Freedom Day in South Africa. Togo Independence Day. And Sierra Leone’s 51st Independence Day. That’s all today. We’ve been celebrating Freedom Day with music elsewhere today. So this post is for Sierra Leone. My current favorite song we played last week but there’s more: a Bajah and Dry Yai Crew song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bHOWazDJls

Refugee All Stars released an album this week:

Sierra Leoneans are active in the diaspora too. Like Janka and the Bubu Gang:

Or Shady Baby:

And a classic for an election year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y70NmnU1kDw

You’ll tell us what your favorite Togolese tunes of the moment are in the comments.

Further Reading

Writing while black

Percival Everett’s novel ‘Erasure’ raised questions about Black middle-class complicity in commodifying the traumas of Black working-class lives, but the film adaptation leaves little room to explore these tensions.

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.