Afropop Worldwide

WINDOW: M01_Djazia_ChoufEllil.wav Djazia Satour (time to next emerge. Trim from the beginning so we get to the guitar riff sooner.)

GEORGES: WOMEX, THE WORLD’S BIGGEST GATHERING OF GLOBAL MUSIC PROFESSIONALS, UNFOLDED OVER FIVE DAYS IN LISBON PORTUGAL IN OCTOBER, 2022. NIGHT AFTER NIGHT, DAY AFTER DAY, AFROPOP WORLDWIDE PAID CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE AFRICAN AND AFRICAN DIASPORA ACTS, AND VERY SOON, A PATTERN BEGAN TO EMERGE. HELLO, GEORGES COLLINET WITH YOU ON AFROPOP WORLDWIDE FROM PRX.

THE MAJORITY OF ACTS WE COVERED AT WOMEX WERE BANDS LED BY AFRICAN-DESCENDED WOMEN, MOSTLY LIVING IN FOREIGN LANDS. THAT TELLS YOU TWO THINGS. FIRST, IT’S DIFFICULT FOR ARTISTS BASED IN AFRICA TO AFFORD THE COSTS OF ATTENDING WOMEX. AND SECOND, WOMEN ARE RULING THE AFROPOP SCENE IN 2022. CASE IN POINT, DJAZIA SATOUR.

WINDOW: M01_Djazia_ChoufEllil.wav (emerge on vocal at 0:59—1:25, then to bed)

GEORGES: DJAZIA WAS BORN IN ALGERIA, BUT MOVED TO FRANCE WHEN SHE WAS NINE YEARS OLD.

ACTY: 01_Djazia_start.wav: (French)

ACTY: 01a_Djazia_start_VO.wav: My parents encouraged me to play music, but only after finishing my high school. I had a brother who plays music, and I was supported by my parents.

GEORGES: AND NOT JUST ANY BROTHER. DJAZIA’S OLDER BROTHER IS AMAZIGHT KATEB. REGULAR LISTENERS MAY KNOW KATEB AS THE FOUNDER OF THE BAND GNAWA DIFFUSION.

ACTY: 02_Djazia_brother.wav: (stereo, two voices) “Actually, he discovered you, right?” “Right.” “So her brother said, ‘You better come and sing with me.’” “You must come and sing with me.” (laughter)

WINDOW: short

ACTY: 03_Djazia_tour.wav: (French)

ACTY: 03a_Djazia_tour_VO.wav: At the age of 15 she was absolutely passionate about music, but she also had the possibility to have a tour with her brother. They were tours. They were studio recordings, so she already had the chance to discover the world of professional recording at the very early age of 15. So step by step, there was the confidence coming, from the experience, but also she was waiting for a good musical project.

GEORGES: THAT PROJECT CAME WHEN SHE JOINED THE FRENCH TRIP HOP BAND M. I. G..

ACTY: 04_Djazia_triphop.wav: I didn't know this music at all. Trip hop was for me a discovery. It was a very big freedom for me of creation. And I was very young. So it was a very new experience. It was enthusiastic.

GEORGES: BUT FOR ALL THIS YOUNG EXPERIENCE, TRIP HOP AND ELECTRONICA WERE NOT THE MUSIC STYLES THAT BROUGHT DJAZIA TO WOMEX. SHE CITES INFLUENCES FROM MICHAEL JACKSON TO TRADITIONAL GNAWA, CHAABI AND AMAZIGHT MUSIC TO OUMOU SANGARE AND… WELL, YOU GET THE IDEA. IN 2010, DJAZIA CREATED HER OWN, MORE ACOUSTIC GROUP. HER WOMEX SET RANGED FROM INTIMATE NORTH AFRICAN FOLKLORE TO GRANDIOSE ARAB ROCK. THIS SONG, “CHOUF ELLIL” IS A STORY ABOUT MODERN NOMADS WHO TAKE TO THE SEAS AND NAVIGATE BY THE STARS, HOPING TO FIND BETTER LIVES ELSEWHERE.

