M.anifest challenges the overuse of the ‘Afro’ prefix in African music genres

Celebrated Ghanaian rapper Kwame Ametepe Tsikata, known as M.anifest, has voiced criticism of the growing habit of attaching the prefix ‘Afro’ to emerging African music genres. Speaking on the African Imaginary Podcast, the No Shortcut to Heaven hit-maker expressed frustration at the trend, saying, “So now everyone wants to do, Afro this, Afro that…We are very innovative people. Every genre we create doesn’t have to be ‘Afro’ something.”

M.anifest highlighted historical precedents, noting that Guy Warren, also known as Kofi Ghanaba, was among the first to use the ‘Afro’ tag, coining “Afro-Jazz” well before Fela Kuti introduced Afrobeat. He referenced Professor John Collins’s observations that Ghanaba’s early fusion of jazz with Afro-Caribbean drumming pre-dated later Afro-fusion movements in West Africa.

The discussion also traced the evolution of genre labels, mentioning the 1980s emergence of “Afro-pop” as a broad descriptor for African popular music, later superseded by the “World Music” category in the mid-1980s. In the mid-2000s, DJ Abrantee popularised “Afrobeats” (with an ‘s’) as an umbrella term for West African pop, a label that Nigerians have since adopted and expanded into a marketable brand.

Despite its commercial success, some prominent Afrobeats artists have begun to distance themselves from the term, preferring alternatives such as Afrofusion, AfroSoul, AfroRock or AfroDancehall. M.anifest’s remarks underscore a call for imagination and originality without reliance on the ‘Afro’ prefix.