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Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Rocky Dawuni, Wiyaala and Amandzeba Set to Headline African Festival Concert in Accra

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Ghana’s capital is preparing to host one of the most significant Pan-African music events of the year as legendary South African icon Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Ghana’s Rocky Dawuni, Wiyaala, and highlife trailblazer Amandzeba Nat Brew headline the African Festival (TAF) Concert on December 30, 2025.

Scheduled for the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC), the concert will serve as the grand finale of the three-day African Festival, a flagship cultural experience anchoring Ghana’s globally celebrated Detty December season. Gates open at 7pm, with performances beginning at 8pm.

Billed by organisers as a “landmark Pan-African music night,” the concert is expected to attract thousands of music lovers, diaspora visitors and international tourists, reinforcing Accra’s growing reputation as Africa’s December cultural capital.

A multi-generational celebration of African sound

This year’s African Festival Concert brings together some of the continent’s most influential voices across generations and genres. Yvonne Chaka Chaka, widely known as the Princess of Africa, brings a catalogue that has defined African popular music for more than three decades. Rocky Dawuni, a four-time GRAMMY Awards nominee, is set to deliver his globally recognised Afro-roots sound rooted in peace, culture and social consciousness.

Ghana’s own Wiyaala, often described as the Lioness of Africa, is expected to electrify audiences with her powerful vocals and commanding stage presence, while Amandzeba Nat Brew, a living legend of Ghanaian highlife, anchors the night in heritage and tradition. Also on the bill are Bessa Simons of the iconic Osibisa band and The Adaha Band, whose contemporary live sound is expected to elevate the concert experience.

Together, the artistes promise a rare blend of rhythm, dance, history and cultural pride, celebrating African excellence on a global performance scale.

Part of a three-day Pan-African cultural journey

The concert crowns the African Festival, running from December 28 to 30, 2025, curated as a holistic cultural immersion designed to position Ghana as Africa’s leading December tourism destination.

The festival opens on December 28 with Don Quixote Africa, a bold African reinterpretation of the 1605 literary classic, reimagined within the Gonja Kingdom by playwright Latif Abubakar. On December 29, audiences will experience The Second Coming of Nkrumah: The Musical, a large-scale theatrical production envisioning the return of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

Beyond stage performances, festival-goers will enjoy a wide range of cultural experiences, including The Den of History with fireside storytelling and film screenings, Sahara-inspired camel rides, iconic African installations, contemporary art and craft markets, an African food village, and dedicated family and children’s zones.

Strengthening Ghana’s creative economy

The African Festival Concert is presented by Globe Productions in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), ECOWAS Bank (EBID), MoMo (Mobile Money), the Embassy of Spain, and Joy Entertainment. Organisers say the collaboration underscores the festival’s role in advancing Ghana’s creative economy, cultural diplomacy and international tourism footprint.

Tickets and access

Tickets are already on sale, with prices set at GH¢300 for standard access and GH¢500 for VIP. Purchases can be made via www.theafricanfestival.com or by dialing 4471092#. The ticket hotline is 0571 900 900. With strong diaspora interest and December travel demand, organisers expect tickets to sell out quickly.

As Accra gears up for another high-energy December, the African Festival Concert is shaping up as a defining moment of Detty December 2025 — a night where Africa’s rhythm, history and unity take centre stage.

Festivals & Events

Beyond the Hype – Next Level Is Bringing Ghana’s AI Future to Life at Google Accra

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On 11 September 2026, one of Accra’s most exciting gathering spaces will trade ordinary conversations for bold ideas as professionals, entrepreneurs, students and creators come together for Beyond the Hype – Next Level at the Google Accra AI Community Centre.

Rather than another conference built around speeches, this event promises something more practical: learning by doing.

The return of Beyond the Hype reflects a shift taking place across Ghana’s creative and professional landscape.

Artificial intelligence has moved beyond being a buzzword and is becoming part of everyday work, from marketing campaigns and classroom lessons to financial analysis and business planning.

After a successful first edition that brought together 30 professionals for hands-on training and networking, the event returns with a stronger focus on helping participants use AI with greater confidence and purpose.

Visitors can expect five hours packed with interactive experiences rather than passive listening. Live demonstrations will showcase some of today’s most powerful AI tools, while advanced productivity sessions will explore faster ways to research, write, organise and create.

Industry-specific breakout sessions will allow professionals from fields such as HR, finance, consulting, technology and education to tackle real workplace challenges.

Networking moments and AI use-case pitching sessions add another layer, creating opportunities for fresh collaborations long after the event ends.

For international visitors interested in Ghana’s growing innovation scene, the gathering offers a window into a country where technology and entrepreneurship increasingly go hand in hand.

