“Every genre we create doesn’t have to be ‘Afro’ something” –M.anifest

Award-winning Ghanaian rapper M.anifest, whose real name is Kwame Ametepe Tsikata, has voiced his disapproval of the practice of attaching the prefix 'Afro' to new African music genres and their derivatives. In an interview on the African Imaginary Podcast, the artist behind the hit song "No Shortcut to Heaven" expressed his disdain for the "wanton knack" of naming African music genres and their derivatives with 'Afro'.

M.anifest pointed out that "Every genre we create doesn't have to be 'Afro' something." He emphasised the need for African musicians to let their imaginations run free and create new forms of music without being confined to 'Afro' labels. The term 'Afro' was first coined by Guy Warren, also known as Kofi Ghanaba, who used it to describe his musical style, Afro-Jazz, in the late 1940s.

Kofi Ghanaba and other members of the Tempos Band moved to Liberia in 1951, seeking to fuse highlife with calypso and Latin American music, while Ghanaba remained focused on blending jazz with Afro-Caribbean drumming. The 1980s saw the emergence of Afro-pop as a broad label, initially used to market African popular music internationally.

It was later replaced by the term 'World Music' in the late 1980s/early 1990s. The term 'Afrobeats', popularised by DJ Abrantee in the mid-2000s, emerged as an umbrella term for West African pop music. However, some Afrobeats artists have expressed reservations about the label, preferring alternative names like Afrofusion, AfroSoul, AfroRock, or AfroDancehall for their music.