AfricaIs aCountry

'My Africa is in the dark'

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

'My Africa is in the dark'

By
Tom Devriendt

Malian rapper Mokobe ripped into French perfumer Jean-Paul Guerlain’s comments about “hard working blacks” in his recent video, “Ca passe tout seul.” Now Burkinabé MC Art Melody takes on Nicolas Sarkozy and other “chefs d’états.”  That’s a sample of Sarkozy’s infamous Dakar speech at the beginning of the song about how Africans have “not fully entered into history.”

As for African leaders, Art Melody accuses them of only being interested in selling Africa “in the name of France-Afrique.” (Like Gabon’s Lord Ekomy Ndong did last year.) The video is above; part of the chorus is translated below.

The ebony is in the dark. The black is in the dark that has plunged us into the dark. My Africa is in the dark…

BTW, Art Melody also does up-beat songs. (Read This Is Africa’s feature on Art Melody.)

H/T: okayafrica.

Further Reading

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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.