AfricaIs aCountry

'Days of Fire'

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

'Days of Fire'

By
Sean Jacobs

“Too much politics and the clang of commerce” is staining 9/11 commemorations here in New York City today. So it also makes sense that we look somewhere else for music that articulates how some of us feel. Thanks to Neelika for suggesting the song “Days of Fire” by Nitin Sawhney, featuring singer Natty, as an appropriate music break today. I agree. Performed in 2008 with the London Undersound Orchestra the song is based on Natty’s experiences of the July 2007 train bombings in London and its aftermath.

We also remember the other September 11.

Further Reading

Atayese

Honored in Yorubaland as “one who repairs the world,” Jesse Jackson’s life bridged civil rights, pan-Africanism, empire, and contradiction—leaving behind a legacy as expansive as it was imperfect.

Bread or Messi?

Angola’s golden jubilee culminated in a multimillion-dollar match against Argentina. The price tag—and the secrecy around it—divided a nation already grappling with inequality.

Visiting Ngara

A redevelopment project in Nairobi’s Ngara district promises revival—but raises deeper questions about capital, memory, and who has the right to shape the city.

Gen Z’s electoral dilemma

Long dismissed as apathetic, Kenya’s youth forced a rupture in 2024. As the 2027 election approaches, their challenge is turning digital rebellion and street protest into political power.

A world reimagined in Black

By placing Kwame Nkrumah at the center of a global Black political network, Howard W. French reveals how the promise of pan-African emancipation was narrowed—and what its failure still costs Africa and the diaspora.

Securing Nigeria

Nigeria’s insecurity cannot be solved by foreign airstrikes or a failing state, but by rebuilding democratic, community-rooted systems of collective self-defense.

Empire’s middlemen

From Portuguese Goa to colonial Kampala, Mahmood Mamdani’s latest book shows how India became an instrument of empire, and a scapegoat in its aftermath.