"Kingsley Okyere’s essay takes on the question of how national imaginaries shape the sonic quality and the circuits of Afrobeats sound in Anglophone West Africa as well as globally. Okyere’s exploration might appear to rehearse the now-familiar if also playful Nigeria–Ghana rivalries, but he in fact shines a vital light on the fraught question of the circuits of exchange between these nations, two salient spaces 'from which the phenomenon is largely shaped' on the continent. Beginning with his own family history, that traverses said national contexts, not only embodies key aspects of the argument but also sets the stage for the clarificatory moves that Okyere goes on to make, such as demarcating between Afrobeat and Afrobeats; understanding Afrobeats as African and global popular culture; and the uses and limits of genre in categorizing Afrobeats sounds. Just like Pan-African festivals and initiatives of the past, Afrobeats continues to take inspiration from and shapes musical sounds across 'the Black Atlantic in a brew of circulations and exchanges' that Okyere describes as 'an endless syncretic loop.'"(Dotun Ayobade, convener).
Okyere also presented his work at the Northwestern Afrobeats Symposium, where fellow presenter Ayodele Ibiyemi, a literary critic from the Department of English, praised his contribution. "It’s great to see someone like Okyere, a musicologist, engage in technical analysis of Afrobeats," Ibiyemi said. "I’ve encountered perspectives from musicologists, anthropologists, and media studies scholars, but his panel was particularly illuminating for me."