Five for the weekend. First up, via AfriPOP!, Nomsa Mazwai’s new video for her song ‘Nguwe.’ (The video comes with a translation.) Then, Vox Sambou (below) and The Narcicyst tell how they read ‘Article 14′ and its relation to Haiti’s recent history (channeling Noam Chomsky). About these ads
The people of the oldest independent African republic in the Caribbean are voting today to pick a new president. But the result are already predetermined. The most popular party and its leader has been illegally prevented from being on the ballot (“If this were the US, this would be like holding elections just between the […]
Last week Congo’s government announced it would pledge $2.5 million to relief efforts in Haiti. As Texas in Africa noted, pledging is not the same as actually handing the money over. Just ask the Western governments. (Incidentally to those worried whether Congo can afford to do that, that money is apparently small change compared to the […]
* I just got the Wax Poetics Africa Issue in the mail. Though the issue may give the impression that good music stopped being produced in Africa since the 1970s–in part it reads like a tribute issue with articles about Fela Kuti, Tony Allen, the Rail Band, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, Hugh Masekela, Lemi Ghariokwu, […]
Bill Clinton turns revisionist historian (as quoted in a story in “The New York Times” this morning: “I hated it,” Mr. Clinton said of the economic sanctions he enforced during his presidency. “But when you have people being burned to death with tires around their necks, that’s important, too. We had to bring an end […]
