Africa Is a Country

Music Break

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

Music Break

By
Sean Jacobs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvCjZ6gThyY&w=500&h=307&rel=0]

The video for the Dominican merengue singer, Rita Indiana‘s “El Juidero,” the title track of her October 2010 release. The video for the song (a narrative about escaping to Puerto Rico), “… plays like a short film, a 1970s crime movie fantasy with heavy doses of “El Malo”-era Fania style, real-life Dominican political intrigue,” wrote New York City journalist Carolina Gonzalez (in “The Daily News” last December). It features a cameo by veteran merengue musician Johnny Ventura and was directed by Indiana’s frequent collaborator and girlfriend, Puerto Rican filmmaker Noelia Quintero.

Further Reading

Repoliticizing a generation

Thirty-eight years after Thomas Sankara’s assassination, the struggle for justice and self-determination endures—from stalled archives and unfulfilled verdicts to new calls for pan-African renewal and a 21st-century anti-imperialist front.

Drip is temporary

The apparel brand Drip was meant to prove that South Africa’s townships could inspire global style. Instead, it revealed how easily black success stories are consumed and undone by the contradictions of neoliberal aspiration.

Energy for whom?

Behind the fanfare of the Africa Climate Summit, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline shows how neocolonial extraction still drives Africa’s energy future.

The sound of revolt

On his third album, Afro-Portuguese artist Scúru Fitchádu fuses ancestral wisdom with urban revolt, turning memory and militancy into a soundtrack for resistance.

O som da revolta

No seu terceiro álbum, o artista afro-português Scúru Fitchádu funde a sabedoria ancestral com a revolta urbana, transformando memória e militância em uma trilha sonora para a resistência.

Biya forever

As Cameroon nears its presidential elections, a disintegrated opposition paves the way for the world’s oldest leader to claim a fresh mandate.