DJ Abass Talks Evolution of Pan-African Visibility on Martell’s ‘Swift Conversations’

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When DJ Abass first started curating parties and DJing in London, many of the events happened in houses. It was at a time when African music and culture weren’t attracting too much attention, and there were no certified rallying points just yet. Born in the UK, Abass was raised in Nigeria, and he spent some time working at The Guardian NG as a nightlife reporter in the 1990s while in his teens, a formative period that helped set him up to become an integral part of presenting African music and pop culture to a larger audience when he moved to London.

Speaking to Adesope Olajide on Martell’s Swift Conversations, Abass relays the evolution of acceptance of African culture since the turn of the millennium. Abass’s first seminal role was as the host of Intro, an entertainment show centering on music from several African countries. The show started airing on Ben TV in the early 2000s, a station on the multichannel service Sky TV. “That was a time when some Africans were not cool with being African,” Abass says. “It was just a fact, but like anything else in this world, just give it a bit of a shine…and put it out there, and let people be comfortable with it, and it takes off.”

Abass talks about centering select airings of Intro on particular African countries around their independence date anniversaries, ensuring that people from those countries in the UK will be tuned and possibly be converted into regular viewers of the show. That intentionality showed in its pan-African selection of music to be played on the show, and it sometimes involved reaching out to friends traveling to their home countries, urging them to bring back VHS tapes of the hottest music. He even boasts about being the first in the UK to play “1er Gaou,” the smash hit by the Ivorian band Magic System.

He explains how multiple efforts aggregated into a stronger identification with African identity, sharing that the current prominence of African music in the diaspora, particularly in the UK, is a case of “amplification through visibility,” which led to eventual acceptance. He also expands on the importance of Nollywood in carrying Nigerian stories and storytelling techniques everywhere in the world, particularly Africans who get to identify with films from somewhere on the continent.

The most striking thing about DJ Abass, through this interview, is his progressive outlook. He talks about music from different African countries with the kind of reverence that announces him to be a respecter of pan-African cultures. He pans the idea of gatekeeping, seeing the positive side of global access as a way to proliferate culture, citing the existence of afrobeats artists in places like Korea. He clarifies afrobeats as “a term of convenience,” an umbrella term meant to label music coming out of Africa. Even though he believes there was “a need for it,” his explanation of how African pop music’s popularity extended from the prominence of eastern African and Congolese sounds, before expanding to other parts of the continent, underlines his astuteness as a cultural purveyor.

The near-hour-long chat is engaging largely due to Abass’ readiness to give credit where it’s due, like towards the end, where he shares a special shout-out to women in Afrobeats for their resilience and excellence. It’s the hallmark of a measured stakeholder who has always weighed African music and pop culture with the respect that it deserves.

Watch this episode of Martell’s Swift Conversation here: