Today (Oct. 17), it’s been announced that Davido, J Hus, and Black Sherif will headline the 2023 AfroFuture Festival. The event will take place in Accra, Ghana’s El Wak Stadium from Dec. 28 to 29. “AfroFuture has always been more than just a festival. It’s a full-circle celebration of everything African — our culture, our people, our talents — and serves as a platform for us to appreciate and acknowledge the larger contributions we make in the world,” said co-founder and CEO Abdul Karim Abdullah in a statement to Rolling Stone.
AfroFuture — formerly known as Afrochella — was founded in 2017 and has since provided the stage for heavyweight acts like Wizkid, Tiwa Savage, Sarkodie, Samini, and Wande Coal. For its most recent iteration, attendees were treated to vibrant performances from Burna Boy, Stonebwoy, Asake, and more.
Taking on the theme of “Black Unification and Pan Africanism,” AfroFuture will be preceded by a two-week expo that will include wellness sessions, screenings, and panel discussions. There will also reportedly be an entrepreneurial pitch competition in conjunction with Pharrell Williams’ nonprofit initiative Black Ambition.
In 2022, Black Sherif liberated his debut LP, The Villain I Never Was, which was led by the critically acclaimed singles “Second Sermon (Remix),” “Kwaku the Traveller,” and “Soja.” In August, the Konongo star dropped off the two-song EP Take Care of Yourself Blacko.
Both Davido and J Hus continue to sail off their 2023 LPs, March’s Timeless and July’s Beautiful and Brutal Yard, respectively. Timeless, which boasted contributions from the likes of Dexta Daps, Focalistic, and Skepta, scored a No. 1 on Nigeria’s TurnTable Albums chart and set a new record as the most streamed African album in a single day on Apple Music. Meanwhile, Beautiful and Brutal Yard debuted at the top of the UK Albums chart, the second of Hus’ career since 2020’s Big Conspiracy.