June 25th, Mozambican Independence

In celebrating Mozambican independence day, we made a list of the most popular music videos in mid-2011.

Ilha Mozambique. Image by Stéphane Neckebrock via Flickr (CC).

We had much fun selecting recent videos coming out of South Africa last week, so we decided to follow up on this. At the occasion of each country’s independence day, over the next months we’ll try and collect songs (and videos, if we can sleuth them) we find interesting. We’ve already missed some this month, but if all goes well we’re ending this series May 24th of next year, with Eritrean music. Today is June 25th, Mozambique’s Independence Day. We couldn’t leave out the “ball grabbing, bikini-clad videos” Davy Lane spotted last year, but there is more than that.

Iveth:

Turaz feat. Muzila:

Magnums:

Impro:

Dabo Boys Family:

Ziqo:

And, Dygo:

Further Reading

Slow death by food

Illegal gold mining is poisoning Ghana’s soil and rivers, seeping into its crops and seafood, and turning the national food system into a long-term public health crisis.

A sick health system

The suspension of three doctors following the death of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s son has renewed scrutiny of a health-care system plagued by impunity, underfunding, and a mass exodus of medical professionals.

Afrobeats after Fela

Wizkid’s dispute with Seun Kuti and the release of his latest EP with Asake highlight the widening gap between Afrobeats’ commercial triumph and Fela Kuti’s political inheritance

Progress is exhausting

Pedro Pinho’s latest film follows a Portuguese engineer in Guinea-Bissau, exposing how empire survives through bureaucracy, intimacy, and the language of “development.”

The rubble of empire

Built by Italian Fascists in 1928, Mogadishu Cathedral was meant to symbolize “peaceful conquest.” Today its ruins force Somalis to confront the uneasy afterlife of colonial power and religious authority.