West African Culture Quotes

My dad's from Nigeria and my mom's from Grenada and they both went into medicine. My dad's a psychiatrist and my mom's a nurse so I was going to go into medicine, also.

My grandfather was the king of a region in western Nigeria, where I had the privilege to live for seven years while growing up. But what we think of as royalty in the U.K. is very different to royalty in Nigeria: if you were to throw a stone there, you would hit about 30 princes.

Most people have no idea what Cabo Verde is or even where it is to mention, so I definitely want to make people aware of this beautiful culture.

I've come across a novel called The Palm-Wine Drinkard, by the Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola, that is really remarkable because it is a kind of fantasy of West African mythology all told in West African English which, of course, is not the same as standard English.

The UK has no input in Afrobeat. Let me make myself very clear. The UK has no influence in the creation or naming or anything that has to do with Afrobeat' roots or beginnings.

If I ever go to West Africa, it would probably be for a free concert. I would want to do something for the people there. Maybe we can make a whole event, the way Bob Marley would have done it. Just for the people. And if they climb over the gate, let them climb over the gate.

We all know that Nigerian jollof rice is the best anywhere. We beat the Ghanaians and Senegalese hands down.

I grew up in a place called Port Harcourt, Nigeria, the youngest of four. What I remember most about Nigeria was the ease. I would play by the pool, have fun with friends.

I studied the Ghanaian drums and bongo drumming.

The summer I finished my first novel 'Ghana Must Go,' I drove across west Africa: from Accra to Lome to Cotonou to the deliciously named Ouagadougou.

I grew up listening to loads of afrobeats; my grandad's Sierra Leonean, so that was always around. My mum loves those kind of beats, too.

We had so much fun in Ghana and they are really lovely people.

I was drawn to West Africa. I did listen to a bunch of different styles of African music, and there was something about the percussion and the drums of West Africa, and the energy, that felt so cinematic to me.