Offered up for the occasion of World Africa Day, this playlist reveals a myriad of scenes, each more varied than the next. These audacious melting pots are thus embodied by West Africa thanks to Christopher Kirkley, the head researcher of the label Sahel Sounds, and Vaudou Game or the BKO Quintet, two indisputable references of afro-funk. Another sector, Congo and Uganda, sublimate the voices of independence (Grand Kallé and its African Jazz, Franco, Tabu Ley Rochereau, etc) through hybrid formations like Gasandji or the astonishing Nihiloxica. And Europe appears in counterpoint via the Parisian collective Acid Arab or the saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings. An integral part of the teeming London jazz scene, the latter inspiringly shakes up the ambient orthodoxy by mixing improvisations, afro-spiritual music and retro-futuristic aesthetics.

Equally interesting, the dozens of testimonies and concerts recorded in the countryside confirm this cultural ferment. One naturally thinks of the feminist reflection initiated by the Amazons of Africa, of the freedom-loving songs of the Tunisian pasionaria Emel Mathlouthi, or of the generous approach of the late Tony Allen, craftsman of the Afrobeat rhythm and tutelary figure of this continent in the making.