Africa Nouveau 2018: Afrobubblegum Magic in Kenya

The Africa Nouveau Festival went down on the weekend of Feb 2nd – 4th at the Ngong Racecourse Waterfront in Nairobi and it was amazing. When I first heard that the festival was happening, I was excited but also curious as to how they were going to keep things interesting over a 3 day period. Let’s be honest, most events in Kenya that call themselves festivals are usually a 1 day affair with a limited activity list. The programme for Africa Nouveau was jam-packed with amazing artistes and activities in music, food, fashion and film from Sao Tome e Principe, Senegal, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, UK and DRC.

The theme for the much-anticipated Africa Nouveau Festival was Afrobubblegum. The idea behind this was to celebrate alternative African art – art that wasn’t represented in the mainstream and that was created simply to be enjoyed. With a lot of emphasis on agenda art on the continent, this was a celebration of the frivolous.

There was a lot to enjoy and so impossible for me to even cover everything. I’m going to highlight my favourite finds and moments from the festival.

Fashion

The festival was fashion-heavy, featuring, among other things, a live lookbook, leading up to a digitally distributed fashion magazine featuring both creatives and attendees. This was made possible through the East Africa Arts, a British Council programme creating connections between creatives from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and the UK. Watching the making of this was quite the treat and I’m looking forward to the fashion magazine that will be a culmination of this.

What I enjoyed the most though was going to check out the different stalls that were full of great merchandise and products from lots of fashion designers and distributors. My favourite find was the Lheritier 1789 stall. Lheritier 1789 is a Kenyan beauty brand that has a product range that includes perfume and hair and body products. I immediately fell in love with the Lheritier 1789 Eau De Parfum that is a long-lasting unisex perfume made in Kenya, with a base of patchouli and sandalwood balanced with aromas of rose and osmanthus.

The brand is the creation of Francisca Ochieng, who quit her corporate job to start an affordable luxury beauty brand. The Lheritier 1789 perfume smells divine, has gold sprayed on the metallic finish of the bottle and only costs Ksh 4,500, a fraction of what most high-end perfumes cost. The hair and body products are also quite affordable and are all organic. This brand was definitely my favourite discovery, and I have already begun to purchase some the products.

Food

There was a lot of good food and drinks with brands like Tusker and Ciroc with their own tents and great offers on six packs and bottles. My favourite find though from the festival was definitely the Don Julio mobile cocktail bar. I got to hang out with the Don Julio Global Brand Ambassador, Deano Moncrieffe and learned some great things about premium tequila cocktails, that I will definitely be trying out in my kitchen.

Music

This was my favourite part of the festival. There were so many amazing acts and I couldn’t believe how talented everyone was. I’ll highlight some of my favourites from Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday: The best performances for me on Saturday were Wanja Wahoro, Sichangi, Muthoni Drummer Queen (MDQ) and Blinky Bill. Wanja Wahoro soulful voice and music set the tone for the day, Sichangi brought the energy back up and I enjoyed his set especially the collaborative bits with Camp Mulla. MDQ is in a lane of her own if we’re being honest. She put in 1000% on stage and delivered an energy packed stellar performance. What can I say about Blinky Bill, except that he keeps getting better every time I see him on stage?

Sunday: This was a jam-packed day and the music stage is where I spent most of my day. I especially enjoyed that majority of the artistes during the day were some of my favourite Afro soul artistes that included Ayrosh, Emma Cheruto, Phy and Makadem.

Kwesta came on at about 10pm and rocked the place. His performance was energetic and a great way to end what had been a fantastic weekend.

Did the Africa Nouveau Festival explore and embody the spirit that encaspulates creativity, connections, innovation, sustainability and new Pan Africanism it sought out to do? Yes, it did. Here’s to more collaborative art, experimentation and celebration of what is ours, even as we discover and create new art.

Photography by Kiarii Kimani