Assinie-Mafia, Ivory Coast – As the sun sets at the Akoula resort in the popular beach town of Assinie-Mafia, more than 100km (62 miles) east of the Ivorian commercial capital Abidjan, hundreds of people huddled in scattered groups frantically converge by the DJ booth’s makeshift pit.
It is the afternoon of April 30th, 2023, and they are swaying to the music playing at another episode of La Sunday, the biggest music festival in Ivory Coast and one of the biggest in Francophone Africa.
The controlling rhythms are courtesy of Lionel Obam,…
