Asabaako Festival: a Celebration of Music, Peace and Culture on a Beach in Ghana

At West Africa Discovery we love to hear about community based events organised in West Africa for the people by the people, especially if it entails amazing music, a fun loving atmosphere, beach parties and loads of dancing!

Our friends at Blogging Tracks have recently organised, in association with the Moringa Tree, a festival in Ghana aiming to bring people from around the World, Ghana and the local community together to experience the fundamental universal constant which is Music! Below is an account of the organisation that went in to the event, how it all went and the vibe that transcended the whole festival. Enjoy, it's a great read and there are some amazing artists that you may want to check out.

AND SO...The Asabaako Music Festival train pulled into Busua village last weekend for two days of live music and SERIOUS beach parties!! After 2 years of figuring out how this might work and a mad few weeks of preparation, everybody came together to make the Asabaako Music Festival a very special event, combining the most beautiful beach setting with a mix of traditional to modern African and African-inspired music. People came from around Ghana and mixed with those from around the world, alongside a village of people whose energy, enthusiasm and welcome left everybody awestruck.

Our Asabaako DJs Kobby Graham, Rita Ray, DJ Juls and Guynamite made daytimes chilling by the beach, sipping on coconut milk and rum, just that little bit more perfect, spinning anything from Afrobeat to hip hop, afro-funk & soul to high life, reggae and loads more.

Asabaako is a way for us to provide a platform for younger artists with Bless the Mic, bringing a bus full of underground MCs from Takoradi to tear up this usually quiet village resort. Performances from Sketches, Spooky, Nero, Jay Billz, Pictures, King Arthur, Scurry plus Macho Rapper, while Kweku Ananse brought a whole different vibe with his solo balafon performance.

The Agona brass band got everybody moving, while one of Ghana’s hottest rappers, Yaa Pono, took the crowd in the palm of his hands with his distinctive flow and hard hitting punchlines.

Wanlov the Kubolor, our headline artist representing Pidgen Music, had already got the village’s attention by strolling through town in his trademark dreadlocks with nothing but a tight pair of swimming trunks. But things got really interesting when he introduced his African Gypsy band, including a French accordion player and violinist, to bring something completely different to Asabaako.

And the after parties...WOH. Man....they were serious. They were serious beach parties man. I can’t even really put them into words. Big ups to our Busua DJs, Shocka and Andy Stoner!

Smashed it.

It was a fantastic community effort, with boys from the village helping to put the stage together, running around picking up last minute generators, getting food together for our artists...and best of all, the village LOVED it. I’ve been walking through the street since having anyone from kids to old women shout “ASABAAKO!” at me as I go by. Which is nice.

OK, so preparation was a little complicated. What was supposed to be a 2-day beach party about 5 weeks before, took an interesting turn when US hip hop legend Talib Kweli tweeted to his 260,000 followers that he wanted to perform...despite the difficulty we knew we’d face, we gave it a go, had it lined up, but were then forced to cancel due to sponsorship problems...eventually taking us BACK to our original plan... (That’s a very long story short)

The past year has been an amazing experience of highs and lows, and it’s as if that was all building towards some crescendo of madness that carried into the last few hours of Asabaako 2011. Talib, no Talib....sponsorship, no sponsorship, bit of sponsorship maybe....but we got there, we did it, despite the various and plentiful challenges and pitfalls, we did it, and not without thanks to the dozens of people who helped us, along the way and on the day itself. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster like nothing you would ever imagine, but we’ve got there.

BIG LOVE to (in alphabetical order)...The first Asabaako is done, and preparation is underway for the next with an increased programme and international artists currently in discussions. And I’m telling you...BIG tings about to happen here in Ghana!

So I guess this is where we say thank you...It’s quite a list. So let’s get on with it. Thank you EVERYONE for EVERYTHING you’ve done to help us get where we are, for those who helped us out when times got hard, who believed in us when doubt reared its ugly head. Your support, guidance, advice, contacts and stress relief techniques have started something that more and more people now see will really, truly grow into something very special.

Achoo, African Rainbow (Bill, Sewa, Nana and the team), Africa Cola (Aicha, Pierre and the team), Akua and Louise, Akwaaba UK (Eben and Elliot), Ameyaw Debrah, Amy Clark, Bob Gallagher, Bibie Brew, Bill Bedzrah, Ben Bish Clark, Black Star Surf Shop (Naiomi, Yaw, Kofi, Charles, Ernest, Nat and the team), Bless the Mic, Busua Inn (Daniel & Oliver), Brown Berry, Dadson Lodge (Mama Betty, Julie and my many Dadson wives), David Thomas, Ebeneezer Bentum, Entertainment Revolution (Regis and Ben), Fayzbuqbwoi AbeikuQuansah Breezy, Fiona Stewart, Ghana Facebookers (Nana Yaw, Bizzy Mill, Eli, Gamel et al), GhanaWestCoast.com (Lorena and Stephen), The supportive family!, Green Turtle Lodge (Tom and Jo), Ian Bowden, Iso Paelay, Jay Hill, Jean Berthon, Jambo Lafferty, Jon K Fidler, Kajsa, Kate Marriage, Kobby Graham, Kofi Amponsah, Kweku Ananse, i-cr8 (T, Alima and the team), Lisa Lovatt-Smith of OrphanAid Africa, Macho Rapper, Macjordan, Mantse, Marie Howell, Melody FM and Gyandoh, M3nsa (next year I'm telling you!!), MMRS Ogilvy (Miguel, Nathalie, Fred and the team), The Moringa Tree (Chris Vaughan & the team), Nana Chillin, Nana Queci Otu Nketsia, Ms Naa, Neon Comms UK (Sam, Rols and the kids), Nick, Tom, Steve and the “overlanders”, Nii Ayertey Aryeh, Nii Sai Doku, Paa K Holbrook Smith, Paa Kwesi aka