MUSIC: edit to emerge at 3:55—4:23, then to bed

GEORGES: HOT STUFF! BUT NOW LET’S CHECK OUT ONE OF DJAZIA’S QUIETER SONGS, ALSO DEALING WITH THE MATTER OF REFUGEES.

MUSIC: M02_Djazia_SongOfTheWind.wav [6:38] [This is long, but interesting. I’ve done some editing. The audience singing at the end comes from my camera, not the WOMEX mix, where it’s inaudible.]

GEORGES: DO YOU HEAR HOW DJAZIA SATOUR IS OWNING THIS CROWD? AT ONE POINT, SHE PUT HER MICROPHONE ASIDE AND JUST SANG OUT INTO THE HALL. [this Georges comes over the audience singing, timed to the emerge]

WINDOW: emerge on her unamplified vocal at 5:31 to end.

GEORGES: HOW ABOUT THAT? DJAZIA SATOUR, ONE OF THE WOMEN WHO RULED AT WOMEX 2022 IN LISBON. I’M GEORGES COLLINET WITH YOU ON AFROPOP WORLDWIDE FROM PRX.

GEORGES: OKAY. HERE’S A TREAT FOR YOU. LIA DE ITAMARACÁ IS 78 YEARS OLD AND SHE’S LIVED HER ENTIRE LIFE ON THE ISLAND OF ITAMARACÁ OFF THE NORTHEAST COAST OF BRAZIL. AND WHAT A VIBE SHE BROUGHT TO WOMEX. THIS WOMAN STANDS OVER SIX FEET TALL, A REGAL, STATUESQUE PRESENCE. HER BAND GLIDED EASILY BETWEEN, FORRO, AXE, FREVO, MARACATU… AND YOU BETTER BELIEVE THERE WAS PLENTY OF DANCING.

MUSIC: M03_Lia_MarDeFogo_MamaOxun.wav [5:47]

GEORGES: OOO, I LOVE IT! 78 YEAR OLD LIA DE ITAMARACA AND HER FULL FORCE BAND FROM BRAZIL.

ONE FEMALE BANDLEADER ON THE RISE IN 2022 IS DJELY TAPA, DAUGHTER OF MALIAN GRIOTTE EXTRAORDINAIRE KANDIA KOUYATE. YOU MAY REMEMBER TAPA FROM OUR PROGRAM ON AFROFUTURISM, OR OUR VISIT TO THE NUITS D’AFRIQUE FESTIVAL IN MONTREAL, WHERE SHE NOW LIVES. DJELY TAPA TOLD US ABOUT HER MISSION TO INNOVATE NEW PATHWAYS FOR MANDE MUSIC. IN LISBON, WE ASKED HER WHAT KANDIA KOUYATE, HER VERY TRADITIONAL MOTHER, MAKES OF THAT CHOICE.

WINDOW/BED: M04_Tapa_FutureTribe.wav (very short. You will need to do some trimming to make next emerge work out.) [8:10 but we won’t use it all]

ACTY: 05_Tapa_evolution.wav: (French)

ACTY: 05a_Tapa_evolution_VO.wav: Mande culture evolves with time. Look at Mory Kante. When he electrified the kora, he added something new to the music. That shows that Mande music evolves. It is not frozen in time. My mother said, “I’m not going to become sick because you add electronics to this music. If you can fuse that with and enrich Mande music, go for it. Learn. Because you are born a griot, but you must become an artist.”

WINDOW: emerge on vocal at 1:14—4:05, then to bed

GEORGES: FORGING THE AFRO-MANDING FUTURE, DJELY TAPA. NOW, WE’RE FOCUSING ON THE WOMEN OF WOMEX 2022 TODAY, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN THERE WEREN’T SOME PRETTY AWESOME GUYS ON THE SCENE AS WELL. LIKE THE SIX MEMBERS OF THE BAND FRA!, WHO CAME ALL THE WAY FROM ACCRA, GHANA.

