OkayAfrica (stylized as okayafrica) is a digital media platform dedicated to African culture,

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

and

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

. Founded in 2011 by Vanessa Wruble and Ginny Suss as a sister site to

The Roots The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy F ...

frontman

Questlove Ahmir Khalib Thompson (born January 20, 1971), known professionally as Questlove (stylized as ), is an American musician, record producer, disc jockey, filmmaker, music journalist, and actor. He is the drummer and joint frontman (with Black Thou ...

Okayplayer Okayplayer is an online hip-hop and alternative music website and community, described by ''Rolling Stone'' as a "tastemaker" and "an antidote to dull promotional Web sites used by most artists". The community was founded by The Roots' drummer ...

, the site has become a popular destination for Africans on the continent and in the

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

. Today, OkayAfrica is the largest US-based website focusing on new and progressive music, art, politics, and culture from the African continent.

History

In an interview with '' The One Magazine'', ''OkayAfrica'''s Vice President Ginny Suss, stated,

We realized that there is no place on the web that acted as a hub for all the new fricanmusic, culture, art and politics and the amazing culture that was being generated on the continent that was really relevant to youth culture today. We came up with the concept of creating a one-stop shop, interactive community where our main focus is new progressive African music and also feature culture, film, art and lifestyle.

OkayAfrica created a digital space for modern African music and culture. In an interview with '' Black Enterprise'' Magazine, former CEO Abiola Oke underscores the sites popularity as a sign that African entertainment and music culture is going through a golden age online. At the age of 34, he was appointed CEO of OkayAfrica. OkayAfrica is one of the few websites that predominantly cover and center modern

Afrobeats Afrobeats (not to be confused with Afrobeat or Afroswing), or Afro-pop or Afro-fusion (or Afropop or Afrofusion), is an umbrella term to describe popular music from West Africa and the diaspora that initially developed in Nigeria, Ghana, and ...

. OkayAfrica is also an event promoter and producer. On July 29, 2016, OkayAfrica organized ''Okayafrica: Afrobeat x Afrobeats'', a concert headlined by Nigerian pop star

Davido David Adedeji Adeleke (born November 21, 1992), popularly known by his stage name Davido, is an American-Nigerian singer, songwriter and record producer. His music blends traditional African elements with global mainstream pop. Davido is widel ...

and Brooklyn-based Afrobeat band Antibalas at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors, America's longest running free outdoor festival. This was the first time in history that African musicians had headlined the festival.

Audience

Since its founding in 2011, OkayAfrica has gained a strong following with

Afropolitan Afropolitan is a term constructed from the name ''Africa'' and the ancient Greek word ''πολίτης'' ('politis'), meaning 'citizen' (itself from ''polis'', 'city'). It is an attempt at redefining African phenomena by, on the one hand, placing ...

s, particularly those in the diaspora. The term is used to describe OkayAfrica's target audience, a new generation of Africans who are creative, politically aware, multicultural, and with roots firmly on the African continent. The site allows young people living in the diaspora to stay abreast of what's happening in their home countries. Oke says the site's main age group is 25-35. Today, the site attracts 1 million unique page views a month, mostly from the USA, South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. Additionally, the site offers different editions, covering all 54 countries in Africa to cater to the complexity of the continent. OkayAfrica popularity is also reflected in the site's social media presence It has 250,000 likes on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

, 100,000 followers on

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

and 50,000 + followers on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

100 Women

In 2017 okayafrica created a platform to highlight 100 leading African women. The list has been published each year since then. The list is assembled in ten categories

STEM Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

, media, music, literature, TV and film, sports and wellness, style and beauty, business and economics, politics and activism and art. The 2019 list was dedicated to youth culture and it was announced at the BAMcafe featuring

Moonchild Sanelly Sanelisiwe Twisha (born 1987), known professionally as Moonchild Sanelly is a South African musician and dancer. She is known for her signature blue-coloured hair and her self-created music genre called "Future ghetto punk". Originally from P ...

. The emphasis was to find women who were disrupting their own local youth culture whilst at the same time demanding equal access to the global stage.

Accolades from African writers and intellectuals

The site has received praise from African artists and intellectuals. Nigerian sociologist

Oreoluwa Somolu Lesi Oreoluwa Somolu Lesi is a Nigerian social entrepreneur and UK-trained economist and information technology expert. She is the founder and executive director of Women's Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC), a non-profit organisation that empowe ...

notes that one of the biggest selling points is that it's made by Africans for Africans. She believes OkayAfrica allows Africans to exercise control over their own narratives in mainstream media.

Congo Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa: * Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...

lese Author,

Alain Mabanckou Alain Mabanckou (born 24 February 1966) is a novelist, journalist, poet, and academic, a French citizen born in the Republic of the Congo, he is currently a Professor of Literature at UCLA. He is best known for his novels and non-fiction writing d ...

writes that platforms like OkayAfrica are important because they promote accessibility to information and participation in cultural, political, and social dialogue.

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

ian Intellectual Achille Mbembe praised OkayAfrica at the

Goethe-Institut The Goethe-Institut (, GI, en, Goethe Institute) is a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and ...

’s African Futures Festival in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

for promoting knowledge production amongst African youth.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.okayafrica.com African websites American websites Music websites Internet properties established in 2011 2011 establishments in Africa