Pause for a minute and think about it. If the whole of Africa wanted to record one album, how would we even begin?

Which genres would carry the songs? Afrobeats? The many variants of Highlife from Liberia, Ghana, and Nigeria? Bikutsi? Cape Jazz? Kuduro? Sega? Taarab, with Stambeli threaded through it? We could go further and chase fusions that do not yet exist: Ethio-jazz from Ethiopia meeting Rai from Algeria, or a Hausa sound from Nigeria meeting Marrabenta from Mozambique. Maybe Cape Jazz from South Africa folded into Kapuka rap from Kenya. Could the fusion stretch across three genres or more: Apala, Salegy, and Maluf, all on the same track?

Oh, what if we went further still, a blend of Andalusian classical, Congolese Rumba, and Gumbe, all in one?

Or perhaps we set the contemporary sounds aside and lean traditional instead.

What language would we sing in? Try, and fail, to imagine narrowing that choice down from the roughly two thousand languages spoken across the continent.

Among the instruments, the many drums of Sub-Saharan Africa would carry the beat, with the balafon close behind, while the guitars wait their turn to strum in at the bridge. But what of the shekere? The ngoni? The udu? The uhadi? Would they have a spot?

Would we pass over the krakeb for its sharp clang, and lean instead toward the ramkie guitar? Perhaps not. Maybe the atenteben flute, the Oja flute, and the n’dehou would play together despite their distinct notes and pitches.

How loud would the response to the call be? Or would the album become less about the genres we picked and more about giving other African languages a place on the record, a spot away from the usual selections?

What colors would sit on the cover? Red? Green? Yellow? Black? White? Blue? They would not settle into a rainbow, not neatly, but the result would still be ours, and it would stand for our unity all the same.

Would the outcome be worth all the deliberation and time spent on it? Would everyone get a place on the album, no matter how brief? Or would we simply be building another Tower of Babel?

Maybe we would deliberate and never reach a conclusion, and walk away from the project altogether, but not before recognizing that our diversity should be celebrated, not compressed into a sixteen-track album.

The cover image for the blog post titled If the Whole of Africa Were to Record an Album.

If the Whole of Africa Were to Record an Album

The cover image for the blog post titled If the Whole of Africa Were to Record an Album.

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