Four moments which rocked France this year were the cases against rapper Youssoupha and IMF Head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the unveiling of the Paris exhibiton Human Zoos: The Invention of the Savage, curated by former French footballer Lilian Thuram, and the 50th anniversary of Frantz Fanon’s death.
Not sure what it says about France that Dominique Strauss-Kahn (he is portrayed as a victim of a conspiracy) and David Beckham (a 36-year-old player is entrusted with bringing back gloss to French football) dominate the headlines there this week. Meanwhile, a mix of French hip hop and smooth R&B continue to dominate my instalments of music from […]
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the “French-Algerian Massacre,” when at least 200 Algerians living in Paris were killed by French police and another 11,000 or so were arrested while protesting for Algerian independence from France. Nabila Ramdani (in The Guardian) reminds us that “many of the killers had been Nazi collaborators who learned their crowd […]
I’ll take any excuse to post about football. Fifa, football’s world controlling body, announced the latest rankings for world football this week. Not surprising are the top five nations: Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Uruguay and Portugal. We of course care about the African rankings. The African teams in the top 50 are: Cote d’Ivoire (no. 16, […]
On its 49th year of independence from France, Algeria is undergoing another popular anti-colonial (and anti-Bouteflika) movement. Like some other African states whose independence days we’re celebrating through pop music, Algeria may have an entirely different independence day in the very near future. First the popular: Cheb Bilal, who still hangs with the kids, while […]
At least 313 million Africans–that’s one in three Africans–can be defined as middle class, according to the African Development Bank. If you earn between $2 and $20 a day , working in “salaried jobs or own small businesses,” you’re middle class. But only 123 million of these–those who are spending between $4 and $20 a […]
Since we’re on revolutionary soundtracks, check this: The first song on this mixtape (cover above) of North African rap is the one that apparently got rapper El Génèral, arrested by Ben Ali’s police in the run up to the Tunisian Revolution. From there, this collection of songs can provide a soundtrack as we follow events […]
It’s Algeria’s turn. They’re about to face off against England shortly, so today’s (second) 2010 World Cup music moment comes courtesy of Khaled‘s “Aicha,” hands down one of my favorite songs of all time and one of the biggest hits to ever come out of the continent. I know some might prefer “Didi,” which Khaled […]
