http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwe_xNEUgxA

The UK (via Jamaica) toaster, Tapper Zukia’s “MPLA” off the album from the same name. Because the song (and the album) came out in 1975, some made links to the Angolan liberation movement, the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, who that same year formed Angola’s new independent government (after a protracted liberation war against Portuguese colonial rule). This fan video–with its Cold War and anti-colonial images–contributes to that myth I suppose. Instead, the song was more about Rastafarianism and a reflection of 1970s London black identity politics.

H/T: Tony Karon.

Further Reading

Fields of dependency

As the US-Israel war on Iran disrupts fertilizer supply, Africa’s reliance on imported inputs exposes the deeper political economy driving food insecurity.

Whose progress?

A new documentary reveals how Ethiopia’s manufacturing push redistributes land, labor, and opportunity—delivering gains for some while displacing others.