@Boima (at Ghetto Bassquake) posted a music video (via Sonja Uwimana) by the Congolese artist Baloji, “… the greatest music video maker in the world right now.” Baloji is doing an update of Grand Kalle et l’African Jazz’s independence rumba from 1960.
Remember Baloji’s last effort? He is killing it now.
UPDATE:
My man, Tom Devriendt–his day job is PhD student at the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium–send me this note with some more information on Baloji’s exploits:
With the World Cup in South Africa around the corner, the BBC is whetting audience appetites through a special season called the “Wonderful Africa Season“. It is billed as “a wide ranging season of films looking at the arts and culture, life and landscape of Africa in advance of this year’s World Cup”, and as might have been expected, a lot of the programs focus on South Africa. Some highlights include a celebration of Hugh Masekela’s 70th birthday, called ‘Welcome to South Africa’ and the stimulating ‘Tutu Talks’ in which the big man assembles panels of experts to discuss topics such as Aid from the West, gender rights in Africa and whether religion is a help or a hindrance to African development.
And while you’re at it also check out the 39-track “International Known” mixtape by DJ Nio.
Ellah Allfrey, the deputy editor of the excellent Granta magazine. on being a judge of the Caine Prize, a British-based prize for African writers:
“… How can one prize possibly claim to assess the literary output of a continent of over 991 million people and its diaspora? Is there any such thing as an “African writer”? Does the very existence of the prize encourage a continued inclination to ghettoisation of these writers and their work? Surely we’ve come far enough that Africans no longer need (if they ever have) the special consideration this categorisation implies?”
BTW, the shortlisted writers are Ken Barris, Lily Mabura, Terry Olufemi, Namwali Serpell and Alex Smith.
h/t Naijablog.
Striking series (via Herman Wasserman) of “… painted portraits of some of the prominent captains and leaders of the Griquas, the Orlam groups such as the Afrikaners, and other so-called bastard and Nama groups of the 18th and 19th century,” by of the artist Cobus van Bosch. (Under Apartheid, the bulk of the descendants of these people were classified as coloured by the white state.)
These include paintings of Adam Kok III (above), the leader of the Griquas, Hendrik Witbooi (below), born in South Africa and celebrated as one of Namibia’s greatest freedom fighters for his resistance to German colonialism in the late 19th century, and Hermanus van Wyk (the last image here), the first captain of the Rehoboth Bastards. On his site, Van Bosch has a write-up contextualizing the paintings and this history, including the word “Baster” (Bastards) and the origins of the word “Afrikaner”:
The video for the first single, “Go Away,” off the album “Dark or Blue” by South African rappers, Teargas.
Ma se kind. Good popcorn music.
FIFA and the South African organizers of the World Cup yesterday unveiled the official World Cup tune.
Sorry K’Naan. You’ll always have Coco Cola.
The song–non-sensical lyrics over a beat created on a Casio–is a collaboration between Shakira and Zolani, the lead singer of South African group Freshlyground, a band which reminds me of Mango Groove.
Waka Waka.
