ABSTRACT
Modern African popular culture in England evolved in the 1950s as highlife. This chapter provides a perspective on some of these bands, their musical approaches and their contribution to popular music in Britain beyond the Afro rock interest of the music industry, since they had far more to offer. While a critical approach to Britain's Afro trend of the time reveals how it relied on key stereotypes about Africa to gain momentum, the history of African musicianship in Britain and the creative musical experiments of African musicians in the 1960s and early 1970s reveal a different story. As with the impact of jazz or Jamaican ska and reggae, their new Afro sound' affected the course of British popular music or, rather, complemented its diversity. The chapter presents the success of Osibisa, a major pop band in Britain as well as the Afro trend more generally were fuelled by the efficiency of African stereotypes in Euro-American popular culture.