The Google Accra AI Community Centre has become part of a wider movement nurturing digital talent across Africa, making it an intriguing stop alongside the city’s galleries, cafés and creative districts.

For Ghanaians, the event is equally meaningful. It celebrates curiosity, practical problem-solving and a willingness to embrace new skills in a rapidly changing world.

When the doors open at 12:00 PM GMT, attendees won’t simply hear about the future of work—they’ll spend an afternoon building it.

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Reels & Social Media Highlights

Bawumia’s 2028 Play, Abena Korkor’s Return, and a Security Alarm

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If you scrolled through Ghanaian social media on Tuesday, 25th August, 2026, you would have found a digital ecosystem buzzing with equal parts political ambition, celebrity drama, and genuine national concern.

It was a day where the serious and the absurd competed for attention, perfectly capturing the nation’s current mood.

The political sphere was immediately energized by a bold declaration from Dennis Miracles Aboagye, an aide to Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

In a post on X that quickly went viral, he pledged a “completely different approach” to the 2028 campaign, stating definitively: “WE WILL COMMAND THE NARRATIVE.

They won’t see it coming”. This wasn’t just standard political rhetoric; it was a signal to the grassroots and a direct challenge to the opposition, sparking intense debates about strategy and the upcoming election cycle.

However, the lighter side of politics also trended. A video of Minority MPs enthusiastically joining the viral “Mahama Ayariga Wakyi Gu Hɔ” trend offered a rare moment of bipartisan humor, with netizens praising the lawmakers for embracing a playful moment despite the often-tense parliamentary atmosphere.

@the1957news

Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga, "Wakyi Gu! Hɔ!" — Minority

♬ original sound – The1957News

It was a reminder that even in the serious business of politics, Ghanaians appreciate a good meme.

But it wasn’t all fun and games. A stark warning from the National Security Coordinator, COP Osman Abdul Razak, cut through the noise. He revealed that political vigilante groups are rebranding and moving their operations to “social media and encrypted chats”.

This alarming development, announced at a policy dialogue on the implementation of the Vigilantism and Related Offences Act (Act 999), shifted the conversation to a more somber tone. It highlighted a significant national security concern just as the country gears up for future elections.

Topping the entertainment charts was the return of mental health advocate Abena Korkor after a period of absence.

Her video addressing a recent relapse and her subsequent clapback at critics sparked a massive wave of support and debate, highlighting the ongoing discourse around mental health in Ghana.

From a political power play to a national security alarm and a celebrity comeback, Tuesday’s trends showed a Ghanaian digital culture that is as politically aware as it is deeply invested in the personal stories of its public figures.

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Arts and GH Heritage

The Architecture of Grief: Gabriel Selassie Tsagli Paints a Portrait of Home and Loss

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There is a particular quality of light in Accra that never fully leaves you. For Gabriel Selassie Tsagli, a Ghanaian artist living between Accra and Berlin, it is this light—alongside the memory of a specific mother and a specific city—that anchors his first solo exhibition in his birthplace.

Son of Kafui at Gallery 1957 is a homecoming in the truest sense. The title itself is an intimacy: Kafui, meaning “love” or “son of God’s own,” was the name of Tsagli’s late mother.

Following his return to Accra in 2025, Tsagli has created a body of work that doesn’t merely depict grief but gives it form, movement, and colour.

The exhibition begins where all loss begins—in the body’s remembrance of place. Tsagli’s paintings emerge from lived experience rather than pre-imagined form.

He builds surfaces through accumulation, layering, pressing, and scraping paint until figures appear “as though remembered rather than constructed”.

This is not figurative painting in the traditional sense; here, figuration and abstraction overlap, allowing bodies and faces to emerge and recede like recollections themselves.

Colour serves as a generative force. Orange suggests action and vitality, while blue becomes a space for reflection and articulation. Held in tension, these chromatic forces create an emotional architecture that resists closure, sustaining ambiguity across the works.

The figure of his mother recurs throughout, not as a portrait or a likeness, but as atmosphere, material trace, and presence suspended in the space between what is here and what is gone.

Curated by Marina Paulenka, the exhibition considers return not as resolution but as an ongoing negotiation.

Accra itself becomes a living presence, a shifting organism that evolves alongside the artist’s understanding of home—an understanding complicated by a life shaped by movement between Ghana and Germany.

What makes Son of Kafui remarkable is its refusal to resolve grief. Instead, Tsagli invites us to remain with what resists closure, to encounter meaning as it unfolds.

In doing so, he transforms personal loss into a broader reflection on how we carry people, places, and histories within us. The exhibition runs at Gallery 1957 until 12 September 2026.

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