Nnamdi Moweta

Did You Know?

• Moweta is the only African-born radio host in Los Angeles, California.
• In 2011, he was featured on Reuters Africa Journal segment about African DJs in the United States.
• Moweta co-founded Odogwu Entertainment in 2021 with Lucas Silva, a music promoter based in Bogota, Colombia.
• He was the music supervisor for the documentary 'Kassim the Dream,' which won eight international film festival awards.

Early life

Nnamdi Moweta, an Igbo speaker who is also fluent in Yoruba, spent his childhood across several Nigerian cities including Jos, Minna, Kano, and Lagos, having been raised in Jos Plateau State. He moved to the United States in 1978 to study film-making at the San Francisco Art Institute. By 1982 he was based in Los Angeles, working as a DJ, music supervisor, consultant, manager, and event promoter. The following year, a grant from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs allowed him to host an eight-week program on KPFK about rap music’s beginnings. That led to a weekly show, and on June 21, 1995, Radio Afrodicia launched.

Career

Nnamdi Moweta is the host of Radio Afrodicia, a program that blends Afro-beat, Afro-Pop, Bachata, Soukous, Hi-Life, Congolese and Cuban Rumba, African and Latin American Salsa, Samba, and Soca. The show features both established and emerging musicians, and Moweta has interviewed figures like Fela Kuti, Seun Kuti, Femi Kuti, Baaba Maal, Papa Wemba, Youssou N'Dour, Asa, and Fally Ipupa. For more than two decades, he has helped bring African artists such as Fela Kuti, King Sunny Adé, Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe, Koffi Olomide, and Nneka to a wider US audience.

The program highlights performers from across Africa, African musicians based elsewhere, and non-African artists whose work draws on African traditions. Moweta has also supported local Los Angeles events that teach the public about African culture and music. From 1997 to 2003, he produced the annual African Village Festival at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood, featuring music from Africa, Brazil, and Cuba. That festival helped artists like Papa Wemba build a US following and included performances by M'bilia Bel, Kanda Bongo Man, Diblo Dibala, and Madilu System.

Boxing promoter

For several years beginning in 1984, Moweta managed a stable of fighters called the 'Warrior Family from Africa.' The stable included Prince Mama Mohammed from Ghana, who fought for the WBC Light Heavyweight World Title Championship in December 1985 and ended his career with 30 wins, 3 losses, and 2 draws. Moweta's stable also included Nigerian welterweight Young Dick Tiger, the nephew of former world middleweight champion Dick Tiger. In 2011, Moweta interviewed Nigerian boxer Samuel Peter before Peter's world heavyweight title challenge against Wladimir Klitschko for the Africa Channel's sports documentary, Boxing Before the Bell. He also interviewed world-renowned boxing trainer Freddie Roach and Lateef Kayode, another Nigerian boxer, for the same program.