What began as a welcoming home for many in the global Black diaspora is threatening to cause frictions that no amount of fun can resolve

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Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. It is now unmistakably post-holiday season, and in some parts of Africa, the last of the “Detty December” revellers are packing their bags. The few weeks of heavy partying that attract Black diaspora travellers from all over the world have been a fixture on the calendars of cities such as Lagos and Accra for almost a decade. But this year, it feels as if the darker sides of the festivities are encroaching on the year-end celebrations. Have we reached peak “Detty December”?

A party scene has taken off on the African coastlines. In less than a decade, an annual gathering, increasingly attracting members of the Black diaspora, grew large enough to gain its own name. “Detty December” is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the untrammelled fun, indulgence and even debauchery of the holiday party season. Festivals, concerts and club events, from Ghana and Nigeria to Kenya, receive an influx of local and global guests who now make a regular pilgrimage to beaches, bars, restaurants and nightclubs across Africa that are firmly south of, or on the equator, to enjoy boiling temperatures and blue skies, leaving behind the need to shelter and shiver through the northern winter.