Africa Is a Country

Now or never

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

Now or never

By
Tom Devriendt

Apart from a heavy Senegalese presence, this Music Break, No.37, includes some other favorites of this site: Petite Noire, Laura Mvula, Rachid Taha and newcomer, Napoleon Da Legend.

Rachid Taha, via Wiki Commons.

Per usual, here are 10 new music videos to finish this week of blogging. Here is a video by photographer and graphic designer Laurent Seroussi for Salif Keita’s new “Tale a lbum,” produced by Gotan Project’s Philippe Cohen-Solal. The YouTube version of the clip seems not to be available everywhere. Weird record label thinking.

Next, a glorious video for Carlou D’s “Dooley Beuré” that switches into second gear halfway in (Carlou D of Positive Black Soul of Senegal talks a bit about the making of the video here)

Faada Freddy (real name: Abdou Fatha Seck, one third of Senegalese rap combo Daara J, jamming on “Borom bi” with the Clef de Sol choir.

A music video the Senegalese rap pioneer Didier Awadi shot for “Supa Ndaanaa” during a tour in Canada last summer organized by the people behind the documentary film, “The United States of Africa.”  Awadi is the other half of the legendary Positive Black Soul.

Napoleon Da Legend has new music out, but this one from last year is still nice. “African in New York” is his take on Sting’s classic “Englishman in New York.” Napoleon was born in Paris to parents from the Comoros, moved to New York which, by Afropolitan logics, makes him an “African in New York.”

Some rock’n’raï (whoever coined that term?) by Algerian-French Rachid Taha. For accolades, check his official – hilariously puff-toned – profile. This English and Arabic duet cover version (featuring Jeanne Added) of Elvis Presley’s “Now Or Never” is a polished but intriguing production:

Samba Touré introduces his new EP, ‘Albala’, recorded at Studio Mali in Bamako in the autumn of 2012. Also featuring are Djimé Sissoko and Madou Sanogo, with guests such as Zoumana Tereta and Aminata Wassidje Traore.

The Congolese-South African singer, Petite Noir, and his band played a session for a Brussels radio, in one of the city’s most respected venues (Brussels is the city where Petite Noir was born before moving to South Africa. Here’s a sample.

Just in case you still had any doubt, 2013 will be Laura Mvula’s year.

Finally, here’s Yassiin Bey looking sharp at The Shrine in Chicago.

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.