In the Zulu language, Oluzayo means “what lies ahead, and this five-day festival aimed to present new African music that circumvented familiar patterns of reception and presentation. The organization behind this festival is the Cologne-based African Futures, regularly presenting a program of panels, lectures, workshops and discussions. Innovation wasn’t always compulsory, as some of the acts involved maintained deep traditional roots. Whatever might be “new” usually possessed familiar traits and elements at the core of its style.
When Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey was released in 1968, the composer Gyorgy Ligeti went to see it in Hamburg. “My father sat in the movie theatr