Africa Is a Country

Friday Bonus Music Break, N°9

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

Friday Bonus Music Break, N°9

By
Tom Devriendt

Your weekly #musicbreak roundup. Mokobe and Oumou Sangare pray for peace in Mali:

Yasiin Bey, Dead Prez and mikeflo’s Trayvon Martin Tribute:

Finest South African hipsters Dirty Paraffin (H/T Phiona):

Optical Illusion and friends (H/T Mikko) — the video comes with a long by-line, but the track itself will do:

Finland’s Gracias:

Stephen Marley went to Africa and returned with this video:

From Namibia, not your ordinary Nam tune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74H6MC2XIbc

Chris Dave (H/T Okayafrica) gives Fela (and Tony Allen) the remix treatment:

http://vimeo.com/41434050

Finally, I was 13 when my taste in music took a drastic turn. R.I.P. MCA.

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.