AfricaIs aCountry

Music Break. Bonus Friday Edition, N°0

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

Music Break. Bonus Friday Edition, N°0

By
Sean Jacobs

Last week we brought you the serious side of Burkina rapper Mokobe.  In this hilarious video he makes proper use of a beat made famous by 50 Cent:

Belgian hipsters: Magic Mirror’s “Show man”:

Cities Aviv’s “Araw.” The guest rapper is Royal T. Yeh, they’re hipsters too.

What’s it with Nigerians and derivative R&B? This is 2Face, basically the national face of the genre. (I suppose there are rewards: you have to endure American TV chat show hosts.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GT-CiEuw94&600&h=367]

Finally, if you still don’t know what’s Azonto about:

H/T:

Further Reading

Afrobeats after Fela

Wizkid’s dispute with Seun Kuti and the release of his latest EP with Asake highlight the widening gap between Afrobeats’ commercial triumph and Fela Kuti’s political inheritance

Progress is exhausting

Pedro Pinho’s latest film follows a Portuguese engineer in Guinea-Bissau, exposing how empire survives through bureaucracy, intimacy, and the language of “development.”

The rubble of empire

Built by Italian Fascists in 1928, Mogadishu Cathedral was meant to symbolize “peaceful conquest.” Today its ruins force Somalis to confront the uneasy afterlife of colonial power and religious authority.

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.