Alté + adjacent
All images courtesy of @the_nana_bakar
A PLAYLIST BY blessing bafunso, serving as an introduction to the world of alté. read about it and listen below!
It’s a Saturday night in Lekki. The hot dust of the day has settled, but not the youth.Lagosian teens and young adults have donned their finest attire to escape from the pressures of day-to-day life. The clothes they are wearing makes older generations question if they have completely lost their minds. They’re not going out for a regular owambe (Yoruba term for extravagant parties), they are a secret new identity— alté.
Although alté as a music genre is not new, Gen-Z has adopted its philosophies for everyday life. Alté rejects the traditionalism that Nigeria is renowned for being bound to.Allowing people who live in this lifestyle to experiment with western aesthetics while also maintaining the parts of Nigerian culture that matter to them.
Since the 2020 #EndSARS protest, alté has become more common as upcoming generations battle to find their place in a society that prefers they are seen and not heard. Nevertheless, alté has cemented itself a page in Nigeria for the foreseeable future.
