Highlife, Afrobeat, Afrobeats: Nigerian Sound, Decolonial Politics, and Global Pop

This paper was presented on 10 April 2026 at the “Crossing Boundaries 2026” conference, University of Lethbridge. It traces the historical and political evolution of Nigerian popular music through Highlife, Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s Afrobeat, and contemporary Afrobeats. It argues that Nigerian music has functioned as a laboratory for African modernity, where debates over sovereignty, representation, and value move from colonial ballrooms and dance bands to the Afrika Shrine and digital Afrobeats playlists, showing how new forms of decolonial politics emerge as much in Afrobeats’ sonic aesthetics as in Fela’s overtly political Afrobeat rhythms.