From Minnesota to Montreal: BotangRecords Takes Kom Culture Across an International Border

Montreal, Quebec, Canada — July 30–August 2, 2026

It started with an invitation. When Kom Canada delegates visited Afoakom USA's national convention in Minneapolis, they watched BotangRecords bring the room to life — and immediately began asking one question: could BotangRecords come do the same thing for the Kom community's own annual convention, north of the border? This July, BotangRecords and a group of Minnesota supporters answered "yes," joining Kom Canada's convention in Montreal, hosted by the Woynkom Montreal chapter.

Thursday opened with a traditional fireside welcome — BotangRecords telling the kind of stories fathers once told over a cooking fire back home, holding a room of guests until bedtime with nothing but voice and memory. Friday brought a morning boat ride on the St. Lawrence River, where BotangRecords turned a bus ride into a call-and-response celebration and led the dancing on deck — moments captured on Facebook and Instagram Live that drew online attention and pulled new faces into that night's cultural program, where the community honored the memory of the late Fon of Kom through performances led by the youngest generation.

Saturday's Gala night was the centerpiece: BotangRecords performed "WoynKom America," an original song produced in collaboration with eight other Kom artists across the U.S., and led the Njang dance that had the entire room moving as one. By Sunday's closing BBQ, BotangRecords had become the DJ too — turning a park into one last dance floor before everyone flew home.

Why it matters

This is what BotangRecords' mission looks like at international scale: a Minnesota-based nonprofit invited across a border specifically because of the cultural energy it brings, carrying Kom heritage between two countries and strengthening a diaspora that spans both. It's proof that the work being built at home is being recognized and requested well beyond it.

BotangRecords has already been invited to bring the same energy to next year's Kom Canada Convention in Toronto. If you're in Canada, or have family there, this is a community worth belonging to.