2023-12-23 20:00:15
It’s Sunday, evening is falling, and what’s more, it’s raining. The taxi, inserted in a long line of cars, incongruous in this rural and poorly lit corner of the confines of the Kenyan capital, almost gets bogged down on the endless dirt road. Less than a hundred meters away lies the Nairobi National Park, with its tall grass meadows, rivers and wildlife. Lurking in the shadows, lions, wildebeests and rhinoceroses probably hear the distant beat of the bass but are far from suspecting that there is standing there, duly separated by a small canyon dug out by a river: the latest edition of an event in electro music vogue.
When the taxi arrives, there’s a change in the atmosphere: the security agents are on duty, the parking lot is full, and the revelers already fill a good part of the huge beige tent set up for the occasion, visibly few worried about the threatening black clouds passing above them.
View of the venue of the electro music festival held on November 5, 2023, near Nairobi National Park, Kenya. EDUARDO SOTERAS FOR “THE WORLD” The electro music festival, in Nairobi, Kenya, on November 5, 2023, is an opportunity for exchanges. EDUARDO SOTERAS FOR “THE WORLD”
Both hands in the air, headphones on his head, the DJ dominates from his platform a dancing and enthusiastic crowd, electrified by a ballet of projectors and geysers of lights. The partygoers are young Kenyans, between 20 and 40 years old, mostly from the upper classes, whose outfits meet the global codes of electro: casual clothes and a pair of sneakers, sometimes complemented by a bucket hat and sunglasses ( despite the darkness), fluorescent paint on the face or a wax or kitenge kimono.
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Electro music, explains Sarah, who does not wish to give her name, “ it’s a state of mind ». « It’s very relaxed, you can just let yourself go, there’s no pressure, you just dance and exist », Explains this thirty-year-old with an already broken voice, while beating the rhythm, arm in arm with a friend.
Terrible noise level
Ten years ago, when she was at university, this music was not yet very popular, she says. You could only listen to it in a few underground establishments in Westlands, the party district, which extends its streets dotted with bars in the very center of this capital of around 5 million inhabitants. There were also this handful of festivals, organized by enthusiasts in incongruous places, sometimes in the middle of the bush.
The wave pianos, this house with a fairly slow tempo, with heady synth loops incorporating African sounds, coming straight from the townships of South Africa, popularized the genre. A stronghold of electro in sub-Saharan Africa, the “rainbow nation” had long forged this culture with to it then the barrelwhich is now sweeping across the continent with amapiano, thanks in particular to stars like Uncle Waffles, a 23-year-old DJ popularized by social networks.
DJ vibes the electro music party in Nairobi, Kenya, November 5, 2023. EDUARDO SOTERAS FOR “THE WORLD” VIP area of the party organized by Gondwana and Kunye, in Nairobi, Kenya, November 5, 2023. EDUARDO SOTERAS FOR “THE WORLD” Masai outfit during the electro party, in Nairobi, Kenya, November 5, 2023. EDUARDO SOTERAS FOR “THE WORLD” Episode 2 In Juba, the Baobab House, the workshop-bar “where we can be whoever we want” in South Sudan
That evening in Nairobi, local organizer Gondwana teamed up with Johannesburg label Kunye. “ Amapiano is a very good balance between commercial music and African music”, explains Euggy, one of the founders of Gondwana and a DJ himself, about the growing success of this musical genre in his hometown. “ There are a lot of things that are borrowed from African sounds, which we have known forever, so people can easily relate to the music », he adds, shouting from the VIP area where we overlook the crowd with a staggering noise level – a marker of the Nairobi night.
The popularity of the genre exploded during Covid
Until now, in the bars of Westlands or Kilimani, a more residential area but where several establishments have opened, the music mainly borrowed from two geographical areas. East Africa first of all, with the flava bong Tanzanian (the local hip hop of Diamond Platnumz or Harmonize) or even the gengetone Kenyan (a local slang rap inspired by reggaeton, notably with Ethic Entertainment). Above all, Nairobi was dancing to the big names of Nigerian afrobeats, continental stars who fill venues as far as Europe like Wizkid, Davido or Patoranking.
Amapiano has now become essential, on playlists but also in sales. “ For sure », Says Peng Cheng, who set up the online ticketing company HustleSasa. This observer of Nairobi nightlife, who also runs the Alchemist, a huge bar and club in Westlands which, on weekends, is never empty until 5 or 6 a.m., notes that the popularity of the genre has also exploded during Covid. “ Ironically, there were quite strict lockdowns in South Africa and so South African artists saw this as an opportunity to come and work in Kenya. They played during the day, outdoors. I think it played a role » in this success, he said.
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Now, Nairobi DJs have also started producing their own amapiano. But on the other side of the continent, the powerful and very creative music industry of Lagos has not said its last word: Nigerian artists have integrated its tones into their Afrobeats, creating what some are already nicknamed omopiano.
Photo pose during the electro music festival, in Nairobi, Kenya, November 5, 2023. EDUARDO SOTERAS FOR “THE WORLD”
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