AfricaIs aCountry

Music Mondays

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

Music Mondays

By
Sean Jacobs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SK_Z_LGEac&w=500&h=301&rel=0]

These guys are obsessed with the elements. The band is named for the cold current that runs up the continent’s southeastern coast line. Benguela is based in Cape Town, South Africa. And this tune is called “Meridian.” It’s from their most recent album, “The Black Southeaster.” You know what the Southeaster does in the Cape. Critics have described their music as “post-rock.” Whatever this all means, we know they’re no slouches: Benguela have played with, among others, the great Robbie Jansen and AIAC’s favorites BLK JKS. Blow away.

Further Reading

Atayese

Honored in Yorubaland as “one who repairs the world,” Jesse Jackson’s life bridged civil rights, pan-Africanism, empire, and contradiction—leaving behind a legacy as expansive as it was imperfect.

Bread or Messi?

Angola’s golden jubilee culminated in a multimillion-dollar match against Argentina. The price tag—and the secrecy around it—divided a nation already grappling with inequality.

Visiting Ngara

A redevelopment project in Nairobi’s Ngara district promises revival—but raises deeper questions about capital, memory, and who has the right to shape the city.

Gen Z’s electoral dilemma

Long dismissed as apathetic, Kenya’s youth forced a rupture in 2024. As the 2027 election approaches, their challenge is turning digital rebellion and street protest into political power.

A world reimagined in Black

By placing Kwame Nkrumah at the center of a global Black political network, Howard W. French reveals how the promise of pan-African emancipation was narrowed—and what its failure still costs Africa and the diaspora.

Securing Nigeria

Nigeria’s insecurity cannot be solved by foreign airstrikes or a failing state, but by rebuilding democratic, community-rooted systems of collective self-defense.