African Soul Rebels brings an extraordinary celebration of contemporary African music to Coventry, with Les Amazones d’Afrique, Gasper Nali and N’famady Kouyaté sharing the stage at Warwick Arts Centre.
Presented by Music Beyond Mainstream, the revived African Soul Rebels series champions artists who draw upon African musical traditions while refusing to be confined by conventional ideas about what African music should sound like.
Leading the evening are Les Amazones d’Afrique, the celebrated Pan-African collective bringing together powerful female voices with musicians and producers to create music combining African traditions, electronic experimentation, contemporary pop and political expression.
The collective’s work is closely connected to questions of women’s rights, equality, solidarity and social change. The announced singers for this performance are Mamani Keita, Fafa Ruffino and Adeola Soyemi, joined by Xavier Pernet on drums and Manu Chavanet on keyboards.
Joining them is Malawian musician Gasper Nali, whose distinctive sound is built around a homemade three-metre-long, one-stringed babatoni bass. Combined with percussion, guitar and his cow-skin kick drum, the instrument creates a rhythmic, highly danceable sound rooted in Malawi but unmistakably his own.
Opening the night is Guinean-born N’famady Kouyaté, an award-winning balafon player whose music brings West African traditions into conversation with jazz and indie influences. Kouyaté won the 2023 Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition, helping introduce his energetic performance style to an even wider audience.
Alongside the concert, Warwick Arts Centre will host a free Global Makers Market from 4:00pm until 9:00pm across its foyer spaces, giving audiences another reason to arrive early.
Taking place during Black History Month, African Soul Rebels celebrates African creativity not as something fixed in the past but as a living, experimental and globally influential force.
For audiences interested in African music, contemporary culture and artists who combine creativity with social purpose, this promises to be one of the West Midlands’ standout Black History Month concerts.
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