A new book explores clubbing in Africa and Europe from the 1960s onwards

A new book documenting club scenes from 10 cities across Africa and Europe is out now.

It aims to give a broader insight into the history of the contemporary clubbing scene, with a focus “beyond the North Atlantic clubbing axis of Detroit–Chicago–Manchester–Berlin”.

It’s titled Ten Cities: Clubbing in Nairobi, Cairo, Kyiv, Johannesburg, Berlin, Naples, Luanda, Lagos, Bristol, Lisbon, 1960-Present, and features 21 essays and photo sequences covering the local scenes, subcultures and global networks of those capital cities.

“The tale they tell is one of clubs as laboratories of otherness, in which people can experiment with new ways of being and assert their claim to the city. Ten Cities is a nocturnal, sound-driven journey through ten social and urban stories from 1960 through to the present,” states an accompanying overview text.

It’s edited by Johannes Hossfeld Etyang, Joyce Nyairo and Florian Sievers. Contributing writers featured are Rui Miguel Abreu, Bard Bardetzky, Vitor Belanciano, Tony Benjamin, Danilo Capasso, Iain Chambers / Vincenzo Cavallo, Kateryna Dysa, Maha ElNabawi, Michelle Henning / Rehn Hyder, Rangoato Hlasane, Johannes Hossfeld, Angela Mingas, Ali Mohsen, Marissa Moorman, Joyce Nyairo, Billy Odidi, Sean O ' Toole, Tobias Rapp, Florian Sievers and Mudi Yahaya.

There’s photography from Anita Baumann, Beezer, Royce Bett, Tilman Brembs, Giovanni Calemma, Martin Eberle, Mosa'ab Elshamy, Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani, Max Fonseca, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Andreas Langfeld, Musa N. Nxumalo, Eva Maria Ocherbauer, Chris Saunders (including article image pictured above), Jürgen Schadeberg, Gavin Watson and Tobias Zielony.

Ten Cities is out via Spector Books and the Goethe-Institut. Buy it here.

Check out the cover and some images from inside the book below.

Chris Saunders is a South African photographer and filmmaker, check out his website

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Features Editor, follow him on Twitter