Kwame Ametepe Tsikata, better known as M.anifest, voiced his disapproval of the growing practice of attaching the prefix ‘Afro’ to emerging African music styles on the African Imagery Podcast. He said he was appalled by the “wanton knack” to label new genres with the prefix, questioning the need for such a designation.
“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.
Historically, the use of ‘Afro’ in genre names dates back to the 1950s when Guy Warren, aka Kofi Ghanaba, coined Afro‑Jazz to describe his fusion of jazz with Afro‑Caribbean rhythms. Professor John Collins notes that Ghanaba’s experimentation predated later Afro‑fusion artists in West Africa.
By the 1980s, the term Afro‑pop had become a broad label for African popular music, later superseded by the global category ‘World Music’ in the mid‑1980s. The mid‑2000s saw DJ Abrantee popularise ‘Afrobeats’ as an umbrella term for West African pop, a brand that Nigerian artists embraced and expanded into Afrofusion, AfroSoul, AfroRock and AfroDancehall.
Some prominent Afrobeats figures have expressed similar reservations about the name, preferring alternative labels that better reflect their musical identities. The debate highlights a broader conversation about cultural branding and artistic freedom in African music.
