Hear a genuine desert rock band, sculpted by the searing air and shifting sands of the Sahara.

Terakaft’s name means ‘caravan’ in Tamasheq, and its musicians’ wild electric-guitar riffs and pulsing Touareg percussion appear to follow the rise and fall of endless Saharan dunes. The band’s music evokes the desert in all its cruelty and beauty, drawing on both Touareg tradition and the popular music of today’s Tamasheq youth.

Established in 2001, Terakaft have since released several albums and toured around the world, building a reputation as a mesmerising live act.

About Africa Utopia

In 2012 Southbank Centre launched Africa Utopia, a festival dedicated to bringing art and ideas from Africa and the African diaspora to audiences in the UK. We ask what the West can learn from this rapidly changing continent.

The festival’s first four years have featured the award-winning Senegalese musician and human-rights activist Baaba Maal, afrobeat legend Tony Allen, former First Lady of Somaliland and hospital founder Edna Adan, Kenyan creative collective The Nest, Township Tech originator Spoek Mathambo, ‘godfather of Ethiopian jazz’ Mulatu Astatke and the Kinshasa Symphony orchestra.