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User:Atenkiang/sandbox

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OkayAfrica

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OkayAfrica is a digital media platform dedicated to African culture, music and politics. Founded in 2011 as a subsidiary of  The Roots frontman QuestLove’s Okayplayer, the site has become a popular destination for Africans on the continent and in the diaspora.[1]  Today, OkayAfrica is the largest US based website focusing on new and progressive music, art, politics and culture from the African continent.[2]

History

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Launched in 1999, Okayplayer was one of the first online hubs through which  fans could interact directly with their favorite artists.[3] According to QuestLove, the site was originally a medium to chronicle the day to day life of his band, The Roots. However, it became a hub for urban music, politics, arts, and lifestyle. In addition to daily blog updates, the site featured popular messenger boards. Based in New York, Okayplayer eventually expanded into a label that produced live events. Today, the site also hosts affiliated specialists sites: the Revivalist for jazz, OkayAfrica for African music, LargeUp for reggae, and OkayFuture for electronic music.[3]

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

“We realized that there is no place on the web that acted as a hub for all the new [African] music, 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.”[4]

OkayAfrica created a digital space for modern African music and culture. Since its founding in 2011, OkayAfrica has gained a strong following with Afropolitans, particularly those in the diaspora.  Afropolitan is a term coined by Ghanaian Writer Taiye Selasi in her 2005 essay  "Bye-Bye, Babar (Or: What is an Afropolitan?) written for Lip Magazine. The term used to describe OkayAfrica’s target audience, a new generation of Africans that are creative, politically aware, multicultural, with roots firmly on the African continent. The site allows young people living in the diaspora who want to stay tuned to what’s happening in their home countries.

In an interview with Black Enterprise Magazine, 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.   Today, the site attracts 1 million unique page views a month, mostly from the USA, South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria.[5] Additionally, the site offers different edition covering all 54 countries in Africa to  cater to the complexity of the continent.[5] Oke says the sites main age group is 25-35.  Oke identified The Fader, Vice, and TrueAfrica as major competitors.  OkayAfrica popularity is also reflected in the site’s social media presence It has 250,000 likes on Facebook[6],  100,000 followers on Instagram[7] and 50,000 + followers on Twitter[8].

The site has also received praise from African artists and intellectuals. Nigerian sociologist Oreoluwa Somolu notes that one of the biggest selling points is that it's made by Africans for Africans.[9] She believes OkayAfrica allows African’s to exercise control over their own narratives in mainstream media.  Congolese Author, Alain Mabanckou writes that platforms  like Okayafrica important because they promote accessibility to information and participation in cultural, political, and social dialogue.[10] Cameroonian Intellectual Achille Mbembe praised OkayAfrica at the Goethe-Institut’s African Futures Festival in Johannesburg for promoting knowledge production amongst African youth.[11]  

Content

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Music

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PlayerXchange

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This section of the site pairs African artists with emerging American acts together. The aim is to bring Diaspora communities and cultures together,  while having the  musicians learn from one another. As Vice President Ginny Suss noted in an interview, PlayerXchange seeks to create conversation between people from very different places, in hopes of finding some common ground.[4]

Africa In Your Earbuds

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This series serves as a knowledge database for African music. It promotes mixtapes from various African artists, deejays, and enthusiasts who don’t normally get to have an outlet to display their knowledge of African music or share their African music collections. Popular contributors to this series have been Nigerian author Teju Cole[12], and Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood[13].

The Rise of Afrobeats

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Afrobeat was popularized in 1970s-era Nigeria by musician and activist Fela Kuti. Today, the genre was grown into modern African club music, otherwise known as Afrobeats.  This contemporary rendition offers a blend of traditional African music, hip-hop, funk and pop.  Afrobeats has taken center stage in the global industry with artists like Drake and Beyonce, borrowing sounds from Africa like Wizkid (Nigeria) and ‘Bonfires’ Kouyaté (Guinea). Drake’s Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper, One Dance, was written and produced by Wizkid.[14]

OkayAfrica is one few websites that predominantly cover and center modern Afrobeats. 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 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 musician’s had headlined the festival.[15]

Politics

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While OkayAfrica primarily covers African music and culture, it has become a resource for staying up-to-date with the continent’s political scene.

