Our weekly round-up of new (and a little less new) music videos. First, this great video for ‘I Am An African,’ the first single of Dutch-Ghanaian artist Papa Ghana’s EP ‘I Am An African.’ (The song came out last year).

The video for Nigerian singer Nneka’s latest single, ‘Shining Star’ shot on the Canary Islands in Spain:

Harlem, New York based emcee Rugz D. Brewler‘s race conscious anthem, ‘Cuz I’m Black’:

Yasiin Bey (the former Mos Def) performed N.I.P. at Radio Nova in Paris this week (remember that track, including the line: “Prince William ain’t do it right if you asked me, if I was him I’d put some black up in the family”). He also did this new ‘Sunshine Screwface’:

A music video for ‘Past, Present and Future’ off “The Extraordinaires” by the Zambian-Canadian collaboration, The Holstar and Teck-Zilla. It includes a cameo by Zone Fam:

And Sean is taking a group of New School students to Cape Town this summer. He plans to make this music video compulsory as a language lesson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAOJ4VL9Xg4&

Further Reading

The Mogadishu analogy

In Gaza and Haiti, the specter of another Mogadishu is being raised to alert on-lookers and policymakers of unfolding tragedies. But we have to be careful when making comparisons.

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.