West Africa is this week's focus on Afropop Worldwide. Join us as we explore scenes from our programs on this fabulously musically rich region: from Abidjan up to Timbuktu . You can enjoy selections of our West African adventures on afropop.org by listening to our "Sounds of the Cities" classic program on-demand streams.

On "RevoFest: the Ghanaian festival of the revolution", Accra, Ghana

Back in the 80's, Afropop Worldwide traveled to Accra to cover RevoFest and met up with traditional Highlife musician Dr. Nana Kwame Ampadu who is not only a bandleader, but he is also a Ghanaian music scholar. Nana Ampadu, with his band The African Brothers play of the old "Palm Wine". Today Accra moves mostly to the sounds of gospel highlife, local reggae and American black pop, while guitar highlife enjoys something of resurgence. Guitar highlife remains extremely popular in 's rural areas where "concert parties" combine music and theater in exuberant celebration that can last until sunrise.

Explore our site by searching our Ghanaian features to learn more!


Dateline: Dakar

Dakar is one of our favorite cities in West Africa .  On many occasions we visit our good friend, singer and bandleader Thione Seck.  Although not as internationally known, Thione's style is well appreciated in , and with the release of his latest album, Orientation, he utilizes different cultural musical styles. Thione Seck very well may garnish more attention from world music enthusiasts. During this program we visited the grande Club Sahel in Dakar where many of the hottest acts in launched their careers.  Seck and his longtime collaborator Raam Daan showed us what "mbalax pur et dur" (mbalax pure and simple) was all about.

We've got a wealth of sources here about .


Afropop Visits Abidjan-Jewel of the Ivory Coast

As the center of commerce in West Africa, has become the hub of the region's music industry.

The closest thing yet to a national Ivorian music style, zouglou takes its name from a communal dance, and generally expresses the troubles and aspirations of students. Zouglou's top singer, Meiway trades on style and sex appeal while constructing taut, dramatic arrangements that use rock guitar, soukous animation and gushing keyboards to show off his smooth, delicate tenor, often over the zoblazo rhythm. We also met up with Dr. Gnaore Djimi, innovator of polihet. Polihet began as a girls' dance, but Gnaore and others have honed it to a smooth, high-tech 6/8 shuffle, with pummeling percussion breaks.


From Bamako to Timbuktu ... Oh , We Love you!

The Afropop musical palate would not be complete without mentioning the many artists we have presented on Afropop Worldwide.  We've dedicated a special on-line stream featuring our classic coverage of music from . And don't forget our coverage from the 2004 Festival in the desert, a classic in and of itself!

In 1994, Afropop made a pilgrimage to visit Grammy Award winner Ali Farka Toure in his beloved hometown of Niafunke on the banks of the Niger River in northern . In this sublime set, Ali plays acoustic with musical mates on the njarka (one string violin), and the gurkel (two string instrument w/metal piece for buzz) and calabash (gourd used for percussion). Ali talks about what family and his community in Niafunke mean to him.

Read our interviews with Malian artists.


Stay tuned to Afropop Worldwide for more music and coverage from West Africa !

First published: www.afropop.org