A slew of African artists contribute to a song inspired by Bob Marley’s Africa Unite which is the theme for BASS 2017, a British festival that pays homage to Africa.
Held under the banner, ‘This Is Africa’, the month-long festival began on November 1 in Birmingham.
It celebrates the arts, culture and heritage of African artistes, especially those based in the United Kingdom.
The Africa Unite collaboration is produced by Silvastone, a Ghanaian singer and DJ who lives in the UK. He worked with Chaka Demus on his song Skatta several years ago.
Meron of Ethiopia, SasKilla from Senegal, Nigerian Vicky Sola, Rory Sky of Cameroon/Nigeria, Gambimi of the Democratic Republic of The Congo, and Miss Jeri of Angola are the artistes based in the UK on Africa Unite. Ben Pol of Tanzania, Caff of Zimbabwe, Cloud Tissa of Rwanda/Uganda, Dynamq from South Sudan, Habida of Kenya, A.I.A of Morrocco and Wanlov of Ghana complete the line-up of artists.
The song was commissioned by Punch Records, an independent company in Birmingham. Their CEO, Ammo Talwar, decided it would be appropriate to sample Marley’s 1979 song, which is from his powerful Survival album, released that year.
“ Africa Unite takes listeners on a coast to coast journey through New Africa with a new school of African artistes done from a 21st-century African perspective,” said Talwar.
“We are proud of this year’s BASS Festival, our 12th installment of the series. The African arts scene is enjoying phenomenal success and it is great that we can focus on what is happening in the present rather than just celebrating the achievements of past days,” he added.
— Basil Walters
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