Welcome back to our Music Break, after it took a bit of a break itself. Enjoy this selection of tunes from around the African diaspora, and beyond.

This week, we kick off with Afrikan Boy and his latest video for his song “Kunta Kinte”; then, Eazzy brings the neo-Alkaida Hiplife vibes via Ghana; Tanzania’s Vanessa Mdee goes neo-Soukous Afrobeats style with “Niroge”; and Temi DollFace rounds out our Afrobeats section with School Your Face. Off to the Francophone world where Collectif Bassam brings Coupe Decale uplifment vibes after the March attack by extremists on their beach in Cote d’Ivoire; Uganda via London’s Michael Kiwanuka travels to LA, channels Mississippi, and contemplates being a “Black Man in a White World”; then, Africa is a Country favorite Badi performs “Na Lingi Yo” on the Dan Late Show to great effect. Bahrain via London psychedelic rock act Flamingods give us insight into a cultural side of Dubai that is not only often overlooked, but difficult to see in their video for “Rhama”; and we round it out with some cool Latin vibes — joining in the Cuba fever sweeping the former Western Bloc nations with Alexander Abreu y Havana D’Primera’s “Me dicen Cuba”; and Paulo Mac on his sweet Kizomba tune “Perfeita Demais”. Enjoy!

Further Reading

And do not hinder them

We hardly think of children as agents of change. At the height of 1980s apartheid repression in South Africa, a group of activists did and gave them the tool of print.

The new antisemitism?

Stripped of its veneer of nuance, Noah Feldman’s essay in ‘Time’ is another attempt to silence opponents of the Israeli state by smearing them as anti-Jewish racists.