Festival Afropolitain Nomade to stream live gigs

The first concert will take place on 4 April on the festival's Facebook and Instagram pages. Gabonese hip hop artist and activist Rodzeng and Ivorian-Cameroonian rapper Sol'e will perform live at 8.30pm and 9pm WAT, respectively.

"We just want to keep people safe and offer the possibility for artists to broadcast their art," festival founder Vanessa Kanga told Music In Africa. "Everything is on hold everywhere in the world so this initiative is a way to keep both artists and fans active and give some hope."

The streamed performances will feature all the artists who were scheduled to perform at Festival Afropolitain Nomade in Kigali, Rwanda, between 7 and 11 July.

"For now we will host musicians and visual artists who have performed in the festival before or will perform this year in Rwanda. We will open submissions for other artists to be featured on our platform from 23 May. In case of changes to the July festival programming, we will do everything we can to update everyone."

Speaking ahead of his performance, Sol'e said: "We have a community of super fans who are pretty active. Some of them have already attended previous shows of mine and some haven’t. They are excited about this initiative. With the current situation, everybody is at home and in need of entertainment. This live show is an opportunity to stay in the mind of my worldwide fanbase.

Sol'e added that he was using his time at home to hone his skills and gain new knowledge.

"I see this as a blessing in disguise because I can now focus on the heavy work of learning new skills and crafting the ones I already have. I am a public speaker and I have always wanted to do more online classes. Now I can. I've also been writing a book for years, and now I have time to finish it. I also have more time to interact with my supporters online."

Below are Festival Afropolitain Nomade's streaming dates. Follow the festival's Facebook and Instagram pages for confirmation on performance times.  

• 04.04. Rodzeng (Gabon), Sol'e (Ivory Coast/Cameroonian)
• 11.04. Olga NK (Cameroon), Sister LB (Senegal)
• 18.04. Umuruta (Canada), Spirita Nanda (Congo-Brazaville)
• 25.04. Jocelyn Balu (DRC), Sergent Marcus (Benin)