WINDOW: M05_Fra_30 Billion.wav (top of music to 0:18, then to bed)

GEORGES: WE SPOKE WITH BASSIST AND SINGER GEORGE GOGOE, AND GUITARIST AND VOCALIST EMMANUEL DORNYOH.

ACTY: 06_George_intro.wav: I am George, and I am Emmanuel, and we are from the band Fra, a Ghanaian band based in Accra. The meaning of Far is mix. And we got that from the Akan dialect. It defines the style of music that we do because we try to fuse our local genre, which is highlife, with a lot of pop and funk. That's why we call the band Fra. We've been in existence since 2015.

WINDOW: short

ACTY: 07_George_church.wav: We've been friends for quite a long time. We met in church. We've been playing a church for so long, and when we were done schooling, we were like, no, we want to pursue this music thing as a career. So we started as a cover band playing for popular Ghana and musicians here and there. Then our drummer Joshua brought up the idea to start producing our own songs, because he's a songwriter. So he wrote the first song, we checked it and we thought this thing might probably work. And the response was massive. In Ghana, most of the bands are cover bands. This was something new.

GEORGES: OF COURSE, THIS BAND HAS COME UP DURING THE HEYDAY OF HIP-LIFE AND AFROBEATS. BUT EMMANUEL SEES AN OPENING FOR THE MUSIC FRA MAKES.

ACTY: 08_Emmanuel_highlife.wav: You could say for now there's a Renaissance of highlife music in Ghana. We had the golden age. That was the 70s and 80s when there were a lot of bands touring around the world. There are still a few of them around like Pat Thomas who has kept the tradition going on. And now we have new bands like S____, Kyekyeku, S___ and a few others were trying to bring back highlife to make it appealing to the younger generation. Gen Z and most of the millennials now are more interested in Afropop and Afrobeats. But I'm seeing, I'm predicting, I'm forecasting a new wave of highlife music among the youth.

GEORGES: WE GOT A MORE INTIMATE TAKE ON FRA’S SOUND IN A PRIVATE SESSION AT THE EUROPEAN BROADCAST UNION RADIO STUDIO, ON SITE AT WOMEX.

WINDOW: M06_Fra_Konkonsa.wav (top to 2:00, then to bed)

GEORGES: WHAT A SWEET, FUNKY SOUND. MOST OF THE SONGS FRA PERFORMED IN THEIR SMOKIN’ WOMEX SHOWCASE COME FROM A FORTHCOMING ALBUM, RECENTLY COMPLETED BACK IN GHANA. HERE’S GEORGE GOGOE.

ACTY: 09_George_AfroFunk.wav: On this album we really went hard on the fusion. We have some songs which are Funk and then switch to highlife in the middle. We have some songs that are jazzy infused with highlife. We are just trying to create this new sound that we are creating. We want to be known to be the kings of Afro Funk.

MUSIC: M07_Fra_Taking Over.wav (this will have to start under previous ACTY as bed will run out. This can be short. Sound is a bit boomy. Use what you need to get to 20second break.)

GEORGES: FROM ACCRA GHANA, A BAND TO WATCH, FRA, PERFORMING LIVE AT WOMEX 2022 IN LISBON. COMING UP MORE WOMEN OF WOMEX AND SOME NEW SOUNDS FROM THE SAHARA. VISIT AFROPOP.ORG FOR INTERVIEWS AND IMAGES FROM WOMEX, AND SO MUCH MORE. I’M GEORGES COLLINET, AND YOU’RE LISTENING TO AFROPOP WORLDWIDE, FROM PRX.

WINDOW: 20-second break M08_Kyekyeku_20seconds.wav

WINDOW: M09_Pilani_Nkathazo.wav (from top, time to next emerge)

GEORGES: NOW HERE’S A VOICE YOU WON’T SOON FORGET.

