Industry news

Africa's musos collaborate to revolutionise agriculture

31 Mar 2014 10:01 AM

How do you fit 19 artists from 11 African countries, singing in 10 languages into a track 4.30 minutes long? It couldn't have been easy, but ONE.org have accomplished the mammoth task with the release of Cocoa na Chocolate - part of the organisation's campaign to boost investments in African agriculture.  

The participating artists are: A.Y. (Tanzania), Bufallo Souljah (Zimbabwe), Dama Do Bling (Mozambique), D’Banj (Nigeria), Diamond (Tanzania), Dontom (Nigeria), Fally Ipupa (DRC), Femi Kuti (Nigeria), Judith Sephuma (South Africa), Juliani (Kenya), Kunle Ayo (Nigeria), Vusi Nova (South Africa), Liz Ogumbo (Kenya), Nancy G (Swaziland), Omawumi (Nigeria), Rachid Taha (Algeria), Tiken Jah Fakoly (Cote d'Ivoire), Victoria Kimani (Kenya) and Wax Dey (Cameroon).
 
Calling on the youth
 
 "As African musicians, agriculture is the single most important cause we could champion together and I am proud to say we are doing it with ONE voice. Here in Nigeria alone, while 70% of Nigerians depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, the federal agriculture budget has been trending downwards, and is now at just 1.47%. This is a serious concern, especially because Nigeria spends billions of Naira importing food every year," explains Nigerian music superstar D’banj. 
 
"Through this song, we are calling on youths to go online and join ONE.org, to get more involved in agriculture, and to ask our governments to step up and improve agricultural investments, so that the youths can have a better chance of succeeding in it."
 
These artists are using their voices to inspire young people to join ONE.org, and tell political leaders ahead of the African Union summit in June that the time has come to adopt better agricultural policies that will help tackle youth unemployment, provide better support to small holder farmers, boost productivity, increase value chains, and help lift millions of Africans out of extreme poverty.
 
Cocoa na Chocolate is available for free download at www.one.org after signing the ‘Do Agric’ petition.