The phrase "Africa To The World'' has been imprinted in ways that seemed impossible ten years ago with a wave of African Giants taking over the global stage. These include Nigerian artists Burna Boy, Tems and Rema performing at the NBA 2023 Allstar Game halftime show in Utah and Davido delivering an electric performance at the closing ceremony of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Stormzy: ‘The greatest music on Earth is coming out of Africa’ - Dazed Magazine
It’s a complete cultural takeover that’s influencing everything everywhere all at once and that impact has been growing year on year. We’re now in a place where the TikTok hashtags “Afrobeats” and “Amapiano” have a combined total of 13.9B views. That's more than Pop, Rock and Grime combined.
So what does this mean for us here in the UK?
01 - Local can go globa
Acknowledge the importance of distribution. Marketing out of market has never been so easy, and content is king. Consumers around the world (whether part of the diaspora, or not) are hungry to explore and celebrate African culture in all of its forms, be that on their phones on the tube, or waiting in Duty Free en route for Detty December.
02 - Go hard or go home
Connect with the key storytellers, influencers and collectives on the ground. Activate, amplify and jumpstart that FOMO back home.
03 - Invest now to create the future
The future is here, it’s just not evenly or ethically distributed. This is about impact. The brands that play a nuanced role in diasporic culture will win as the cultural capitals of tomorrow evolve away from Western centric capitals like New York, London, Paris, Milan.
04 - Go beyond the return
As brands wanting to play in the Black cultural spaces here in the UK, how can you support and invest in building infrastructure for those cultures to thrive at their source, back home in the motherland?
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