TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A one-day event in Taipei on Sunday (May 20) will celebrate the African continent and its contributions to the world by way of music, food, and culture.
Artists from Uganda, West Africa, Swaziland, and the U.S. will perform at the festival. Taiwan News spoke with event co-organizer Bonnie Kross, a Ugandan native and band leader of Higher Rootz and Kora.
How were you inspired to start AFROfest?
It is about Black excellence. We do good things but often do not get recognition. We have people with PhDs, who run businesses. Many Black people from all over the world come to Taiwan to start a business.
Taiwan has been supportive in recent years, giving scholarships to Black students and those from the Caribbean. Now, even Black South Africans can teach English in Taiwan. Anyone can come, study, and live in Taiwan.
Can you introduce the different types of music at AFROfest?
We will have African, Caribbean, and hip-hop music. Almost every musical genre came from Africa, including reggae, hip-hop, and Afrobeat.
Afro-beat is a special musical style from West Africa that was invented by Fela Kuti. Soukous is from Central Africa and has a special rhythm, melody, and harmony.
The guitar plays short melodic riffs or even spontaneous notes, and the vocal harmony is heavenly, like the sound of many different voices both high and low coming down on us.
In Africa, music is used to celebrate things. It only takes four people to start a song.
What is your inspiration for starting this event?
I am going back to Uganda this year, and I want the festival to represent African culture. Our movement is rhythmic to express ourselves to the heavens and earth.
My enthusiasm for Afrobeats and reggae is infectious and so is my desire to get the audience dancing. Through my passion and my music, I aim to showcase African arts and culture to the people of Taiwan. I want to bring musicians together and develop a growing Taiwanese fan base.
It is a fun event and the first edition this year. We look forward to working with more Black people to make it bigger. We will also have African and Caribbean food.
There will be steel drums from St. Kitts and Nevis. Handpan music originally came from India but was adapted in the Caribbean.
My band, Kora, is the first modern Asian Afrobeats band. This means we are local players like Frank from Burkina Faso. We are inspired by Fela Kuti, who was the first person to combine Western, jazz, funk, and modern vocals that are chanted or story-based.
I would also like to thank my fellow organizer, Toi Windham, who is working with sponsors and managing the overall festival structure. It is great to have a team to bring this important event to Taipei.
For more information, including the time and schedule of each performer, please visit the AFROfest Facebook page.
