Ten Afro-indie Artistes to Know: Tommy Wá, Nabalayo, Bongeziwe Mbandla, Z3kiyerawaa & More

Mama Changanya by Nabalayo

Today “Afro” is likely the most used prefix in the music world. But it sickens me. Often lazy and simplistic, the tag offers foreigners, especially white Europeans and Americans, a small, comfortable view of music coming out of Africa. Its logic is the logic behind the perception of Africa as a country. Afro music is just music by Africans. Afro-house is just dance music by Africans. As if the music doesn't vary from individuals to individuals, groups to groups, countries to countries, regions to regions, etc. But sometimes the tag can be more than a silly redundancy. One case is Afro-indie.

Afro-indie is “a musical philosophy,” according to South Africa’s Bongeziwe Mbandla, “that is about drawing on different genres — perhaps folk, rock, electronic — to make a sound that is your own.” While he concedes Afro-indie could both mean independent music publication and music made outside of the commercial industry, Bongeziwe maintains the soundscape is a personal statement. Accordingly indie music in Africa is a conscious movement by artistes who insert African experiences and personal tastes into the indie musical template. See how the tag at once implies music that is both African and individualistic? This is my kind of Afro music. 

To an extent indie music has been covered on a global scale. Even regional-slash-racial spotlighting, like in Brazil and the US, though only recently, is a thing. But the indie scene on African shores is underrepresented. Even Alté, its distant cousin, has caught on in a way Afro-indie, music with a name that implies its diversity, hasn't. Still, Afro-indie artistes keep singing despite the snubbing attitude of the media. This then is an ode to musicians who press on outside of a spotlight and an effort made for music fans who are curious about what is not yet commonplace. From Kenya’s Nabalayo to Ghana’s Z3kiyerawaa to Nigeria’s Tommy Wá, these ten are musician-philosophers that embody the sound at present. 

Tommy Wá, bred in Ibadan, Nigeria, based in Accra, Ghana, has associated himself with the Afro-indie label since 2015. He's lived the sound, too. At the base of his music is folk and indie. But he channels Africa: tonality, accent, vocals, etc. Even his English has a Yoruba feel. And his rhythm is chilled, his voice calming, his lyrics touching with a dash of poetry and a love for stories. For someone who is influenced by Benjamin Clementine, Beautiful Nubia, Asa, Michael Kiwanuka, this is expected. But artistry aside Tommy Wá is an important figure in the Afro-indie campaign. He's been advancing the movement through various efforts like his Afro-indie Radio project for Oroko Radio and his curation for Sofar Sounds Accra.

Bongeziwe Mbandla loves guitar and isiXhosa. A lot of his songs are based on the first and many of them sung in the second. From the Afro-folk of his debut album Umlilo (2011) to the soul, folk, rock and electronic of his latest amaXesha (2023), Mbandla has been constantly expanding the Afro-indie template. Dubbed the enigmatic spirit of African soul, called a “modern miracle” by Radio France International (RFI), he loves experimentation and he loves folksy, soulful music his fans can access. “Everything I do is measured against how artistic and interesting it is – both for me and my audience,” he’s said. Consequently Mbandla's take on the genre, anchored by a haunting, ethereal voice, is one of the freshest.

Z3kiyerawaa’s music is soul-based but charged with African sensibilities. The Ghanaian slips in and out of neo-soul and indie with an awareness of the jazzy side of things, her production often stripped down, her stories slow, clear, her pidgin crispy. Beside her guitar licks, her voice is a consummate instrument. She could play personalities. Sometimes she sounds like Asa. Sometimes Erykah Badu. Sometimes Alice Walker. Sometimes the middle-aged Billie Holliday. See, respectively, “Here I Stand,” “Love Me,” “Yoyo Song,” and “Polished Masks.” But she's herself. Z3kiyerawaa (pronounced S3-Chir3-waa) is a gift to Afro-indie.

Nabalayo, ethnomusicologist, griot, multi-disciplinary artist, self-proclaimed fairy godmother of the Nairobi underground scene, pioneer of “changanya,” oscillates between experimental, rock, indie, jazz, folk, all the while nestling within East African roots. She released her debut album in 2020. Named after the genre it launched, Changanya, a self-produced folk-Kenyan roots, is Nabalayo's interpretation of Afro-indie. Maybe she’s also the fairy godmother or Afro-indie.

Jabulile Majola’s songs are folksy, his production is lean, sparse, acoustic, his voice raw, visceral, his writing storied, vivid, vulnerable. Take “Nyoni Yami,” a single recorded three years after his sister’s passing, which tells the story of a Blue Swallow living through the difficulties of life. A parable and an ode, it’s a testament to the power of Jabulile's art, himself a foster child whose biological mother vanished three days after he was born.

Thando Zide. A National School of Arts alumni, an Emirates Pursuits of Jazz finalist, one-time member of her school choir and orchestra, plus performances on Joburg Theatre stages as a high schooler, the Soweto singer and producer has a rich background of art making. Her indie folk music is mostly sung in Zulu with a voice that flails like snow. Avant-garde and forward-facing, her laidback production incorporates elements of jazz as well as native South African sounds.

Papa. In the future when Disney need to make an AI-made film, the AI-generated score might sound like the music of this British Kenyan artiste, whose take on Afro-indie involves a blend African gospel, Latino rhythm and European spirituality. But there's more. Drums rumble into rock. Jazz catches sung affirmations like a cat. Funk fumbles around a jelly-like voice, which is firm but flexible. And dance and optimism pour out of pop like good news. Papa's lyrics are uplifting. Here is good music for a happy party for one. It's a futuristic sound best enjoyed in the moment.

Njerae, a Nairobi-born Kenyan, mixes Afro-indie, r/b and soul with elements of pop, reggae and neo-soul. She feeds her feelings and emotions in sensual Swahili and English to an eclectic production. A self-taught singer and producer, she attended Muthoni The Drummer Queen live performance incubator and has since performed at festivals like the Africa Nouveau Festival. Though her music isn't strictly Afro-indie, she is one artiste expanding the soundscape by infusing it into her eclectic musical palette.

Matt Ngesa was as a child exposed to gospel and Christian rock. He did a bit of pop in high school. But he has over the years after that listened to rock bands like Fleetwood Mac and The Beatles. There are strains of all these in the Kenyan’s indie, folksy music. He's proud of this, too, in lyrics, in actions as he's both a flag bearer and an advocate for Kenyan underground music scene.

Black Hibiscus. On first listen the Nigerian's music is more alternative r/b than Afro-indie. And he belongs more to the group of American indie/alt. r/b singers like Q Marsden, Orion Sun and Umi than he to Tommy Wá, Z3kiyerawaa and Bongeziwe. But with the latter's understanding of Afro-indie the tag applies to Black's music. Beside his delivery, which is soul-inspired, it's difficult to pinpoint what genre Black sings but right to claim he taps from soft rock, indie pop, neo-soul, r/b, psychedelic, funk, etc. Clearly he's drawn on different genres to make a sound of his own.