RASTAMAN, Panji Anoff and Pidgen Music, Paul Stagg, Pete Nardini (Surf Shop & Black Star Development NGO), PY, Quantas, Rita Ray, Sidique, Skyy TV and Radio, The SRK, Stak Dollar Bundles and the OC crew, Takoradi Facebookers, Tacitus, Trenton Birch, Uncle Ralph Casely-Hayford, Valerie Lesbros, Vodafone (Cynthia and the B&S team), Wanlov the Kubolor, Yaa Pono, Yemisi Mokuolu of Out of Africa, and everyone else who's pointed us in the right direction or lent a helping hand along the way.

And a special thanks to all the people of Busua for letting us party on your beach, partying alongside us, helping to get everything together and for your continued support. We hope the festival will continue to bring business your way and show the world what a beautiful place you have here.

So, another mighty step... and now we continue. Join our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/asabaako or visit www.asabaako.com for updates on the next event.

For more information on West Africa, its rich local heritage, and tours, accommodations and volunteer projects which will give you the opportunity to discover first hand how beautiful this region is, visit the West Africa Discovery website, or you can join us on Facebook.

The increasing popularity of West Africa

Four years ago I embarked on a life-changing journey to Senegal, to live and study there. I remember before leaving that none of my friends or family in the UK could tell me the location of one of West Africa’s 16 countries, let alone tell me the name of one of its hundreds of tribes, or tell me about the climate in a particular region. Nor had they ever heard of Amadou & Mariam, Tinariwen or Ali Farka Toure, now big names in most of the major European summer music festivals.

Thanks to increased media coverage such as articles in the Guardian and the Independant, covering a range of topics from politics to travel and music coming out of West Africa reaching out to the millions at big UK festivals. Documentaries on the National Geographic and Discovery channels introducing us to different tribal systems and natural wonders and various exhibitions displaying the region’s rich cultural heritage. West Africa is coming out of the ‘black hole’ – as someone described the region to me at last year’s WTM Trade Show - to become a region of the world that inspires, intrigues, mystifies and excites the Western cultural scene.

Why is it only now that we are really discovering a region of the world which is only five hours away by plane? What has made the eyes of the West’s popular culture scene turn towards the likes of Senegal and Sierra Leone, Mali and Cameroon?

West Africa has been off the media map in terms of positive stories for a long time - the only stories that had come out of the region were tales of bloody civil wars, gold and diamond mining, corrupt leaders, disease and famine - but now that is changing; and we are learning a lot more about the deeper aspects of the rich heritage of West Africa.

Musically, West Africa produces some of the most talented acts in/on the so-called ‘World Music’ scene and has included some of the most famous musicians to come out of Africa. Festival organisers such as Glastonbury Festival and WOMAD are now queuing up to get the likes of Tinariwen (Mali), Ismael Lo (Senegal), Baka Beyond (Cameroon) and the Sierra Leone Refugee all stars, booked for the main stages. But also small events such as the Fringe festival in Brighton display musical and dancing acts from West Africa in their Africa Unite II event this year.

Culturally, there are many documentaries being shown on TV which have introduced us to the different tribes of West Africa. The Ashanti from Ghana, the Igbo from Nigeria and the Dogon from Mali are the most well known of them, and have sparked curiosity and stimulated the hearts and minds of those who have watched these programs. Maybe this is because we lack the social values that they have, we are seeking to re-learn something lost or because we find that our lives of too much work and no play need some sort of escape route.

Proof of the ever increasing popularity of West Africa’s traditional cultures is demonstrated by the 'Kingdom of Ife' exhibition (which we will cover in next week’s blog) now showing at the British museum and is already being hailed as ‘Potentially the exhibition of the year’ by the Telegraph newspaper.

Sport is also a big influence on popular interests. Football, for example, has a lot of role models within the most supported teams in the UK who come from West Africa or have an affiliation with the region. Didier Drogba who hails from Côte d’Ivoire and plays for Chelsea is an example and is well known for his skills on the pitch; however it has also come to light that he is a big charity supporter having donated millions to build and sustain hospitals in his home country.

Another player who has created a media buzz about West Africa is Craig Bellamy (Man City) whose foundation has contributed towards setting up sports academies in Sierra Leone.

West Africa’s natural heritage has also come to our TV sets through programmes such as the BBC’s Autumn Watch which has covered Senegal, showing that West Africa has been on the migration path of many species of birds for millennia.

In terms of Tourism, the Guardian and Times travel sections have regularly published articles describing West Africa as an alternate, exciting and new destination for travellers seeking new experiences full of educational opportunities, coupled with sea, sun and beaches (see our previous blog on the potential for West Africa as a Responsible Tourism destination). It also seems as though tourism to the geographical region of West Africa is set to increase. The latest Brussels Airlines' news stating that the airline is now flying directly to Ghana, Benin, Togo and Burkina-Faso from European destinations can only be a sign that the shores of West Africa are worthwhile touristic destinations to fly to.

All the above factors have contributed to the UK’s increasing interest in West Africa and that interest is only set to grow even stronger because of the sheer diversity of cultural, natural and historical heritage still to be discovered.

But instead of waiting for more news, start your own discovery by visiting our web portal (www.westafricadiscovery.co.uk) , joining us on Facebook or following us on Twitter. We look forward to welcoming you!