F.A.Q

Afro Video is a platform devoted to African culture on video: music videos, documentaries, TV shows, short films, dance, movies and series. The catalogue holds over 2,000 videos sorted by category, musical genre, country and year, plus hundreds of audio tracks. The site also lists events from the African scene, with online ticketing.

There are five ways in:

• the search bar (magnifier icon at the top of the page) for a quick lookup by title or artist;
• cross search, to combine several criteria: category, genre, country, year;
• the VIDEO › By Category menu: Music, Documentary, TV Show, Short film, Dance, Movies, TV Series;
• By Country, to explore what a given country produces;
• musical genres: Afrobeat, Coupé Décalé, Makossa, Bikutsi, Rumba, N'dombolo, Amapiano, Mbalax, Zouglou, Gqom… more than 50 genres are listed.

A channel gathers every video from a single artist, label, producer or media outlet. Browse them all on the Channels page. From a channel you can subscribe and get notified of each new release.

A playlist is a themed selection of videos that play one after another — a genre compilation or a mood, for instance. Hit Play All to start continuous playback. Every playlist is listed on the Playlists page.

Two pages are dedicated to profiles: African Artists and Actors (singers, actors, dancers) and Directors and labels (directors, producers, record labels). The Wall of Stars shows these profiles as a photo gallery where you can like or dislike each personality and open their full page.

Yes. The AUDIO section collects tracks, mixtapes and singles for listening only. A continuous radio stream is also available on our partner platform afro.audio.

Yes — the YouTube Live page collects streams that are running or scheduled.

Yes. The Events page gathers concerts, festivals, screenings and parties tied to African culture. Each listing gives the date, the venue and the artist or collective on the bill.

When ticket sales are open, you book straight from the listing: the ticket goes into your cart and is paid for online, like any other service. Your tickets then stay available in My Account, under "Orders".

Organising an event? Write to us from the Contact page to have it listed.

The Encyclopedia of African musical genres explains the roots, instruments and defining artists of each style: where Bikutsi comes from, how to tell Soukous from N'dombolo, and so on. It is the best starting point if African music is new to you.

No. Watching is free and open, no sign-up required. An account is only needed to interact: comment, rate, vote in contests, subscribe to channels, save videos and submit your own content.

Go to Create a new account, enter your email and pick a password. You will get a confirmation message — check your spam folder if it does not show up.

Yes. The Sign in / Sign up with Telegram button spares you another password: your Telegram account acts as your identity. It is the fastest route on mobile.

On the Sign in page, click "Lost your password?". A reset link goes to the email address tied to your account. The link expires after 24 hours — simply request a new one if it does.

Everything lives in My Account: email, password, display name, profile picture and notification preferences.

Write to us from the Contact page using your account email. Deletion is permanent and removes your favourites, subscriptions and history. Public comments may be kept in anonymised form. Full details are in our Privacy Policy.

It is your personal queue. The Watch Later button appears when you hover a thumbnail (long-press on mobile). Saved videos are gathered on the Watch Later page, reachable from the icon at the top of the site.

Once signed in, the bell at the top of the page flags new videos from the channels you follow. You can also join our Telegram channel @AfroVideo to get new releases straight to your phone.

Yes. The site adapts automatically to phones and tablets. For television, use the casting feature (Chromecast, AirPlay) offered by your browser or by the video player.

No. Videos are streaming-only, served from the artists' own YouTube, Dailymotion or Facebook accounts, out of respect for artists' and rights holders' rights. Use Watch Later or bookmark the page to find it again easily.

Below the player, click the stars to leave your rating. The system is multi-criteria: you score several aspects of the video separately, and the figure shown is the average of every rating received. You need to be signed in, and each video can only be rated once.

Three figures go with every video: the view count, the likes / dislikes, and the average rating out of 5 stars. On contest pages, a score out of 10 combines these into the ranking.

The comment area sits at the bottom of each video page and is open to signed-in members. Comments are moderated: hateful speech, insults, spam and off-topic content are removed, and repeat offenders have their account suspended.

The share buttons under the player post the video to Facebook, X (Twitter), WhatsApp and Pinterest, or copy the direct link. Every share helps the artist reach a wider audience.

