Africa Is a Country

Weekend Music Break, N°41

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

Weekend Music Break, N°41

By
Tom Devriendt

From Luanda: Dj Djeff has Nacobeta, Agre G & Game Walla doing their thing in the new video for “Mwangolé”. There’s a standard success script for all those kuduro videos out there. Not that we mind:

Glen Lewis’s Shona tune “Ndiyo ndiyo” will keep South African clubs warm this winter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw7szeOHLWM

Kenyan P-Unit released this track, “Mobimba”, last month, featuring Sweden-based Alicios. Originally from Congo (that’s Alicios), you don’t have to look far where they took their inspiration from this time:

Not entirely sure what’s going on in this jumpy clip for MoBlack’s (also known as Domenico Falcone) “MeKa”. Is there a remix out yet?

M.anifest is working hard this year. Here on a new collaboration with EL:

Talib Kweli went to South Africa and came back with a music video for “High Life”:

A first single for Guinean Masta G (Conakry) off his album “Introspection”. Produced by Ahms Beatz; the final mixing was done by Redrum. (More music by Masta G here.)

Kae Sun’s got a new album coming out soon as well (‘Afriyie’, dropping later this month). “When the pot” is a second excerpt (remember last year’s “Ship And The Globe”):

Samba Touré’s album, Albala, was released this week. First single is “Be Ki Don” (YouTube notes have a translation of the lyrics — here):

And your moment of Zen: this video for Ghostpoet (born Obaro Ejimiwe, who has Tony Allen playing on drums on his latest record). Recommended:

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.