West African's Heart and Soul
African Soul Rebels at Warwick Arts Centre on 6 October 2026.
Review by Barbara Goulden
Exhilarating, enveloping and ultimately exhausting were the performances by African Soul Rebels at Warwick Arts Centre. This was because audience members simply could not stop clapping, dancing and even joining in - especially members of Coventry's own Worldsong choir who were thrilled to be invited to stand up and join in a chorus of one of the songs by headline act Les Amazones D'Afrique.
This national tour is billed as a celebration of African creativity, resistance and innovation and I guess nobody could argue with that, certainly not me. I was up there on my feet like everyone else.
Les Amazones are a powerhouse female trio of mixed ages, each from different West African countries. Their diversity allows them to share their traditions and, as it turned out, flexibility as 60-year-old founder member Mamani Keita demonstrated by swiftly slipping off her shoes during the encore and bending nearly double backwards. But that was the least of the night's events.
Mamani is from Mali, Fefa Ruffino from Benin and Adeola Soyemi from Nigeria - their songs are rumoured to be on Barrack Obama's playlist while their reputation was hammered out on stage at Glastonbury. As it turned out all the hype was justified at the Arts Centre which only the night before had offered the war memoirs of BBC international editor Jeremy Bowen. Like Jeremy, these women also knew about wars but from a more in-house perspective. At one stage they sang about orphan children. For the most part though, their songs mixed joy with defiance - they said "listen - we women are talking - listen."
Earlier in the night the hand-clapping and foot stomping began with a glorious set by N'Famady Kouyate, born in Guinea where he learned to play wooden xylophones which he has performed on and practically juggled with all over the world before finally making his permanent base in Cardiff. He told us he's now incorporated a few Welsh influences.
After N'Famady came Gasper Nali using a bottle of beer and a home-made three-metre-long bass guitar, which should have set up impossible dance beats. But not for this audience. We needed the beer!
Hopefully, this astonishing set of artists can be invited back soon. Warwick has seen nothing like it before. Well, I haven't.
See more from Warwick Arts Centre: https://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/
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