Africa Is a Country

August 3, Niger

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

August 3, Niger

By
Boima Tucker

Let’s celebrate Niger’s independence day with a recording of Omara “Bombino” Moctar, whose story of exile — and return — speaks to many youth in the country.

Along with Rap music:


[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd3rt3C-RzE&w=600&h=373]

that is sometimes danceable…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIPGzIWK5rU&w=600&h=373]

sometimes political…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1BfvP7Qa5g&&w=600&h=373]

and sometimes incorporates tradition.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJCLJlFRaJI&w=600&h=373]

Rap group Tchakey hops on the Night Nurse Riddim(!) to talk about freedom of expression.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCXJl1L1xNo&w=600&h=373]

Since independence, music from Niger’s various ethnic groups that had traditionally been separate, such as the Hausa, Taureg, Berber, Fula, and Songhai started mixing with each other, and with Western sounds like Jazz, Blues, and Reggae giving Nigerien music a distinct feel, a place where North, East, and West Africa meet.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0NuuWJscqg&w=600&h=373]

A live performance by Moussa Poussi where Mami Wata, the water goddess gets a roots reggae dedication:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAuYfQCgSQU&w=600&h=373]

This great Coupe Decale influenced Hausa song was shared not too long ago on Sahel Sounds:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkVjvbE_ApA&w=600&h=373]

Three of the countries top women singers get together for a song with a social awareness message.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1TKKktqkQg&w=600&h=373]

Support from The Festival in the Desert, and both upcoming and established Western labels has benefited Nigerien artists such as Etran Finatawa who formed at the festival in 2004…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NjX1ziHVX8&w=600&h=373]

Happy Nigerien Independence Day!

Further Reading

After the coups

Without institutional foundations or credible partners, the Alliance of Sahelian States risks becoming the latest failed experiment in regional integration.

Whose game is remembered?

The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations opens in Morocco amid growing calls to preserve the stories, players, and legacy of the women who built the game—before they’re lost to erasure and algorithm alike.

Sovereignty or supremacy?

As far-right politics gain traction across the globe, some South Africans are embracing Trumpism not out of policy conviction but out of a deeper, more troubling identification.

From Cape To Cairo

When two Africans—one from the south, the other from the north—set out to cross the continent, they raised the question: how easy is it for an African to move in their own land?

The road to Rafah

The ‘Sumud’ convoy from Tunis to Gaza is reviving the radical promise of pan-African solidarity and reclaiming an anticolonial tactic lost to history.