The people loved seeing an Englishman in Africa 70. They couldn’t believe it at first. Oyinbo (white man) drummer! They would come and press money on my forehead. It was a mark of approval. It would ...

On 18 February 1977 a thousand soldiers from the Nigerian army stormed a communal compound in Lagos that outlaw bandleader Fela Kuti had declared his own independent state: the Kalakuta Republic. They ...

Hailing from Africa in the '70s and christened by Fela Kuti, the infectious sound of Afrobeat combines elements of jazz, funk and traditional Nigerian music. The likes of Talking Heads, TV On The ...

It is getting near midnight on a Friday evening in the Nigerian capital in the late 1970s. Young Lagosians are trekking from Oju Elegba, at the heart of the city’s night club scene, towards the old ...

In the spectrum of global music and culture, a powerful force is rising—not quietly, but with the thunderous beat of talking drums, hypnotic basslines, and unapologetic energy. Afrobeat, more than ...

Young Nigerian and German musicians joined forces at Beethovenfest for this year's DW Campus Project — making music and memories to last a lifetime. When young musicians from Nigeria and Germany took ...

Gilles Peterson and Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers pay tribute to the Fela Kuti collaborator, described by Brian Eno as ‘perhaps the greatest drummer who ever lived’ The Nigerian drummer Tony Allen, ...

If you liked this story, share it with other people. Santiago, Chile-based band Newen Afrobeat’s songs are infused with themes to do with ecology, indigenous and women’s rights, and cultural ...

“I wanted to be one of the best — that was my wish,” Nigerian drum legend Tony Allen said on the Trap Set podcast during a 2015 interview. “To be the best, it’s not when you are doing the same thing ...

With the Nigerian bandleader Fela and later on his own, he merged West African styles with American jazz and funk, reaching listeners worldwide. By Jon Pareles Tony Allen, the drummer who created the ...