WINDOW: (emerge 0:22—0:47, then to bed)

ACTY: 10_Pilani_Intro.wav: My name is Pilani Bubu I'm from South Africa. I like to think of myself as a storyteller first and foremost, and the medium of music is where I predominantly tell my story. So I’m a singer songwriter. And I have dealt in other things, like television.

GEORGES: PILANI BUBU FOUND HER CURRENT PATH IN MUSIC WITH AN ALBUM CALLED FOLKLORE CHAPTER ONE, THE FIRST OF FIVE PLANNED CHAPTERS.

ACTY: 11_Pilani_tradition.wav: You know my proximity to the village growing up was quite close. I grew up in a homeland in apartheid called the Transkei, and it was just a 30 minute distance between my grandparents place and sleeping in a hut, and being so close to ceremonies and traditional music. And so it was so much a part of me, but as the world opened up, we kind of looked to globalization and wanted to embrace parts of the world that we knew about, like America, so there's a lot of American culture embedded in western culture embedded. So what's happening in my fusion of music is that I don't deny these influences. And I accept that that's part of my journey. But what came about is that I was under-utilizing my language, in the way that we speak, and the way that it sounds in the way it’s so intelligent, it's onomatopoeic. There was so much that I found in indigenous folk music that helped me realize the rhythms and patterns of different people because of how they expressed themselves. And so I wanted to explore these styles, and also find myself writing from that place. So in Folklore Chapter 1, I took traditional songs and reinterpreted them in my style, which is very much soul and jazzy, and I also wanted to look at how dance informs the rhythm and the music, using my voice to create what the body and movement would be like.

[sings] You get the sense of the chant that happens in a circle and different voices responding. So someone layers something, and comes in. [sings] You can almost imagine that they’re introducing a rhythm, but also an exclamation and then eventually it gets quite joyful

GEORGES: THINGS GOT JOYFUL INDEED AT PILANI BUBU’S WOMEX DAYCASE.

MUSIC: M10_Pilani_Wadidiyela.wav (you may want to tweak her spoken intro so it’s loud enough) [3:17]

GEORGES: FROM SOUTH AFRICA, THE BEAUTIFUL PILANI BUBU. WE WILL HEAR MORE FROM PILANI IN A FUTURE PROGRAM. NOW WE TURN TO A GROUP OF FRENCH AND MOROCCAN MUSICIANS WITH A VERY DIFFERENT SOUND.

WINDOW/BED: M11_Aywa_flute-bed.wav (emerge on flute at 0:11-31, then to bed)

ACTY: 12_Damian_intro.wav: My name is Damian Fadat. I'm a French musician. I am a flute player, and I play with the band Aywa.

GEORGES: DAMIAN LIVES IN MONTPELLIER, FRANCE. HE MET ADIL SMAALI FROM MOROCCO SOME 10 YEARS BACK, AND THEY’VE BEEN WORKING TOGETHER EVER SINCE, MAKING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN MOROCCAN, FRENCH AND SPANISH MUSIC. ADIL IS A CHARISMATIC FRONT MAN WHO SINGS, PLAYS GNAWA CASTANETS AND A TRADITIONAL LUTE…

ACTY: 13_Damian_ngoni.wav: It’s like a guembri, but high pitched.

…THE BAND ALSO INCLUDES BASS, GUITAR AND DRUMS, AND EVERYBODY SINGS. THEY GO BY THE NAME “AYWA.”

BED: M13_Aywa_ngoni-bed.wav (see if you can seamlessly shift between these two beds)

ACTY: 14_Damian_Aywa.wav: Aywa means “let's go,” and at the same “we are together” in Arabic. So it's kind of fitting. When we say everybody's connected, we have to go, you say Yalla or Aywa! Aywa!.. So it's very representative of the way people love the music.

WINDOW: brief emerge on ngoni-bed.

GEORGES: AYWA GAVE AN ELECTRIFYING SET AT WOMEX, WITH ADIL WRAPPED IN A SHAWL HE SPREAD LIKE WINGS, SINGING AND PLAYING WITH ALL HIS HEART, AND THE BAND FUELING THE GROOVE BEHIND HIM.

