that was conceived out of frustration 15 years ago, that became a reality 2 years later, is growing in name and fame 13 years later. 13 years on, we are proudly not looking back in anger but always looking forward with a determined hope that the best is still ahead of our baby, Africa Night.
So it was this May 2011 that Africa Night celebrated it’s rites of passage from its childhood years to its puberty years. Africa Night is now a promising teenager whose outlook remains very bright. The 13th year party had everything that has made Africa Night the place to be. People coming late and then coming in droves! People feeling at home and then feeling loved. People sweating in the heat but just keeping on dancing. Regular guests bringing new guests who then ask themselves why it had never occurred to them to come earlier.
And then the music stopped! Out of nowhere the sound system just gave up the ghosts around 01.30 hours. Big hug to all our guests. They were just as surprised as we were and after some initial disbelief just went on socialising without much complaints as we went about fixing the situation. Tried as we could, we could not breathe any life to the sound installations any more. But there was plan B! We switched over to the backup installations and the party just went on as if nothing happened. To compensate for the loss of sound, Africa Night went on an hour longer than normal. But even then, people seemed not to have had enough!
The highlight for this writer though has to be the last hour when members of the audience took it in turn to put on an elaborate festivity, cardboard crown brought by one of our guests. We’ve never seen people having so much fun. It was the best 1 hour of Africa Night ever. And that is what we are talking about! It was the perfect way to bring a nice night to bed.
We have always remained true to the pledge we made at the beginning of this journey 13 years ago. Africa Night will never be an ego trip for its organisers nor its deejays. It is about the audience and about the music. We are just there to facilitate. We are never the story. The music and our patrons are the main actors who narrate the story. And there is a reason why it is Africa Night and not African Night. We pledged at the beginning that our idea was going to be about the love of Africa music. If you love Africa music, you have to always feel welcomed at our show. Naming it African Night would have subconsciously implied that it was/is only open to Africans. We are happy we made the choice to call it Africa. Just come to any given Africa Night, you will see that ours is an open door to all nationalities, races, sex, sizes etc. No apologies.
And we are definitely refusing to go the tribal way. We don’t care where the music is from in Africa. If it is good music, we will play it. If it is music with roots in Africa, we will play it. Full stop. By doing that, we are discovering the unbelievable depth of the African musical heritage. When we started 13 years ago, the repertoire was made up of just Ndombolo from the Congos and Mbalax and Salsa from Senegal. As time went by the following joined the fray; Bongo flava (Tanzania), Genge (Kenya), UG (Uganda), Naijapop (Nigeria), Coupe decalle, Zouglou etc. (Ivory Coast), Hiplife (Ghana), Rai (Algeria), Kwaito & House (South Africa), Zouk, Kizomba, Kudoro, Funana (Cape Verde & Angola). So did music genres from Guinea, Togo, Sudan, Botswana, Ethiopia, Madagascar etc. We think you get the idea! The more we researched, the more we found. And the audience have always reacted positively.
Africa Night is unique because we don’t follow the trends. We set the trends. And That’s what we are talking about!
Discover the joy of African music & dance!
