In 1971, an American promoter organized a live show, “Soul to Soul,” in Accra, Ghana’s capital, to celebrate the 14th anniversary of Ghanaian independence. At the time, Ghana was undergoing political turmoil. Ghana’s first prime minister after independence and later president, Kwame Nkrumah, was overthrown in a military coup in 1966. By 1971, the country was under civilian rule after four years of military dictatorship, though this would be short-lived as the civilian government was ousted in January 1972. Despite the political upheaval, the “Soul to Soul” event featured some of the era’s biggest stars, including Ike and Tina Turner, The Staple Singers, and Wilson Pickett. The most renowned Ghanaian performer at the event was drummer Guy Warren.

That concert is immortalized in the film “Soul To Soul.” (It is a precursor of the concert that accompanied the Ali-Foreman fight in Kinshasa, Zaire, three years later.) Just google it. Clips abound on Youtube. Like this clip of Wilson Pickett interacting with the crowd. At some point during the performance, some Ghanaians join Pickett on stage. Watch. Or watch footage of Ike and Tina Turner or The Staple Sisters. There’s also footage of the musicians meeting and performing for locals outside the concert venue. But one of the breakout acts of the concert was the less heralded musicians – in Africa at least – was Carlos Santana, the son of Mexican immigrants from San Francisco.

An early influence on Santana was the Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji. Santana was fond of covering Olatunji’s “Jin-go-lo-ba.” Here’s video of Santana performing the tune at a 1992 concert in Santiago, Chile).  No one was shocked. As Pitchfork reported in 2007 “…Afrobeat had a huge influence on American funk in the 70s.”

There’s no footage easily available of Santana’s 1971 Accra performance unless you watch the film (and Santana is not on the soundtrack), but one of the songs Santana played in Ghana was “Black Magic Woman.”  I could not find a free (not behind a paywall) version of “Black Magic Woman” from the Soul to Soul concert, so we have to make do with this live version from 1970, one year earlier.

Santana sings, “You got your spell on me.” He may as well be singing about Ghana.

Not surprisingly, Santana influenced local Ghanaian bands. One of these was the Bokoor Band, led by a British guitarist John Collins (later a music professor in Ghana). In 2007, Collins released a record “Bokoor Beat” of that sound and credited Santana’s influence.  Some credit Santana with also influencing Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat.

In 1999, Santana recorded the album “Supernatural.” One of the outstanding tracks was “Africa Bamba.” A light song about dancing, ends with Santana exhorting his listeners to make links between a set of disparate places, including his birthplace Mexico, and Africa, for a new kind of global consciousness. It appears it started in Africa:

Africa I am calling you
Hey Puerto Rico where are you
Raise your hands Colombia
Hey where are you Peruvians
Venezuela I love you
China, China, I love you too
Japan, Japan, Japan that rich Japan
Japan dances with Santana
Don’t forget Mexico, Mexico, my Mexico
My Mexico.