Get Ready For Detty December

My good people, we are finally in the midst of Detty December! For this month’s column, I’ve compiled a list of concerts, festivals, and fetes across Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa where you can catch some of the hottests acts and hear some of the best music, like Everyday People and Days Like This, two traveling parties making multiple stops on the continent.

But first, some context: Across many African nations – and most famously in the pop culture capitals of Lagos, Nigeria, and Accra, Ghana – December into early January is a festive season where pleasure becomes paramount (read “detty” as “Dirty” in any number of accents, recognizing the hedonistic nature of the season). The globe’s biggest Afropop stars throw their own shows back home or headline massive festivals, events of all kinds abound, beaches get packed out with buzzing groups of friends and family, and for many, schools close, work slows, and the joyful gatherings seem never ending.

Since I was a little girl growing up on the American East Coast, my parents always prized their visits back to their native Sierra Leone in December, first taking me when I was nine years old in 2002. Whether we’re called JC (“Jus Cam” or “Just Came”), IJGB (“I Just Got Back”), or something else, many diasporans head to Africa to take advantage of holiday vacation time, reconnect with family, and escape the stressors of the hyper-capitalist West. Increasingly, though, travellers who only know Africa as a stolen homeland have made their way there too, raising the awareness of Detty December beyond locals, immigrants, and their children to a retreat for Black folks worldwide.

In furthering this phenomenon, 2019 is particularly notable. That’s when Ghana celebrated a tourism initiative called the Year of Return. In commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the world-changing horror of enslaved Africans’ arrival in English colony of Virginia, Ghanaian officials encouraged African Americans and other Black diasporans to visit. The country uncomplicated the visa approval process by offering visas on arrival (a program continued in the festive seasons since) and promoted a bustling calendar of cultural events. “We know of the extraordinary achievements and contributions they [Africans in the diaspora] made to the lives of the Americans, and it is important that this symbolic year—400 years later—we commemorate their existence and their sacrifices,” outgoing Ghanaian president President Nana Akufo-Addo said in 2018 while formally launching the Year of Return in Washington D.C.

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Detty December is a sweet time of year, but I need not sugar coat it: it’s also a complicated one. Getting to these places in December is a massive expense, especially as flights into Africa jump into the thousands for roundtrips – and have only gotten more expensive since Covid dramatically slowed travel in 2020. On the ground, cities like Lagos and Accra see price gouging in December as commerce targets the influx of much wealthier visitors than most folks living in these cites. Last year, Chance the Rapper and I discussed concerns that while festivals like the one he threw in 2023 create business and employment opportunities in the area, those undertakings could be marginalizing locals, too. However, in a report for OkayAfrica, Rolling Stone contributor Nelson C.J. noted that events businesses in Lagos and Accra are seeing opportunities and revenues scale back this year amidst ongoing economic crises.

If you find yourself on the more privileged side of the economic spectrum, consider donating some of your Detty December time (or cash) to service opportunities. If you’ll be in Accra on December 27 and have made your parents proud by becoming a medical professional, you could sign up to volunteer at the Community Health Fair organized by the company behind one of the cities premier music festivals, Afrofuture, Black Health Connect, and Distant Relatives. There, they aim to provide 1,500 community members with screenings for blood pressure issues, diabetes, sexually transmitted infections, and malaria, among other services. I also learned about young Nigerians creating their own initiatives through Eche Emole, co-founder of the African travel hub AfroPass and community Afropolitian that helped me navigate Ghana last year. Entrepreneurs Olayinka Lawal, Oladoyin Oladapo, and Ruth Lawansin’s I Just Gave Back fundraiser is supporting four distinct philanthropic organizations serving youth and education, while interpersonal violence disruptor Nneka Obiekwe is raising money towards abuse survivors. Wherever you are and however you can this holiday season, try to do a little good.