Connecting with Afrobeat Culture at Accra's Annual Afrochella Festival

Afrochella takes place each year between Christmas and New Year's Eve.
Camera RollStacy-Ann Ellis

In the days following Christmas, Accra is bursting at the seams with natives returning home to family for the holidays, foreigners rekindling their diasporic ties to the continent, and those simply curious to see what the magic of the West African city looks like up close. Afrochella, a new culture festival sandwiched in between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, wants to welcome them all.

The harmattan heat is thick in the air in the middle of Accra’s El Wak Stadium, where the second annual Afrochella—the brainchild of Abdul Karim Abdullah and his Ghanaian business partners—is taking place. A little over 9,000 people, nearly 5,000 more than at the fest’s inaugural run in 2017, mill around the compound. Outside of Africa, these multi-shaded guests have flocked from countries including the U.K., Sweden, Denmark, France, Spain, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Russia, Germany, and all across the Americas.

While some of them fork through cartons of traditional jollof rice and kelewele (spicy fried plantains), others get their faces decorated with elaborate paint patterns. Attendees spread out to watch two acrobats flip and tumble to the sound of a drum circle, or stand closer to the stage, tossing their bodies to the Afrobeats pouring from the speakers. But everyone gets a 360º view of a vast and rich, and distinctly African, culture.

Abdullah makes it clear that Afrochella’s headliners—2018’s top acts included Stonebwoy, Kwesi Arthur, King Promise, and Daddy Lumba—will always be African, no matter what global pop star may be in demand at the time. “We wanted a space for people who were in tune with the Afrobeats culture, the popular culture, and urban culture that was shaping the new Africa story,” Abdullah says, also acknowledging the presence of established local fests like the artfocused Chale Wote.

Make no mistake, despite the obvious similarities to its California namesake, Afrochella occupies its own unique lane. “[Coachella is] more of a music festival, and with us, we’re more of a culture festival,” Abdullah says. “When you come to us, you’ll be able to buy African food, see African culture, listen to African music, and I think that is our goal.”

Instead of outsourcing for the festival, Afrochella founders strived to ensure that everyone from production staff to design to maintenance to vendors—like the locally owned Sankofa Plantain Chips—was from Ghana.
Afrochella wasn’t just about the music. There were a host of stunt dancers, drummers, games, photo opportunities, and other quirky activities to pass the time until the evening’s big acts. Here, an attendee gets into character inside one of several Barbie doll photo booths inside the stadium.
All throughout El Wak Stadium, a wide variety of headwraps, ‘fros, puffs, twists, braids, locs, and other coiled hairstyles of the Diaspora were proudly on display.
Front row attendees of Afrochella represented a fusion of style and culture. The festival's organizers sought to capture and showcase Africa's vibrant flavors and fashion-forward aesthetic.
Wendy Shay is one of Ghana’s quickly rising Afrobeat and Afropop artists. Her high-energy performance set the stage for more of the continent's most coveted acts.
African music is made up of mixes. Stonebwoy, undoubtedly one of Ghana’s biggest entertainers, makes music that is a fusion of both Afropop from Ghana and dancehall/reggae from Jamaica.
Whether guests came from Australia, the Americas, or right there in Accra, the energy of live music and love for the Motherland united the diverse Afrochella crowd.