[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4riYn1SozWo&w=500&h=307&rel=0]

The young Lagos, Nigeria-band Che and the Continuous Highlife Evolution’s striking “Civil War.” As the band puts it on their Facebook page, “… Some people in Africa have known only civil war all their lives; while for many other Africans the daily life is as difficult, as tough, as unpredictable and dangerous as if they were living in a daily civil war. Are we living in a civil war? Don’t wanna live no more in a civil war. Oh no no.” We can dance while we figure that out.

Further Reading

Kwame Nkrumah today

New documents looking at British and American involvement in overthrowing Kwame Nkrumah give us pause to reflect on his legacy, and its resonances today.

Goodbye, Piassa

The demolition of an historic district in Addis Ababa shows a central contradiction of modernization: the desire to improve the country while devaluing its people and culture.