[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLdCoVnESsY&w=600&h=369]

I’ve had this on repeat. New Mexico band Beirut’s mesh of Balkan and “world music” (I know isn’t that the same thing and aren’t all music, world music?) with their 2006 hit “Gulag Orkestar.”

Further Reading

On the pitch

This year, instead of taking a publishing break, we will be covering the African Cup of Nations. To transition, we consider why football still matters in an era of enclosure, mediated presence, and thinning publics.

Davido’s jacket

Davido’s appearance at ‘Amapiano’s biggest concert’ turned a night of celebration into a study in Afrophobia, fandom, and the fragile borders of South African cultural nationalism.

Empty riddles

Drawing on his forced migration from Rwanda, Serge Alain Nitegeka reflects on the forms, fragments, and unsettled histories behind his latest exhibition in Johannesburg.