For those who do not know, Afronation is a 4-day urban music beach festival in Europe aimed at celebrating all things Hip-hop, UK rap, afrobeat, reggae, and dancehall. Since it’s inception in August 2019, it’s safe to say the festival holds every six months. It’s like Coachella but on the beach and with normal people, lesser celebrities. After seeing the lineups for the days I knew day 2 was the day for me. Why? Shatta Wale was the headliner!! Get rid of that “eww” face you have on, it doesn’t suit you. Listen to his music with an open mind first, then come back and call me weird. Anyway, since I started listening to his music, I have been itching to attend his concert. And it’s not enough to just see a performance, I wanted to see him perform in Ghana – where his fanbase is the strongest and I’ll fit right in. We got to the venue around 8 pm. Everywhere was packed, 50% of the population were foreigners, at some point, I forgot we were in Africa, different accents flying around. It was just the vibe I needed. We proceeded to get our armbands which cost 200 Ghana cedes each – that’s about 13k in naira, just for one day. We were cleared to go into the main area, as we were walking in I could hear 6lack on stage rounding up his performance. I was lowkey pained ’cause he was another reason I chose day 2 but, we move! Walking was difficult, our feet were sinking in the sand, I mean, we were on a beach so it was kinda expected.
PICTURES
Imagine being on a big ass beach with a shitload of people, 70% of them half-naked, a lot of Instagram boys and girls. Ps, when I say Instagram boys and girls, I mean people that look exactly like their Instagram pictures. Fine ass men with great physique and women with the best swimsuit bodies. I could smell different grades of marijuana, tobacco, alcohol. It was a no SARS zone, literally. 😂 More encouraging that there were no Agbero looking people around or I didn’t see any. The atmosphere was great, the stage was lit and the setting was perfect. The Emcees were hilariously professional – it was nice to see them doing their job without picking on individuals in the crowd that just want to have fun. Nobody cared what anyone was doing, everyone was enjoying themselves. There were stalls for food, coffee, snacks, grills, cocktails, alcohol, anything you wanted. It was available. It took a while for me to get the hang of it ’cause I was in awe of how organized and proper the energy was. While we waited for the next artiste, dancing competitions were held and of course, the zanku dancer won. I was having the time of my life and Shatta Wale hadn’t even performed. It was time for Teni’s performance, and if I’m being honest, there’s nothing much to say about it. It was very average, compared to every other artist. If anything, I realized she didn’t have so many songs – I’m sorry, but 10-15 singles isn’t exactly Afronation standard. She tried so well to elongate it but it still ended pretty early.
After her, the DJ blessed us with beautiful music and we were all dancing. 30mins had passed and it was time for the next artiste. I didn’t know Olamide was due to perform that day. Seeing him was like that money you find in your pocket when you’re doing your laundry. You didn’t expect it, you didn’t even know it was there but it sure as hell made you very happy. He sang everything from his first album to the most recent. Being a fan, I could sing along to most of his music. I complained about walking on the sand earlier now imagine dancing on the beach, I was sinking before I knew it, I don comot slippers. We die here. My friend and I were grooving, everyone else was enjoying themselves and I could see the excitement on every white person’s face as they danced off the beat. I’m certain he performed over 30songs and lasted close to an hour on stage. Over 10, I’ll give him a solid 9.
We whiled away time by dancing, I was surprised when I heard the audience chanting “Wale e, wale e e e, wale” it didn’t take me any second to realize they were actually calling Shatta Wale’s name to let the organizers know that that’s the man they all want to see. I found it incredibly amusing that there was a chant at least every 5mins. It’s because of this extra stuff that I was particular about watching his performance in Ghana, I had heard a lot about his fans, who by the way consists of 80% of the Ghanaian population, I heard about how they’d ride or die for him. I was starting to see all these things coming true and I was loving it! As the chants grew louder and louder, I knew it was time for me to move forward. I mean this is why I am here, I have to be close enough to see him and really soak in the experience. My friend and Mr. T were such good sports, they didn’t hesitate when I told them I wanted to move forward, they gladly squeezed themselves into the crowd till we found a good spot close enough to the stage. I didn’t even know when I joined the crowd in chanting “Wale e, Wale e e e, Wale” After a long time of dancing and chanting it was finally time to bring out my president. As the emcee announced him, he ran to the stage and jumped so high, almost twice as that Ronaldo’s header. He was so energetic, I could already tell my money was well spent, he sang and danced with so much stamina, yet so effortlessly. We all sang and danced along as he performed. Took me a while to get over the fact that I was breathing the same air as him but I wasn’t a crazy fan, I just danced and enjoyed myself. I sang along to every single song because duh! I knew every single one. Thankfully, my friend is a real one, she said to me “enjoy yourself, I’ll do all the videos and pictures” I was phone free and was having the best time. His energy was so right, I wasn’t surprised when my friend caught the Shatta fever and started dancing along to songs she mostly didn’t know and some she had heard me play repeatedly. 1hr passed and we were still dancing, we all got so tired, we had to move again to the back where it was less crowded. All this while, Shatta Wale was still going hard as ever on stage (If you had to read that again, I pray the Holyspirit cleanses your mind) We got to the back and sat on the sand to catch our breath and mehn, Shatta Wale was still performing, stunting and dancing. Energy!!! I don’t know how or where he got all that strength from but trust me, Zlatan’s got nothing on him (I mean the footballer not ayi) His performance lasted about 90 minutes or more and every second of it was blissful. His was the last performance of the night which made it even better for me.
After his performance, we walked to the water which was like 20ft away, relaxed, and chatted about how much fun we had. It was cold and people were grouping by the water, some talking, some dancing, some smoking.. basically everyone just relaxing whichever way they wanted. I sat by the beach and soon started dozing off. It was 3 am and we started heading home, thinking we had beat the surge. Lol jokes on us, cos it still took another 40mins of requesting and cancelling uber before we finally got a ride home. I had so much fun. Scratch that, I had the time of my life. Maybe because it was in Ghana, I felt closer to home or because I crossed something off my bucket list or something about a new experience. Whatever it was, I’m glad it happened and I’ll do it over and over and over and over and over and over again.