Afro Video runs several standing charts, driven by your votes and by site statistics: Best videos of the year, Best videos of the month by country, Most popular artists, Most popular genres and the Top 100 African music videos of the year. The Contests page brings them all together.

Two dedicated pages: Vote for a video and Vote for a dance. You must be signed in for your vote to count.

You also vote without going through those pages, simply by watching your favourite videos: click like or dislike, leave a star rating and post a comment. All three feed into the ranking.

For artists, only two actions are available: like or dislike, and comment.

The score combines member votes, the average star rating, the view count and the like / dislike reactions. Counters update continuously; the ranking on screen may lag slightly because pages are cached.

That is expected: pages are cached to stay fast, and your browser may be showing a stored copy. Force a reload (Ctrl+F5 on Windows, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac). If the gap is still there after 24 hours, let us know.

Every video published on Afro Video automatically enters the charts for its category and country. So start by submitting your video.

Any signed-in member: artists, labels, directors, producers or enthusiasts. Use the Submit Video button at the top of every page, or go straight to the submission page.

Content must be African or of African descent: music video, documentary, short film, TV show, dance video, movie or series. You must own the rights to the video, or hold permission from the rights holder.

Rejected: hateful, violent or pornographic content, pirated videos, and anything unrelated to African culture.

To get published quickly, fill in as much as you can: exact title in the format Artist – Title, category and musical genre, country, release year, artists and director, description, and a good-quality thumbnail. A complete entry ranks better on Google and climbs higher in our charts.

Every submission goes through manual review, usually within 48 to 72 hours. You get an email as soon as the video is live, or if something needs fixing.

The most common reasons: a duplicate already in the catalogue, a dead link or private video, incomplete information, off-topic content, or rights that could not be verified. The rejection email states the reason — fix it and resubmit.

From your member area, under "My videos". For permanent removal, contact us through the Contact page.

Afro Video offers paid services to artists and partners: video promotion, subscription plans, advertising space, an AI Biography Generator, an AI Video Description Generator, an AI web-monitoring service for artists, and event and ticket management. The cart works like any online shop — pick your plan, then pay online.

Available methods appear automatically at checkout, depending on your country.

In My Account, under "Orders". Each order gives access to a downloadable invoice.

Ad formats and rates are shown on the Advertising page. For a bespoke campaign or a partnership, write to us from the Contact page.

The Partners page shows our current collaborations, including Afro Audio for music streaming. To propose a partnership, write to us from the Contact page.

The Language switcher in the footer lets you move between French and English at any time. You stay on the same page, in your chosen language.

Menus, static pages and official descriptions are translated. Video titles and member comments, however, stay in their original language so that the names of works and artists are not distorted.

Try these in order:

1. force a page reload (Ctrl+F5 on Windows, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac);
2. turn off your ad blocker for a moment — some of them block video players too;
3. try another browser, or a private window;
4. check that your browser is up to date.

If it still fails, tell us the video address, your browser and your device.

This usually means the original owner made the video private, deleted it, or restricted playback in your country. Let us know and we will remove or replace the link.

Clear your browser cache and check your connection. On mobile, a 3G connection may be fine for audio but struggle with HD video — lower the quality in the player settings.

Check your spam folder and add our sending address to your contacts. Some providers filter automated messages aggressively; if nothing arrives, write to us from the Contact page.

We do not host the videos: we play them from the artists' official streaming accounts (YouTube, Dailymotion, Facebook, and so on). For any rights issue, please contact the streaming platform concerned directly. If a video is removed there, it automatically stops being available on our site.

If you would still like the entry taken down from Afro Video, write to us from the Contact page, giving the address of the page concerned.

The quickest way: under every video there is a report button that sends us the page in question directly.

You can also use the Contact form, giving the page address and the reason for the report. Every report is reviewed.

It is all set out in our Privacy Policy: what we collect, why, for how long, and how to exercise your rights of access, correction and deletion.

On Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, YouTube, Telegram, Tumblr and VK.

Through the Contact page for any question, suggestion, partnership request or report. We usually reply within 48 working hours.

Write to us — questions that come up often get added to this page.