Best Street Style at Afrochella 2021

For many Africans, the Black diaspora, and global tourists, all roads lead to the motherland for the quintessential end-of-year partying that has become known as “Detty December”. Headlining the “Detty December” celebrations is Ghana’s Afrochella — the popular African music and culture carnival hosted in Accra.

Themed “Made in Africa,'' Afrochella 2021 kicked off on December 28 wit vibrance, energy, and excellence. The festival was returning after a two-year Covid-induced intermission, which only added to the excitement for showgoers. The carnival celebrated the works of creative entrepreneurs on the continent with the purpose of further encouraging the advancement and visibility of Africa’s homegrown talent through the core pillars of music, art, fashion, and food. The affair saw hoards of Afrochellans singing along to tunes from both the old and new kingpins of the African music scene from Wizkid, King Promise, down to Stonebwoy and the like. Visual art exhibitions include a showing by Rita Benissan’s SiHene and the Afrochella Music Museum took patrons through a joyride of Ghanaian history and music respectively.

With all the African youthful zeitgeist and a sense of community ever-present, the festival-goers gave a lesson on how to do festive style while nurturing an individual yet collective identity with all the outstanding street style looks they served. The showgoers prioritized their African-ness through fresh takes on festive fashion like never before. Right from their outfits, hair styling, down to their accessories. An array of electric colors, prints, and patterns, modern cuts with an extra topping of melanin glow ruled the street style scene at the Afrochella 2021 festivities.

See below all the street style fashion moments Accra-based photographer Ernest Ankomah zoomed in on this year’s music festival.