Africa Is a Country

Eastern Highlands

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

Eastern Highlands

By
Serginho Roosblad

This Weekend Music Break features a number of strong women performers: Nosiwe, Rina Mushonga, Alicious Theluji, and the 95 year old Tututa Evora, who just passed away.

Austin Neill, via Unsplash.

We kick off this Weekend Music (Number 67) break with an artist who has been away from the scene for a while: Cape Verdean rapper Vieira Nkosi. This week he uploaded a short freestyle video (in Dutch) entitled “I Am Legend“. Vieira was forced to take it slow, due to an illness, but judging by this video, he’s doing much better, and his new album “Kralienge State of Mind” is finished, he says. We’re happy he’s back.

There’s never a shortage of songs from Naija. Burna Boy released his video for “Na So E Suppose Be.”

South Londoner Kwabs, originally from Ghana, is on about everybody’s ‘who to watch in 2014’ list, which is not so surprising when you listen to him. This track “Wrong or Right” will be featured on his EP that’s coming out this weekend.

DRC’s Alicious Theluji had a smash hit in 2012 with her single “Mpita Njia” together with Ugandan singer Juliana Kanyomozi. But she is fully capable of doing it on her own as she proves on her zouk track “Posa ya Bolingo.”

We’re expecting a lot from Zimbabwean-Dutch singer Rina Mushonga in the near future. Her highly anticipated first album is supposed to come out in February 2014. “Eastern Highlands,” from her self-titled EP she released last year, is promised to be an indicator of what we can expect. We’re counting the days.

An inspirational song from Kenyan rapper Octopizzo, featuring his little daughter Tracy singing the chorus on “Blackstar.”

Three years ago Kenya’s Just a Band shot a video for their single “S.W.E.E.T”. At the time they weren’t happy with the result so they left if for what it was. They seem to have changed their mind, and showed the world what they initially rejected, so you can judge yourself.

Norwegian-South African Nosizwe is no stranger to the music industry. Her brother Tshawe had a smash hit a few years ago with the track “Beggin” as part of the duo Madcon. Nosizwe has taken a different, more alternative route. Her track “The Beat” proves that the musical talent really runs in the family.

To end: this week, Cape Verde, and the world, lost piano legend Epifânia de Freitas Silva Ramos Évora, better known as Dona Tututa or Tutura Evora. She died at the beautiful age of 95. We’d like to pay homage to her with this performance recorded in 2009 on the occasion of her 90th birthday. R.I.P.

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.