Music Break
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqrQCRxD-u4&w=500&h=307&rel=0] Rapper Young Kay is “a leader of the younger urban music scene in Malawi.” [via
Culture
Fela in the Big Apple
In the mid-1980s, Fela Kuti and his band, then in their prime, came to play in New York City.
Music Break
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA23GnvAXWQ&w=500&h=307&rel=0] Yuri Da Cunha is a household name in Angola,and is on his way to becoming
The African childhoods of white expats
Are publishers unwilling to back anything besides more of the same tried, tested and tired old formula?
Music Break
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeUxzYbQQSo&w=500&h=307&rel=0] The video for “Fairy Tale” by South African-based Mozambican band, 340ml. The video was shot
Naipaul loves the cats
In the latest issue of The New York Review of Books, novelist Norman Rush reviews V.S.
Music Break
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADTUDx8-Pbg&w=500&h=307&rel=o] Last Sunday against Chelsea, Sunderland’s Ghanaian striker Asamoah Gyan scored his team’s second goal on
Learning Zulu
The author, a German journalist new to South Africa, writes about her first impressions and experiences, especially with local whites; so different from anything she knew or experienced before.
Mother Russia
New York City artist Maria Buyondo grew up in Russia and Sweden, the child of a Russian mother and an Ugandan father.
The Sudanese architect
The film "Limbo" covers the frustated life and dreams of Sudanese immigrant and trained architect, Issam.
Asa – Be My Man
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNUgJMDsOuY&w=500&h=307&rel=0] If you don’t notice the awkward “acting” at the outset of this music video and
'The Kenya I Live In'
This December 2010, Kenyan literary magazine, “Kwani?” will publish the top five entries of their “The
Janka in America
The King of Bubu, Janka Nabay, translates this music and his culture for rock kids in the trendy hangouts of New York City.
Music Break
If you’re into house music (I can tolerate some of it) it’s worth listening to this
Searching for a ‘blood-diamond bazaar’
Any ban on blood diamonds would ultimately harm low-paid Congolese mineworkers and would be too difficult to enforce anyway.
Bloody Agent*
We know Jacob Zuma can dance. But can Julius Malema, the future President of South Africa
Music Break
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mLtdHQeIZA&w=500&h=307&rel=0] My 5-year old has known for quite a while–long before mainstream media caught onto it–that
‘Tell Them You’re American’
I can’t say I was completely bowled over by Dinaw Mengistu’s first novel, “The Beautiful Things
'The Janitor'
When the Johannesburg Art Gallery bought one of Mr. [Gerard] Sekoto’s paintings in 1940, they had