Africa Is a Country

Giving the Bizness

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

Giving the Bizness

By
Tom Devriendt

This is our third Music Break post. It is curated by anthropologist Tom DeVriendt, who may just take a liking to keep doing them.

Merril Garbus of tUnE-yArDs performs in Paris this year (Wiki Commons).

Merril Garbus of tUnE-yArDs cite Barrington Levy, Odetta, Woody Guthrie, Eleanor Roosevelt, Charlie Chaplin, Ruth Garbus, Bertolt Brecht, Björk, Todd Rundgren, Fela Kuti and “you” as their influences. Here the band performs their original composition, “Bizness,” live for a public radio station in New York City.

Tanya Auclair (from West London, “via Canada and Rwanda” and citing as her influences Bongo Joe Coleman, Juana Molina, The Staple Singers, Laurie Anderson, Matthew Herbert and E.S.G, sings and plays ‘Origami’.

A still from a video of Tanya Auclair performing her song, “Origami,” live (via Vimeo).

Trust Shabazz Palaces and Kahlil Joseph to do it again on “Black Up.”

While we’re in South Africa, I’m feeling this guitar band from Cape Town: MacGyver Knife. And their new song. While we’re on it, there aren’t that many corners in Woodstock left where bands or advertising companies can shoot a music video, spray a graffiti or do a photo shoot.

And to end, a new video by School is Cool arrives one year early.

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.