This reflection is shared in care, from the perspective of cultural operators with a responsibility to think beyond moments and toward systems.

December proves demand every year. What it doesn’t build on its own is continuity. Diaspora Roundtables exists to hold the conversations that don’t fit on a stage — about legacy, partnerships, safety, and the systems required to move African culture from moments into lasting infrastructure.

“Detty December” was never just a party season. It was a movement built long before it had a name, shaped by creatives, promoters, artists, and diasporans moving between cities in the absence of formal infrastructure. As debates grow around branding and respectability, the real question is not what we call the season, but whether we understand the system behind it and whether we are ready to build the structures that protect what has already been proven.

Ahead of the Diaspora Roundtables, I visited Jambo Spaces in Accra to understand what sustainable creative infrastructure looks like in practice. Built and owned by Africans for African creatives, Jambo offers a clear example of how access, permanence, and local control allow creative economies to move beyond moments into systems.

Accra has proven it can gather people at scale. The GTBank concert made that undeniable. A free stadium show, tens of thousands in attendance, and a city operating at full cultural intensity.

But scale increases responsibility proportionally. Crowd safety, infrastructure, and operational discipline are no longer secondary concerns. They are the difference between moments and systems.

What happens next will determine whether Accra’s cultural dominance translates into sustainable growth, or remains a seasonal peak without the structures to carry it forward.