South African Protests

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Since the establishment of protest movement Rhodes Must Fall in March 2015, global media has become focused on student-driven efforts to decolonize South African universities by exposing their links to racism and imperialism. In 2016, Rhodes Must Fall would evolve into #FeesMustFall, a response to the proposed 10.5 percent hike in tuition fees for the 2016 school year. OkayAfrica was one of the first media platforms to break the story.  The site partnered with Cape Town based photographer Imraan Christian to document protests as they turned from a peaceful demonstration to a police standoff.[16]

Oromo Protests

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In 2016, violent anti-government protests have erupted in Ethiopia. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,  the Oromos have routinely occupied the sacred site of Meskel Square to protest their continued marginalization and persecution by the government. After crossing the finish line at the 2016 Rio Olympic Marathon race, Ethiopian runner Feyisa Lelisa raised his hands and crossed his fists to support the Oromo movement. Kenyan reporter Akinyi Ochieng sat down with the runner turned activist, for what would be an exclusive interview for OkayAfrica.[17]

Kenya Post-Election Violence

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After the 2007 election in Kenya, violence broke out in Kenya. OkayAfrica sat down with photojournalist  Boniface Mwangi to discuss the effects of 2007 demonstrations on the 2016 Kenyan political landscape. Mwangi was named African Journalist of the Year by CNN in 2008.[18]

  1. ^ "Young & Disrupting: Okayafrica CEO Talks Journey From Wall Street to Emerging Culture Brand". Black Enterprise. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  2. ^ "Rethink Africa Party | Yale Greenberg World Fellows". worldfellows.yale.edu. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  3. ^ a b "The Oral History of Okayplayer". Complex. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  4. ^ a b "Okayafrica: Staying in touch with youth culture in Africa". ONE. 2013-06-27. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  5. ^ a b "Africa: Okay Africa Wants to 'Project African Talent to a Global Audience in a Different Way' - Online and Video Site With a Million Uniques and Live Events". Digital Content Africa (London). 2016-08-22. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  6. ^ "Security Check Required". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  7. ^ "OkayAfrica (@okayafrica) • Instagram photos and videos". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  8. ^ "Okayafrica (@okayafrica) | Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  9. ^ Somolu, Oreoluwa (2007-01-01). "'Telling Our Own Stories': African Women Blogging for Social Change". Gender and Development. 15 (3): 477–489.
  10. ^ Mabanckou, Alain; Thomas, Dominic (2008-01-01). "New Technologies and the Popular: Alain Mabanckou's Blog". Research in African Literatures. 39 (4): 58–71.
  11. ^ "Discussing African Futures With Achille Mbembe". OkayAfrica. 2015-11-09. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  12. ^ "AFRICA IN YOUR EARBUDS #76: Teju Cole x Chief Boima 'One Night In New York City'". OkayAfrica. 2016-11-03. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  13. ^ "AFRICA IN YOUR EARBUDS #50: ELIJAH WOOD | OkayAfrica". OkayAfrica. 2014-02-03. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  14. ^ "Drake Is Number One: Is America Embracing Global Pop?". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  15. ^ "NYC Will Never Forget 'Okayafrica: Afrobeat x Afrobeats' with Davido + Antibalas at Lincoln Center Out of Doors". OkayAfrica. 2016-09-09. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  16. ^ "Sons And Daughters Of The Fire: A Dispatch From Yesterday's Cape Town Student Protests". OkayAfrica. 2015-10-20. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  17. ^ "Exclusive Interview with Ethiopian Marathon Runner in Exile, Feyisa Lilesa". OkayAfrica. 2016-09-14. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  18. ^ "The Face Of Kenyan Protest: Boniface Mwangi On Corruption, Land Grabs And Women's Rights". OkayAfrica. 2016-02-22. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
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