The Ajabu Cocktail Festival Celebrates African Drinks Culture and Community

In 2002, while he was working at LAB Bar in London, the late Ghanaian mixologist Douglas Ankrah invented a modern cocktail classic: the Pornstar Martini. More than two decades later, the drink remains a global sensation, inspiring countless riffs and internet searches (it was the most Googled cocktail of 2024). Unfortunately, Ankrah’s native Ghana isn’t always prominent in conversations about trending drinks or influential recipes. That’s one of the reasons why Ajabu Cocktail Festival, a new biannual celebration of African drinks culture and community, is so important.

Co-founded in 2024 by Colin Asare-Appiah and Mark Talbot Holmes, the festival brings some of the brightest stars from across the international beverage scene to South Africa twice a year, alternating between Cape Town and Johannesburg. The festival aims to be equal-parts educational and enjoyable. There are panel discussions and seminars on topics like the history of gin or cocktail clarification techniques, plus dozens of pop-ups where the international bar teams pair up with local bars to create a special menu highlighting local ingredients.

Historic Barriers

Like in the United States, where it’s been an uphill battle for Black drinks professionals to get their rightful recognition in the beverage industry, so too has been Africa’s experience on the global stage. As a Black American journalist and Afro-Caribbean woman, my experience at Ajabu felt like both a homecoming and a long-overdue introduction to the continent’s vast and varied drinks culture. Aside from the tangible joy buzzing in the air at every pop-up, perhaps the clearest distillation of the evolving state of African drinks was in a conversation called “Africa Rising.”

A panel held at the simultaneously occurring Cape Town Beverage Show, the discussion highlighted the supernova of African cocktail cultures as well as the political red tape that hampers its growth. Hosted by Kurt Schlechter, co-owner of Cause Effect Cocktail Kitchen in Cape Town, the conversation featured three bar industry leaders who shared their thoughts on the realities of what comes next for their beloved continent. 

“In colonial text, it is illegal for Ivorians to own a distillery,” noted Alexander Quest, a bar owner, consultant, and co-founder of Abidjan Cocktail Week in Ivory Coast. During the colonialism of Africa in the 1930s, under British and French rule, palm spirits were heavily taxed, which increased the coffers of the foreign ruling nations. What did locals do in response? “Palm spirits quickly became the symbol of resistance against colonial oppression as locals resolved to produce and consume in hiding,” says Quest. “In most of Francophone Africa, these bans [on palm spirits] became law and highly enforced.” 

These laws are still in existence today, making it nearly impossible for an Ivorian to open or own a distillery in their country—whereas a person holding French citizenship would not face the same barriers. Quest and his colleagues have been lobbying in countries like Benin and the Ivory Coast to restore the right to produce spirits to the land’s indigenous populations.

Quest also recently opened a cocktail bar in Abidjan called BISSA, which features African spirits and wines, indigenous ingredients, and seasonal vegetation. He also spearheads Abidjan Cocktail Week, a 10-plus-day festival that involves more than 190 bars and celebrates distinctly African perspectives on drinks.

Continent-Wide Community

Other festivals that aim to build community and celebrate culture are popping up across the continent. Richie Barrow, general manager of the Nairobi-based Tribe Hotel, is helping to spearhead the upcoming Kenya Bartender Week. Part of the global expansion of New York Bartender Week, the celebration will take place in September 2025 in Nairobi on the sixth anniversary of Hero Bar, one of the most highly awarded bars in the country. 

While there is much to celebrate, Barrow and his cohorts know there is still more work to be done. One of Barrow’s biggest concerns for the bar scene in Africa is the preservation of indigenous fruits, vegetables, and other ingredients. “In our globally connected marketplace, we are losing the history of our produce, and we are fast becoming a market for a standard selection of food items,” he says. “With the focus on greater returns, we have replaced our indigenous produce with foreign seeds and products.” While internationally procured seeds and produce might grow bigger and faster than their native equivalents, indigenous vegetation is “healthier for the soils, more nutritious,” says Barrow. “If we do not take the steps to ensure these items have a marketplace, then … more of them will forever be lost.”

By highlighting local ingredients, Barrow and his team find they’re better able to connect with the flavors and spirits of peer nations. For example, agave spirits are increasingly popular in Kenya, and, as it happens, they also blend beautifully with berbere, a spice mix from Eritrean and Ethiopian cuisines. The spices within this mix already tell a story of global connection, from cardamom (southern India), fenugreek (Mediterranean), cumin (western Asia), pepper (India), nutmeg (Indonesia), dried chilis (the Americas), and more. “Despite our differences, we are all deeply connected by the foods we eat and drink,” says Barrow.

From Local to Global

Kojo Aidoo also sees the value of indigenous ingredients and initiatives. He’s the founder and president of the Bartenders Guild Ghana, the general manager of lauded cocktail bar Front/Back Accra, CEO of bar and restaurant No. 19, and founder of the Accra Bar Show. The bar scene in Ghana has received more recognition than many other African nations, but local leaders like Aidoo are continuing to push the conversation for the benefit of the industry as a whole, highlighting local ingenuity such as farmers utilizing old fruit to make uniquely African spirits and liqueurs.

“One Corner Distillery, in central Accra, specifically Kokomlemle, is using world-class copper-still technology to produce premium fruit brandy extracted entirely from locally sourced Ghanaian fruit from the farms directly, especially leftover fruits,” says Aidoo. “They do not use alcohol procured from a third party and then add flavor to make their drinks.” Made from local oranges, bananas, pineapples and mangoes, the spirits are all available for tasting at One Corner’s on-premise garden bar. 

Aidoo also points to the growing number of bar and cocktail festivals happening across the continent, including the Accra Bar Show and Bar Week, the long-running Lagos Cocktail Week, Abidjan Cocktail Week, Nairobi Bar Show, Azizo Togo, and the Cape Town Beverage Show.

Ajabu is the newest festival to join the circuit—a celebration of African drinks professionals’ accomplishments and an engine of future growth. The November show in Cape Town honored Ankrah with every bar pop-up featuring a creative riff on the Pornstar Martini. Ankrah, who passed away in 2021, was a longtime colleague and friend of festival co-founder Asare-Appiah. And it had been their shared dream to bring a pan-African cocktail festival into reality.

“Doug would be proud of how Ajabu has embraced the evolution of the African hospitality experience while still honoring its authenticity,” says Asare-Appiah. “The community that Ajabu has built is vibrant, resilient, and growing, and people from all corners of the world—whether born in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, Asia, or the Americas—feel a deep sense of belonging at the festival.”