Africa Is a Country

Red Hot Chili Peppers got lost in Ethiopia

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

Red Hot Chili Peppers got lost in Ethiopia

By
Tom Devriendt

The Red Hot Chili Peppers funk jam track Ethiopia came following “a life-changing trip Flea and Josh took to the African country.” Josh says:

It was like a musical field trip. We had outings every day. It was like summer camp… and then Flea got lost and when he was lost, he went through a lot of emotions which is reflected on the album. It’s the point where we were starting to really come together.

Flea recalls:

I got lost in a city called Harar. It was a really amazing experience that really changed everything. Damon Albarn had started African Express, basically a bunch of musicians go to a different country in Africa to jam with Africans, listen to African music and trip around. It was f***ing amazing. So we decided we’d go to Ethiopia. One day we got the bus and I got off the bus, walked down this little street, turned around and the bus was gone! I was lost. I walked around this little town for about an hour. No one speaks English and it’s kind of crazy. I started getting scared. People were coming up to me and speaking to me but I didn’t understand. Then one guy came up to me and he started speaking in broken English. He found my friends and helped me. So when I came home, I told that story to Anthony and he wrote that song. It’s very special to me.

Serious.

Further Reading

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.

Sinners and ancestors

Ryan Coogler’s latest film is more than a vampire fable—it’s a bridge between Black American history and African audiences hungry for connection, investment, and storytelling rooted in shared struggle.