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 Paul Biya

Cameroon’s president has ruled for over four decades by silence and survival. Now, with dynastic succession looming and no clear exit strategy, the country teeters between inertia and implosion.

Leapfrogging literacy?

In outsourcing the act of writing to machines trained on Western language and thought, we risk reinforcing the very hierarchies that decolonization sought to undo.

Repoliticizing a generation

Thirty-eight years after Thomas Sankara’s assassination, the struggle for justice and self-determination endures—from stalled archives and unfulfilled verdicts to new calls for pan-African renewal and a 21st-century anti-imperialist front.

Drip is temporary

The apparel brand Drip was meant to prove that South Africa’s townships could inspire global style. Instead, it revealed how easily black success stories are consumed and undone by the contradictions of neoliberal aspiration.

Energy for whom?

Behind the fanfare of the Africa Climate Summit, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline shows how neocolonial extraction still drives Africa’s energy future.