Africa Is a Country

Friday Music Bonus Edition

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

Friday Music Bonus Edition

By
Tom Devriendt

Our weekly round-up of new (and a little less new) music videos. First, this great video for ‘I Am An African,’ the first single of Dutch-Ghanaian artist Papa Ghana’s EP ‘I Am An African.’ (The song came out last year).

The video for Nigerian singer Nneka’s latest single, ‘Shining Star’ shot on the Canary Islands in Spain:

Harlem, New York based emcee Rugz D. Brewler‘s race conscious anthem, ‘Cuz I’m Black’:

Yasiin Bey (the former Mos Def) performed N.I.P. at Radio Nova in Paris this week (remember that track, including the line: “Prince William ain’t do it right if you asked me, if I was him I’d put some black up in the family”). He also did this new ‘Sunshine Screwface’:

A music video for ‘Past, Present and Future’ off “The Extraordinaires” by the Zambian-Canadian collaboration, The Holstar and Teck-Zilla. It includes a cameo by Zone Fam:

And Sean is taking a group of New School students to Cape Town this summer. He plans to make this music video compulsory as a language lesson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAOJ4VL9Xg4&

Further Reading

Kenya’s vibe shift

From aesthetic cool to political confusion, a new generation in Kenya is navigating broken promises, borrowed styles, and the blurred lines between irony and ideology.

Africa and the AI race

At summits and in speeches, African leaders promise to harness AI for development. But without investment in power, connectivity, and people, the continent risks replaying old failures in new code.

After the uprising

Years into Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict, the rebellion faces internal fractures, waning support, and military pressure—raising the question of what future, if any, lies ahead for Ambazonian aspirations.

In search of Saadia

Who was Saadia, and why has she been forgotten? A search for one woman’s story opens up bigger questions about race, migration, belonging, and the gaps history leaves behind.

Binti, revisited

More than two decades after its release, Lady Jaydee’s debut album still resonates—offering a window into Tanzanian pop, gender politics, and the sound of a generation coming into its own.

The bones beneath our feet

A powerful new documentary follows Evelyn Wanjugu Kimathi’s personal and political journey to recover her father’s remains—and to reckon with Kenya’s unfinished struggle for land, justice, and historical memory.

What comes after liberation?

In this wide-ranging conversation, the freedom fighter and former Constitutional Court justice Albie Sachs reflects on law, liberation, and the unfinished work of building a just South Africa.

The cost of care

In Africa’s migration economy, women’s labor fuels households abroad while their own needs are sidelined at home. What does freedom look like when care itself becomes a form of exile?

The memory keepers

A new documentary follows two women’s mission to decolonize Nairobi’s libraries, revealing how good intentions collide with bureaucracy, donor politics, and the ghosts of colonialism.

Making films against amnesia

The director of the Oscar-nominated film ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ reflects on imperial violence, corporate warfare, and how cinema can disrupt the official record—and help us remember differently.