AfricaIs aCountry

Paying homage

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Paying homage

By
Tom Devriendt

Pitchom, Batida, Vieux Farka Toure, P-Unit, Sauti Sol and Tinariwen comprise our weekly Music Break.

The late Ali Farka Touré (via Fallen in the Open, CC Licensed).

Pitcho added archival video material (and a short fragment of the brilliant 2008 film ‘The Class’/’Entre Les Murs’) to the title track of his Crise de Nègre album. It’s becoming a trend, but it works. Friday means we have four more:

Batida gets help from Ngongo on “Ka Heueh.”

Last month, in Bamako, Vieux Farka Touré and his father’s friends and former band paid tribute to Ali Farka Touré, master musician. Ali Farka Toure passed away in 2006. Great footage by Bammako Culture.

Popular Kenyan bands P-Unit and Sauti Sol got themselves a hit.

And the quietest song on Tinariwen’s masterful album now also has the quietest music video.

Further Reading

Sovereignty beyond the nation

A new history of the interwar Latin American left recovers the rich debates over race and self-determination that shaped the region’s anti-imperial politics—and still resonate today.

Fields of dependency

As the US-Israel war on Iran disrupts fertilizer supply, Africa’s reliance on imported inputs exposes the deeper political economy driving food insecurity.

Whose progress?

A new documentary reveals how Ethiopia’s manufacturing push redistributes land, labor, and opportunity—delivering gains for some while displacing others.