In many African cultures, rain symbolizes blessings, even when it arrives at an inopportune moment. This past weekend at the Afropunk Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa, thunderstorms were indeed greeted with laughter, dancing, and song. For the final two days of the year, this momentum would rock the City of Gold, intensified with notable performances by Blitz the Ambassador, Laura Mvula, Manthe Ribane, Thandiswa Mazwai, and the festival’s charismatic headliner, Anderson .Paak.

The Joburg edition of Afropunk represented a homecoming of sorts. For more than a decade the Brooklyn-based festival has nurtured and promoted the diverse and beautiful heritage of Africa’s diaspora, while simultaneously providing a safe space for people of all backgrounds to fully express their sexuality, heritage, bodies, and most notably—their style. Afropunk’s arrival in Africa conjured a spirit of resilience and pride first mobilized by political activists such as South Africa’s father of independence, Nelson Mandela, who was previously incarcerated on the grounds of Constitution Hill where the festival took place, and whose image and words were proudly memorialized on screens beside each stage.

For years festivalgoers in Brooklyn, Atlanta, Paris, and London, have welcomed the opportunity to reinterpret the fashion and beauty practices of their African ancestry. Afropunk Joburg made way for local reinterpretations of the continent’s rich heritage, incorporating the urban aesthetic of the surrounding city, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria, and beyond. Traditional dress indigenous to the Xhosa, Zulu, and Sotho tribes were paired with tennis shoes and rose-tinted sunglasses; beaded necklaces were made by hand and threaded into colorful braids; pinstripes were accessorized with kufi hats and African statement necklaces. In the end, these fresh looks paid homage to Africa’s past while pointing to its bright new future.

courtesy= vogue.com