MUSIC: M14_Aywa_feature.wav [4:18]

GEORGES: THE BAND AYWA FROM FRANCE AND MOROCCO. MAN, WHAT ENERGY! NOW, WHILE WE’RE UP IN DESERT LANDS, HERE WAS ANOTHER STANDOUT. FROM TIMBUKTU, THE FOUR MUSICIANS OF AL BILALI SOUDAN ARE MASTERS OF TUAREG AND SONRAI FOLKLORE, NOTABLY THE SEDUCTIVE TAKAMBA RHYTHM.

WINDOW/BED: M15_AlBilaliSoudan_Houmeisa-Super.wav (just enough to really establish the rhythm)

GEORGES: AS I SAID, AL BILALI SOUDAN IS FOUR MUSICIANS. WE SPOKE WITH THE LEADER ABALLOU YATTARA AND HIS SON MOHAMED ABELLAW. AS YOU MAY KNOW, CULTURAL LIFE IN NORTHERN MALI HAS FACED HARSH CHALLENGES SINCE THE ARMED CONFLICTS THAT BEGAN IN 2012. AS HAPPY AS THESE ARTISTS WERE TO BE TOURING, MOHAMED LAMENTED THE CHAGE IN THEIR MUSICAL LIVES BACK HOME.

ACTY: ABS_Timbuktu.wav: Before we played always in Timbuktu. But now, it's very hard for us to play always like we want. Because he want to go out to go play, you can’t. Do you want to go by yourself to play, you can't. But if some people have weddings and invite us, or if there is a festival that invites us, after that, we don't play all the time. But in the home we just play sometimes to make pleasure for us, or if you want to record something you play at home.

ACTY: 16_ABS_roomtone.wav (use if needed)

GEORGES: AND HERE’S ABALLOU YATTARA.

ACTY: 17_ABS_Coup.wav: (Tamaschek)

ACTY: 17a_ABS_Coup_VO.wav: Because when there was the coup d’etat, everybody left. A lot of people left from the country to go refugee places. Before that we played always, for everybody. But now it’s very difficult.

GEORGES: HERE’S A SONG WRITTEN IN HAPPIER TIMES. IT’S CALLED “KHADEIJA.”

ACTY: 18_ABS_Khadeija.wav: (Tamaschek)

ACTY: 18a_ABS_Khadeija_VO.wav: Khadeija is one Tuareg woman who was a very big star. She had a big name because she stayed in the middle of the desert and all the Tuareg people made their travels in the Sahara pass by her house and sleep one night before to go. So one day the griot passed to her house and played one song for her to say thank you for what you do for everybody. So now we play that song for you to make you happy.

MUSIC: M15_AlBilaliSoudan_Khadeija.wav [6:49] (I doubt we’ll have time for all of this. Consider it a stretch/shrink zone.)

GEORGES: UNBELIEVABLE. THE ENTRANCING SOUND OF THE SAHARA FROM AL BILALI SOUDAN OF TIMBUKTU. AND NOW BACK TO OUR LADIES OF WOMEX WITH ANOTHER FEMALE BANDLEADER, THIS TIME FROM CUBA.

WINDOW/BED: M17_BrendaNavarette_bed.wav (top to 00:16, then to bed)

GEORGES: BRENDA NAVARETTE IS A CONSERVATORY-TRAINED CLASSICAL MUSICIAN WHO GREW UP STEEPED IN AFRO-CUBAN TRADITION. SHE ALSO EMULATES GREAT JAZZ SINGERS LIKE ELLA FITZGERALD AND SARAH VAUGHN. AND SHE IS A KILLER PERCUSSIONIST. OUR REPORTER RON DEUTSCH CAUGHT UP WITH BRENDA AMID THE HUBBUB OF THE WOMEX TRADE FAIR.

