Africa Is a Country

"The creative street vibes of South Africa"

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

"The creative street vibes of South Africa"

By
Sean Jacobs

On Saturday,  26 March at the Swedish CinemAfrica Festival the film directors Teddy Goitom and Benjamin Taft of Stocktown TV will premiere their ode to new South African hipsters:”Stocktown South African Roadmovie,” a 28 minute film that “sets out to capture the creative street vibes of South Africa.”  Some of the hipster acts featured in the film include heavy metal band Ree-burth, photographer Musa Nxumalo, Johannesburg”style setters” Smarteez, video gamers label 2bop, rappers Die Getuies [The Witnesses], filmmaker Ebrahim Hajee, and the music of Dirty Paraffin and Gazelle. More information and updates here and here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6qbZ5r0Se0

* “The first Stocktown documentary series was produced in 2003: a collage of streetculture and urban inventions from Japan, USA, Australia and Europe.” For Africa, Stocktown has also done editions for Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Ghana.

Via Samra Ghermay

Further Reading

Kenya’s vibe shift

From aesthetic cool to political confusion, a new generation in Kenya is navigating broken promises, borrowed styles, and the blurred lines between irony and ideology.

Africa and the AI race

At summits and in speeches, African leaders promise to harness AI for development. But without investment in power, connectivity, and people, the continent risks replaying old failures in new code.

After the uprising

Years into Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict, the rebellion faces internal fractures, waning support, and military pressure—raising the question of what future, if any, lies ahead for Ambazonian aspirations.

In search of Saadia

Who was Saadia, and why has she been forgotten? A search for one woman’s story opens up bigger questions about race, migration, belonging, and the gaps history leaves behind.

Binti, revisited

More than two decades after its release, Lady Jaydee’s debut album still resonates—offering a window into Tanzanian pop, gender politics, and the sound of a generation coming into its own.

The bones beneath our feet

A powerful new documentary follows Evelyn Wanjugu Kimathi’s personal and political journey to recover her father’s remains—and to reckon with Kenya’s unfinished struggle for land, justice, and historical memory.

What comes after liberation?

In this wide-ranging conversation, the freedom fighter and former Constitutional Court justice Albie Sachs reflects on law, liberation, and the unfinished work of building a just South Africa.

The cost of care

In Africa’s migration economy, women’s labor fuels households abroad while their own needs are sidelined at home. What does freedom look like when care itself becomes a form of exile?

The memory keepers

A new documentary follows two women’s mission to decolonize Nairobi’s libraries, revealing how good intentions collide with bureaucracy, donor politics, and the ghosts of colonialism.

Making films against amnesia

The director of the Oscar-nominated film ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ reflects on imperial violence, corporate warfare, and how cinema can disrupt the official record—and help us remember differently.