Less than two months before France’s presidential elections, Kerry James’ “Letter to the Republic” couldn’t come more timely. And, no surprise that it blew up. Kerry’s parents are from Haiti who first migrated to Guadeloupe from where they moved to Paris. He grew up in one of the many working-class, high rise “suburbs” or banlieue close to Orly Airport. Kerry has some thoughts on France’s history of racism, colonization, and the African diaspora. Sample lyrics (translated):

To all those racists with hypocritical tolerance
Who built their nation on blood
Now set themselves up as givers of lessons
Looters of wealth, killers of Africans
Colonizers, torturers of Algerians
This colonial past is yours
It is you who have chosen to link your story to ours
And now you have to assume
The smell of blood pursues you, even if you perfume yourself
We, the Arabs and the blacks, we are not here by chance
…
I believe that France has never given charity
Immigrants are just cheap labor
Keep your republican illusion to yourself
From gentle France scorned by African immigration
Ask the Senegalese tirailleurs and harkis
Who took advantage of whom?

And that’s just the first verse. Similar to Kery James, Nakk Mendosa, of Cameroonian descent, wonders what it means to be ‘black’ and ‘Arab’ in France.

There’s also a new video for Isleym’s “Risques et périls.”

French-Senegalese Disiz La Peste returns to the stage after a three year break with ‘Le poids d’un gravillon.’

Finally, this video for Tahra Sana’s ‘Molotov Land‘ becomes interesting halfway through.