WORLD AFRIKA FESTIVAL IS BUILDING ETHIOPIA INTO A GLOBAL DESTINATION FOR AFRICAN CULTURE

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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: What started as the name of a clothing brand in Boston has grown into an ambitious cultural platform with a goal that extends well beyond entertainment. World Afrika is seeking to connect Africans and members of the global diaspora through music, fashion, culture and shared experiences while positioning Addis Ababa as a destination for African culture.

The platform was founded by Jonathan Bekele alongside Abraham Haile and Daniel Fesseha. Its beginnings were modest. Bekele had launched a clothing brand called Anbessa, with World Afrika appearing in its branding as a reference to an older spelling of the continent’s name.

The founders organized an event to mark the clothing launch. The response was strong enough to change their plans.

“We thought, well, let’s start doing this more often,” Bekele said.

Events that initially attracted about 300 people in Boston eventually grew to venues with capacities of up to 1,500. The business expanded into other U.S. cities, and after Bekele lost his job during the COVID 19 pandemic, he began to consider whether the project could become a larger calling.

The answer became clearer when the team began taking the concept to Ethiopia.

Bekele and Fesseha had first met in Addis Ababa in 2019 and returned regularly in the years that followed. They observed the increasing movement of Africans in the diaspora returning to the continent and saw an opportunity to create an event that could make Addis Ababa part of that journey.

Bekele wrote the idea of creating a festival in Addis Ababa among his goals for 2024. The founders later expanded their team, working with local partners including PMG, Aman Sebahtu and Henny Yegezu to develop the festival.

The result is World Afrika, an event built around the idea that African culture should be experienced across regional and national boundaries rather than divided into separate markets.

“We wanted an experience for everyone from the continent,” Bekele said. “We wanted sounds you would not always hear and DJs that represented the entirety of the continent.”

That approach reflects what the founders saw as a gap in the global representation of African culture. While music and entertainment from West and Southern Africa have achieved significant international visibility, the founders believe East Africa has an opportunity to play a much larger role in the global cultural economy.

World Afrika is their attempt to build that platform from Addis Ababa.

For the founders, however, the festival is not simply about expanding the entertainment market. It is also about creating an environment where Africans from different countries and backgrounds can meet.

“To me, it’s home,” Bekele said. “It’s a big family reunion.”

That sense of connection has become one of the defining features of the World Afrika experience. The founders say their events bring together people who might otherwise never find themselves in the same space, creating connections between artists, professionals, entrepreneurs, members of the diaspora and audiences from across Africa.

The impact extends beyond the venue.

World Afrika has become a way for people who have never visited East Africa to experience Addis Ababa and consider returning to Ethiopia independently. Attendees share their experiences with friends, family and wider networks, creating another pathway through which the city is being introduced to international audiences.

“We have now created a bridge for people from other countries to come and see Addis Ababa,” Bekele said.

For the three founders, that objective is personal.

Their families are Ethiopian, and Bekele’s parents are both from Addis Ababa. Building the festival in Ethiopia therefore represents more than a business decision. It is an opportunity to present their country to an international audience through an experience they have created themselves.

“It is where everything started,” Bekele said. “Representing our country on the world stage is a blessing and we don’t take that for granted.”

World Afrika is now preparing for its third year in Addis Ababa. The founders describe the first edition as a largely self funded effort that required them to manage much of the operation themselves.

The second year brought a larger team with specialized responsibilities, allowing the founders to step away from some of the operational demands and focus more closely on the overall direction of the event.

That experience has shaped their approach to the third edition.

The objective is to improve the festival across its talent, production and overall attendee experience while applying the lessons learned from the first two years.

The longer term ambition is significant.

The founders want World Afrika to become a recurring cultural fixture in East Africa, comparable in influence and anticipation to major African cultural events in other regions.

“We want to be a staple on the continent just like our neighbors in West and South Africa,” Bekele said. “We can be that for East Africa.”

That vision comes at a time when African music, fashion, film, food and creative industries are reaching increasingly global audiences. The founders believe the continent’s diaspora can play a major role in that growth, particularly when people move beyond consuming African culture abroad and begin investing their time, talent and resources back on the continent.

Their advice to African creatives, entrepreneurs, artists and cultural leaders is direct.

“Go back home.”

Bekele believes Africa remains underutilized by members of its own diaspora and points to examples of people returning to the continent to establish businesses, build careers and create new opportunities.

For World Afrika, returning home is not simply a personal decision. It is part of the platform’s broader philosophy.

The founders are building a festival in Ethiopia while maintaining the international perspective that shaped the project in Boston. Their model combines diaspora audiences, local partnerships and African cultural production with the aim of creating something that can grow from Addis Ababa into a wider continental platform.

At its core, however, World Afrika remains connected to family.

Bekele describes the project as “a love letter” to the country and to the parents and previous generations whose sacrifices enabled their children to build lives abroad.

That history is reflected in the festival’s purpose.

World Afrika is designed for people who may live in different countries but share an understanding of African culture, identity and belonging. The founders want those connections to translate into physical movement, bringing people to Addis Ababa and encouraging them to experience Ethiopia for themselves.

Their ambition is therefore larger than building a successful festival.

They want World Afrika to help make Addis Ababa a meeting point for African culture, where people from across the continent and diaspora can gather, discover one another and experience the city through a platform built by Africans themselves.

For Jonathan Bekele, Abraham Haile and Daniel Fesseha, that is the opportunity in front of them.

What began with a clothing brand in Boston is now being developed into a cultural institution rooted in Ethiopia and designed for a global African audience.

The founders believe the continent has the talent, culture and audience to support it.

Their task now is to build the platform large enough to match that ambition.