Al-Akhbar English has an article up by Amal Ghazal, author of the recently published Islamic Reform and Arab Nationalism: Expanding the Crescent from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, 1880s-1930s, providing a brief and accessible historical review of the Omani empire (perhaps skewed a little to the Omani perspective), and its former capital Zanzibar, which Omanis refer to as their version of Al-Andaluz. I have to say that one of the things that impressed me the most during several visits to the Arabian/Perisan Gulf over the past couple of years were clear signs of African influence on the Peninsula. It made me think a lot about constructed notions of African vs. Arab identity, and the cultural fluidity that exists throughout the Indian Ocean in general.
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Music Break. Friday Bonus Edition
You won’t see or hear a more exciting song by a South African rapper this year than Kanyi’s ‘Ingoma’. Produced by Mananz, with Teboho Semela (sister of Ben Sharpa) on violin. From Gugulethu, Cape Town:
South Africans ‘going into Africa’
My friend Chipo recently sent me this pilot of a documentary travel series entitled Going Native. Not only was I pleasantly surprised to find Chipo in the pilot as one of the characters, but also found the concept and execution totally refreshing.
Music Break. X Plastaz
Nice work by Tanzanian crew X Plastaz, with some help of Fid Q, Bamba Nazar and J4. The video comes with subtitles, and the lyrics speak for themselves. Curious how many recent tracks carry an explicit ‘Africa’ in the title.
‘For the Africans in the Diaspora’
From somewhere in American suburbia, the very frank, at times trite The Ten Minute Fix, a Youtube “talk show” series with an East African bias. Here’s the raison d’etre: “This idea was born from the sheer fact that we have professionals around us, we have good equipment around us but most importantly we just like having fun around each other. We decided each time we meet up we will just let the camera’s roll and let whatever happens, happen. What we capture we will post to share the light moments with our friends and the diaspora in general.”
Snake Oil
Selling desperate people false hope, especially AIDS patients, are common on the African continent–well documented in my native country, South Africa–now there’s this “faith healer” in Tanzania who has people in East Africa traveling thousands of miles for a homebrewed drink that he claims can cure AIDS, cancer, diabetes, and other “incurable diseases.” There’s no evidence it does. The report above is by Kenya’s private NTV network. Above is Part One of the NTV report; below is Part Two.
‘Shaka Zulu’
Not sure what to make of the video. The video was filmed “in Africa.” Kage Sparks, who calls himself “the African Street Ambassador,” and whose family hails from Kenya and Tanzania, has his “tribe riding for me.”
Film Critic
The 1985 Arnold Schwarzenegger action flick “Commando” is narrated–”shot for shot”–by a 9-year old Tanzanian boy. (The video is is part of a campaign by a US-based NGO; forget the politics, just indulge in the joy of children).
Via Boing Boing
Swahili Cipher
Thomas Gesthuizen, known by followers of Africanhiphop.com as Juma4, has been running the number one African Hip Hop site and radio show in the world for a few years. The site, which has had various incarnations over time, has included a lively forum for African Hip Hop heads, as well as a radio show webcast monthly in several languages with contributors from all over the world. It is a great example of the power of the web to facilitate the coalition of a nascent global community. We decided to ask J4 to participate in our 5 Questions feature. Check the interview after the jump.–Chief Boima.