ACTY: 19_Brenda_percussion.wav: I said I want to be a percussionist. I love percussion. I want to be a percussionist. Then I researched the piano, to sing to dance. But my first objective was to play percussion and to know everything about it, and specifically, my roots.

ACTY: 20_TradeFair Roomtone.wav: (I think you’ll need this in this section. Great if you can reduce background buzz, but I’m sure you can’t eliminate it completely.)

GEORGES: AND NOTHING CONNECTS BRENDA MORE WITH HER AFRICAN ROOTS THAN WHEN SHE PLAYS THE SACRED BATA DRUMS, LINKED TO THE YORUBA RELIGION OF NIGERIA.

ACTY: 21_Brenda_religion .wav: This instrument called the bata drum in Cuba, many many years ago was only for religious practice. And the women in this religious process can't play the bata drum. And in my case what I know this instrument I say, “Wow. I want to play. I want to learn.” I only learned when I had 17 years. In this moment I love it, I got it. I need to know the history where it's from. Nigeria. In Nigeria the woman can play, yes. In Cuba, no. In my case I have many many people who support me so I didn't suffer. Don't play the religions. I am religious. I know I would love to play in the ceremony, but I know I can't. So I do in my music career and I love it. And I bring my roots. I bring my truth to the stage.

MUSIC: M18_BrendaNavarette_feature.wav [6:18] (could fade to bet at 3:23 on bass solo)

GEORGES: FROM CUBA, BRENDA NAVARETTE AND HER SENSATIONAL BAND. NOW FOR OUR FINAL ARTIST TODAY, WE RETURN TO LISBON, AND TO A LISBON-BASED BAND THAT INCLUDES MOZAMBICAN MUSICIANS, STARTING WITH THE BAND LEADER, SELMA UAMUSSE.

WINDOW/BED: M19_Selma_Mama_BED.wav (5 seconds, then to bed)

ACTY: 22_Selma_Intro_edit.wav: I am Selma. I am 40 years old. I am Mozambican, but living in Portugal since I was six. I lived for 10 years, a little less, with my parents in Portugal, and then they went back to Mozambique. I am an immigrant because I decided to stay in Portugal. I am a civil engineer, but while I was studying, I started to sing. First I was singing in a gospel choir, and then because of the gospel choir, I got an invitation to sing in a rock 'n' roll band, and I toured a lot with that rock 'n' roll band, and then I started to study jazz, and of course the African music was also there. I was part of an Afrobeat band, Casique 97. I did lots of things until I got to the point where I said I want to become a full-time musician and I want to become a solo artist as well.

GEORGES: THE BAND SELMA BROUGHT TO WOMEX IS MADE UP OF MUSICIANS WHO’VE WORKED WITH HER FOR 15 YEARS. ONE KEY MEMBER, PERCUSSIONIST NATHANIEL MELO REGO, PLAYS THE CHOPI TIMBILA XYLOPHONE AS WELL AS MBIRA, SOMETIMES THROUGH A DISTORTION PEDAL, AND HE DANCES BEAUTIFULLY WITH SELMA.

ACTY: 23_Selma_Nathaniel.wav: He knows a lot more of African music than I do. He's traveled through Africa on foot. He has worked with Venancio. He's been in several places in Mozambique. He knows a lot of traditional music, so it was easy.

GEORGES: THE “VENANCIO” SELMA MENTIONS IS THE LATE TIMBILA MASTER BANDLEADER VENANCIO MBANDE, A DEEP SOURCE OF TRADITIONAL MUSIC KNOWLEDGE. BUT WHEN SELMA CREATED HER BAND, SHE WANTED MORE THAN THAT.

ACTY: 24_Selma_band.wav: So I wanted people that knew me, but also that had this ingredient of being not too European and not to African, because I wanted someone who could play my truth. Because I am Mozambican but I have lived here in Portugal for so many years, and so I wanted people who understood me in a full way.

WINDOW: whatever works! Nice to have vocals.

