Africa Is a Country

Weekend Music Break, N°35

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

Weekend Music Break, N°35

By
Tom Devriendt

We hardly ever feature Brazilian music, and even less their take on Afrobeat. The above tune by the Abayomy Afrobeat Orchestra dates from last year, but the video’s new. Hope to see more from them. We’ve got 9 more videos lined up for you this week. Ugandan duo Radio & Weasel came up with this: 

Nigerian artists are flocking en masse to Cape Town’s seaboard to shoot their videos (taking cues from Congolese artists ten years ago). Clearly not just for “the light”. Davido’s ‘Gobe’ one more example:

Lagos’ SDC Commandant Obaifeiye Shem’s clumsy reply when asked on TV about the address of the website of his Service was that “my Oga at the top” knows it. The rest is history (as is he, it seems). Your viral Naija meme of the week:

M3nsa and Sena repping it for Ghana:

Tanzanian bongo flava from Belle 9 (call it pop): ‘Listen’:

Also from Tanzania is duo Aika & Nahreel who got themselves a dance hit with ‘Usinibwage’:

Kenyan bongo sounds, here’s ‘Bum Kubam’ by Nikki Wa Pili featuring G Nako. Quite the video:

More Kenyan Hip-Hop by rapper Rabbit in ‘Adisia’:

And switching gears, this video by Just A Band:

H/Ts this week to @Birdseeding, @nemesisinc and GetMziki.

Further Reading

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.