Weekend Music Break

We hardly ever feature Brazilian music, and even less their take on Afrobeat. The above tune by the Abayomy Afrobeat Orchestra dates from last year, but the video’s new. Hope to see more from them. We’ve got 9 more videos lined up for you this week. Ugandan duo Radio & Weasel came up with this:  About […]

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Zina Saro-Wiwa’s ‘Phyllis’ and the subversion of Nollywood cinema

Zina Saro-Wiwa’s “alt-Nollywood” short film, Phyllis, is one of the weirder fifteen minutes of film I’ve seen in some time. “Using Nollywood to subvert Nollywood,” it is an atmospheric, impressionistic, and haunting film, chronicling Phyllis’s emotional states as she takes the wigs that form such a huge part of her identity on and off. 

Classic Jukebox N°1: Nigerian Highlife

They just don’t make ‘em like they used to, at least when it comes to Nigerian highlife. Whether that’s good or bad is up for debate. Whatever the case, people get riled up when they’re talking about the issue. As for me, give me Victor Uwaifo or give me Wizkid – I dig them both. 

The Music of Bell Atlas

One of my current favorite bands–haven’t seen them play live yet; they’re out West–is Bell Atlas. That the lead singer Sandra Lawson is a distant relative of late Nigerian legend Rex Lawson (he is a distant cousin of her mother) and of another highlife legend, Erasmus Jenewari, may be part of it. But Sandra’s talent […]

Did Goodluck Jonathan pay $1 million from anti-poverty fund to bring Beyonce and Jay-Z to Nigeria?

Whatever Jay-Z and Beyonce were expecting when they went to Nigeria in 2006, they can’t have seen this one coming.

Shameful Self-promotion: Sean wrote an online essay for the SSRC on ‘New media in Africa and the Global Public Sphere’

The main takeaway from #Kony2012 is that it will probably retain some salience—despite the widespread criticism against the film and its makers—for how most people, including some Africans, will engage with Sub-Saharan African issues for the time being. However, more promising for media are the implications of #OccupyNigeria, a series of protests that brought that […]

When Kim Kardashian came to Lagos and “419ed the 419ers”

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Eko Hotel, Victoria Island: the scene of so many expensive misdemeanours in the past, did its best not to disappoint. Kim Kardashian (pictured sailing into the salubrious Murtala Muhammed International Airport) was billed to “co-host” an event with R’n’B crooner Darey Art-Alade in honour of “Love..Like a Movie”. In other words, it was a “Vals” […]

The politics of selling African art mostly collected during colonial era to private collectors (in the Netherlands)

Mami Wata Legba, voodoo sculpture (1973) from the Lomé region (Africa Collection Wereldmuseum Rotterdam)

The proposed sale of the Africa Collection at The World Museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands has sparked some interesting debates in Dutch media lately. Unfortunately some important questions and issues around this sale are not being discussed. Since the Dutch government is cutting the arts and the culture budget heavily, the museum has planned to […]

Watching the African Nations Cup Final at The Shrine in Harlem

By Braden Ruddy, Owen Dodd, and Rob Navarro 10 February 2013, 1:30 pm. The Burkinabe and Nigerian expatriate communities were out in force for the Africa Cup of Nations final on Sunday afternoon in Harlem at the Burkinabe-owned music venue, The Shrine.

Why would Stephen Keshi resign one day after winning the Africa Nations Cup for Nigeria?

2013-02-11T052406Z_1_AJOE91A0F0900_RTROPTP_2_OZASP-SOCCER-NATIONS-FINAL-NIGERIA-QUOTES-20130211

Post by Cheta Nwanze* In 1989, an unknown Dutch manager, Clemens Westerhof happened upon the job of managing the Nigerian National Team, known at the time, as the Green Eagles. A year later, the team was meant to compete in the African Nations Cup, hosted by Algeria. Before the tournament, all hell broke loose as […]

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