ACTY: 25_Selma_tradition.wav: People know music from Mali, Nigeria, Kenya, from Morocco, from South Africa. But being a Mozambican musician, well, we have this huge legacy that nobody knows. Polyrhythmic music and sounds and rhythms that nobody knows. I wanted to be an engineer to go back to Mozambique and to be part of the reconstruction and rebuilding, because we have been through a Civil War. But then I decided to be a musician, and I was like, “How can I still do something for my country? Well I’m not going to be ambassador for Mozambique, but I can bring all the things that people don't know. People don't know timbila. People don't know mbira. People don't know where languages.” And I thought that if I went to Mozambiquan music and instruments, that I would have so much to learn, and I want to keep on learning, so bringing these instruments was not only honoring my background, but I think when you listen to it timbila, doesn't it have this electronic sound? It's also modern and urban. It doesn't seem old. So I didn't want to make old peoples music.

GEORGES: SELMA GETS A LOT OF INSPIRATION FROM THE AFRICAN MUSIC SCENE IN LISBON, BUT AT THE SAME TIME, IT’S BEEN CHALLENGING TO FIND HER PLACE IN IT.

ACTY: 26_Selma_Lisbon.wav: The communities from Angola and Cape Verde are very big. The Mozambican community is small and one that exists is very shy. And so it's not as easy for me. I always feel like as a Mozambican artist that I am a foreigner, exotic. I don't feel that my music is part of the scene. I feel very respected in Portugal, but because of who I am and not because people feel connected to Mozambican music.

GEORGES: LET’S GO OUT WITH SELMA AND HER BAND PERFORMING IN THE EUROPEAN BROADCAST STUDIO AT WOMEX.

MUSIC: M21_Selma_NoGuns_EBU.wav [4:16] (This will go to the end of the show. Nice to get the whole track if we can)

GEORGES: DON’T YOU JUST LOVE IT? SELMA UAMUSSE WRAPPING UP OUR VISIT TO WOMEX 2022 IN LISBON. FUNDING FOR AFROPOP WORLDWIDE COMES FROM THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS, WHICH BELIEVES A GREAT NATION DESERVES GREAT ART, AND FROM PRX AFFILIATE STATIONS AROUND THE U.S. AND THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING YOUR PUBLIC RADIO STATION.

THANKS TO RON DEUTSCH, AND TO JON KERTZER AND DAREK MAZZONE OF KEXP AND TO LAURENT MARCEAU AND ALL THE GOOD FOLKS AT THE EBU STUDIO FOR THEIR HELP WITH THIS PROGRAM. VISIT AFROPOP.ORG FOR RON DEUTSCH’S INTERVIEWS AND BANNING EYRE’S PHOTOS FROM WOMEX 2022. YOU CAN ALSO FIND US ON FACEBOOK AND FOLLOW US ON TWITTER AT “AFROPOPWW.” MY AFROPOP PARTNER IS SEAN BARLOW. SEAN PRODUCES OUR PROGRAM FOR WORLD MUSIC PRODUCTIONS. RESEARCH AND PRODUCTION FOR THIS PROGRAM BY BANNING EYRE AND, BE SURE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST, INCLUDING RADIO PROGRAMS AND OUR AFROPOP CLOSEUP PODCAST SERIES.

JOIN US NEXT WEEK FOR ANOTHER EDITION OF AFROPOP WORLDWIDE. OUR CHIEF AUDIO ENGINEER IS MICHAEL JONES. THIS PROGRAM WAS MIXED AT STUDIO 44 IN BROOKLYN BY MICHAEL JONES. ADDITIONAL ENGINEERING BY GC FROM THE SYNCOPATED LAIR IN WASHINGTON, DC. BANNING EYRE AND CC SMITH EDIT OUR WEBSITE, AFROPOP.ORG. OUR DIRECTOR OF NEW MEDIA IS MUKWAE WABEI SIYOLWE. AND I’M GEORGES COLLINET.