Wganda Kenya: The legendary outfit who brought Afrobeat to the Colombian coast
Humanity can trace its roots back to Africa, where the first homo sapiens are evidence to have hailed from, and, in a similar sense, the vast majority of modern musical styles also have their roots in the sounds of the African continent. Jazz, blues, soul, and even folk all have rich histories in Africa, dating back to the traditional styles of different tribes dotted around the vast continent, but Afrobeat is perhaps the most iconic.
Pioneered during the 1960s by legendary artists like Fela Kuti, Afrobeat gave the nations of Africa a distinctive cultural identity during a time of independence and freedom from colonial powers. Pretty quickly, the Afrobeat style began to spread all across the world, finding favour with audiences due to its infectious rhythm and defiant euphoria. South America became a particular haven for incredible Afrobeat music, with artists finding that its style fit seamlessly with the traditional sounds of Latin jazz, cumbia, and funk.
This fact should come as no real surprise, particularly given the fact that many of these musical styles originated from African people who were forcibly brought to South America during the slave trade. Over centuries, these styles were honed and adapted by different generations of artists, taking inspiration from the cultural heritage of places like Colombia, along with the advent of jazz in the United States and, eventually, the introduction of 20th-century Afrobeat.
Quickly, Latin America saw the rise of various pioneering groups attempting to combine the Afrobeat sound with something distinctly South American. One such group was Wganda Kenya, led by Julio Ernesto Estrada and formed in Medellin, Colombia. It was the legendary record label Discos Fuentes that first put the group together, based on the idea of combining Afrobeat rhythms with the infectious style of Colombian cumbia music.
Discos Fuentes played an utterly essential role in developing and fostering the cumbia scene in South America, and their output often represented the pinnacle of Colombian artistry during the 1960s and 1970s. As such, their house band had to be as revolutionary in their sound as the label was in its output. Luckily, Wganda Kenya proved to be an infallible house band, capable of rivalling virtually any other label house band from across the globe.
After performing on various Discos Fuentes recordings during the late 1960s, Wganda Kenya began to record and release their own material the following decade. Their self-titled debut album, released in 1976, is particularly masterful in its output. Perfectly capturing the age-old relationship between Colombia and African music, the record flows seamlessly between Afrobeat and cumbia styles, often blending the two together with notably compelling results.
What’s more, the band’s 1976 record incorporates elements of Caribbean music, notably Cuban rumba, into its offering. This endlessly expansive sound culminates in a record which is as inventive and captivating as it is infectiously danceable, even after nearly 50 years. The enduring relevance and euphoria at the heart of the record speaks to the timeless appeal of Afrofunk and cumbia, as well as reflecting the prolific nature of labels like Discos Fuentes during that period in the 1960s and 1970s.
Wganda Kenya remained an essential part of the label’s success throughout this period, releasing their final album, Cartagena Caribe, in 1987. Incorporating a vast range of styles, from their roots in Afrofunk and cumbia rhythm to the Caribbean styles of zouk and champeta, the band’s final project together summarised their endlessly diverse repertoire of sounds. Even today, Wganda Kenya are still rightly hailed among the most culturally influential and skilled artists ever to grace the airwaves of Latin America.
