AFRICOLOR 2025

In 2025, Africolor celebrates the independence of the so-called "Portuguese-speaking" countries with a special focus on Angola and Cape Verde, where the anthems of the great mobilizations of the 70s resounded. Between Semba and Morna, the festival welcomes the new generation of Luanda, with the group Banda Duia, and the Cesária Évora Orchestra that provides music for the Cape Verdean evenings. 1975 was also the year of independence for the entire Comoros archipelago, and the legendary Cheikh MC offers "Beatrad", revisiting Comorian heritage through the encounter between taarab and urban music. Among those who fought and wrote during the long march towards independence, we celebrate the centenary of Frantz Fanon, an evening led by Sélène Saint-Aimé and Simone Lagrand. Along with them, other new voices of Afro-descendant origin punctuate the festival: wordsofAzia, Manda Sira, Lola Malique, Socha, Keïla, Emma Lamadji, weave new stories of self and of all. But Africolor does not forget musical encounters, such as Bênfôlikan (Sékouba Bambino/Pierre Durand/Yakouba Koné), or the incredible creation "L'Odyssée des Bergères" carried by the Maîtrise populaire de Joigny and Azinata Paré. This great musical charivari is inaugurated on November 28 in Pantin, with an evening dedicated to mizik-carnivals, which, from slavery to colonization, have been places of resistance and resilience. Smaïl Kanouté and Ibaaku celebrate the Black Indians, while the Union Kréyol de Pantin responds to Maxime Delpierre's Mini-Jazz-Ouragan. Like mirrors held up between musical worlds born from the same distant sun of independence.