The massive opportunities in Atlanta’s cultural connection to South Africa
Bem Joiner is a cofounder of the apparel brand and civic-minded creative consultancy Atlanta Influences Everything. In his latest UATL contribution, told to Mike Jordan and edited for clarity and length, Joiner talks about the connections between Atlanta and South Africa and how an upcoming event overseas presents a chance for Atlantans to join a rising tide of intercontinental economic opportunities tied to Atlanta’s Black culture.
Atlanta has a history of solidarity with South Africa.
When I was younger, I was taught the connective tissue was between the legacies of Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and their wives, leading the fights against apartheid and Jim Crow. Mandela and Maynard Jackson were also acquainted.
There are other connections, such as Atlanta’s reputation for having the highest income inequality in the U.S. and South Africa having a similar ranking among other global countries.
But it might be culture that has the longest runway for sustainable and organic connection, and Atlanta has been culturally flirting with South Africa for a long time.
Back in January, I went to a multiday event called Milk + Cookies Music Week, held in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Produced in partnership with Rap Plug, the online music and education platform, Milk + Cookies Music Week encompassed networking, music business panels and a concert with Haitian-Canadian DJ Kaytranada headlining.
My friend Karl Carter has been telling me about South Africa for years.
Karl, who grew up in Atlanta by way of Washington, D.C., lives in Cape Town. He runs a media and technology company called Snake Nation. He’s also Maynard Jackson’s nephew and the great-grandson of John Wesley Dobbs.
“We’re from ATL, and we’ve been here in South Africa since 2015, building that bridge with South African culture and Atlanta, helping young people get into the creative economy and championing the creators there as well as here,” Karl said while recently visiting Georgia. “The goal is to connect these dots.”
Jhordan Gibbs, a Morehouse graduate and former talent relations manager for the Atlanta Hawks, is a cofounder of Milk + Cookies. He’s a New Yorker who understands that Atlanta’s sauce lies in the connection between the civic and the cultural. In 2015, he participated in Living Cities’ City Accelerator fellowship, in coordination with former Mayor Kasim Reed’s Office of Innovation, Delivery and Performance.
Because I knew Jhordan and Karl, I decided to go to Milk + Cookies Music Week. I knew I had a place to stay, I knew I could get VIP passes to the festival, and I had a buddy pass for the flight.
Just weeks before I was there, Mayor Andre Dickens traveled to South Africa with the Atlanta Phambili, a trade mission created to strengthen partnerships between Atlanta and South Africa. He visited Snake Nation during his December visit, where Karl greeted him wearing an Atlanta Influences Everything shirt.
I travel with an opportunity mindset, and I’m happy to represent Atlanta culture. And I come bearing gifts, from Atlanta Influences Everything gear to UATL stickers and buttons, but also information from the other side.
From my understanding, the cultural ministry in the South African government seems to be very curious about Atlanta’s creative economy. I’ll admit that when I say “the creative economy,” it’s not the easiest thing to understand. It’s hard to quantify, plus we haven’t worked it as a means of workforce and economic development.
But that’s exactly what a representative of Prosper Africa wanted to discuss when I was there.
Africa has one of the youngest populations on Earth but also a 38.2% unemployment rate, according to the International Monetary Fund. Content creation, influencer branding, songwriting, publishing, editing, creative directing … these are the jobs of the future for young people.
Karl says there’s this whole pre-movement thing that’s been happening.
“African Americans and Diasporans from all over the world are partying together and doing cultural things. It’s amazing, and it offers opportunity to our creator class in Atlanta because Atlanta’s culture casts a very long shadow,” he said recently.
Snake Nation is now partnering with a September event in Cape Town called “Massive” as part of a larger event called Fame Week Africa. Its mission is to expand Africa’s global entertainment footprint and deepen industry ties by leveraging the cultural connections between Atlanta and Africa.
This is a government initiative that, for the first time in my memory, the creators get to lead the way in terms of cultural diplomacy and economic development. As somebody who doesn’t do anything with my hands, I’ve been waiting for the opportunity for creators to be in the bigger economic conversation on behalf of Atlanta because we’ve long been in the culture.
Snake Nation brought South African music to DJs in Atlanta as early as 2016, when internet dance and music trends were spreading like wildfire.
DJ Kemit is revered as a house music DJ over there, just like he is here, because house music is like a father to amapiano music, a South African subgenre of house. I remember the WERC Crew, led by Xavier Black, had gone over there, throwing events for years.
Nothing against the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau and the people who usually go and speak for Atlanta in an official capacity on an international front, but most of the time, it is not creative.
The South Africans want us to come there in September. And Andre Dickens knows how to Yeek dance. For the first time, you have a government asking for the Yeek, asking for that behavior and those stories.
Karl’s advice for creators and creatives interested in attending Fame Week Africa is to come with a deal-making mentality and consider the Atlanta calendar.
“Who knows how much World Cup traction we can create on the continent? It’s perfect for us to start ringing that bell, that Atlanta’s got the World Cup and that’s where you need to be next year. We want this trip to be about doing business and having fun because we’re Atlanta. But at the end of the day, it’s about getting deals done.”
My own advice is more for policy leaders, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, the Atlanta Regional Commission and anyone working in economic and workforce development: Lean into this trip. If nothing else, pay attention to the types of people your counterparts in other countries want to do business with.
When Atlanta sends a contingency of people to another city or country, does that group include our creators?
No, a lot of times, it doesn’t. It includes more hoity-toity people.
When you ask someone in Atlanta Influences Everything gear about Atlanta’s influence, the answer that comes back overwhelmingly relates to Black urban culture. But what’s consistently missing in these trade missions is the creative space.
The world would never believe some of these Atlanta people with Googleable cultural resumes are being left out of the conversation on the back end. I’ve always had a feeling that when Atlanta brings our group, someone where we’re going is assessing us, looking to see who came.
I wouldn’t expect us to bring Jermaine Dupri, but did we even bring someone like Jermaine Dupri?
My call-to-action is local, for our leaders, executive directors, CEOs, college presidents, superintendents and decision-makers to pay attention to what people want from Atlanta. They’re interested in our muralists, our music producers, our songwriters and showrunners.
For anyone who hasn’t visited South Africa before, I learned on my first trip, five months ago, it’s not just about the creators. It’s about the full aspect of living.
During my trip, I met Jeff Dickerson, who used to work at the AJC. Connecting with an older Black Atlantan who’s found peace living over there made me think about connectivity in ways I hadn’t before.
“Working in Atlanta for 40 years and rubbing shoulders with Civil Rights greats was a great honor,” Dickerson told me.
“But there’s no better way of capping off a long career in Atlanta than retiring to Cape Town, where the beauty can take your breath away. And of course, a respite from America’s increasingly ugly politics just makes the move more timely and Africa more beautiful.”
This is bigger than an event. It’s an extension of “the Atlanta way,” with people working together to help bridge the cultural and business gaps between South Africa and ATL. And at our best, we collaborate to bring amazing things to the table.
Correction: An earlier version of this article said Jhordan Gibbs was still a student at Morehouse when he had a fellowship with then-Mayor Kasim Reed’s Office of Innovation, Delivery and Performance. Gibbs was a graduate at the time he held the fellowship.
