Africa Is a Country

Africans in New York City

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

Africans in New York City

By
Boima Tucker

"Afro-Spectacle," a music and film event by DJ collective, Dutty Artz, explores the working class African immigrant experiences in the city.

A promotional image from "God's Own Country."

The film, “God’s Own Country,” by director Femi Agbayewa, presents the story of a young Nigerian lawyer who immigrates to New York City only to discover that life in America is not what he hoped.  A mix between an American hip hop gangster flick and a Nollywood drama, the film is a great initiation into the West African film industry for an American audience unfamiliar it.

A public screening of the film is happening on February 1st, at the Spectacle Theater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It will form part of “Afro-Spectacle,” hosted by my Dutty Artz brethren, DJ Rupture and Lamin Fofana. Before the screening, they will host a special 2-hour live radio show around these themes. African music videos purchased in the corner stores of New York City, will be projected throughout the show for those present.  The broadcast will also be carried live on WFMU, the  East Orange, New Jersey, community radio station.

The theme of the night dovetails nicely with my own project, African in New York, which is out due out February 21st.

Femi Agbayewa is currently in London developing his television series “Brooklyn Shakara,” so he won’t be able to make it in person.  The space is limited, and it’s first come first serve. If you can’t make it, check us out live, or listen back to the archived show on Lamin’s The Embassy and Rupture’s Mudd Up pages.

Further Reading

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.

The sound of revolt

On his third album, Afro-Portuguese artist Scúru Fitchádu fuses ancestral wisdom with urban revolt, turning memory and militancy into a soundtrack for resistance.

O som da revolta

No seu terceiro álbum, o artista afro-português Scúru Fitchádu funde a sabedoria ancestral com a revolta urbana, transformando memória e militância em uma trilha sonora para a resistência.

Biya forever

As Cameroon nears its presidential elections, a disintegrated opposition paves the way for the world’s oldest leader to claim a fresh mandate.

From Cornell to conscience

Hounded out of the United States for his pro-Palestine activism, Momodou Taal insists that the struggle is global, drawing strength from Malcolm X, faith, and solidarity across borders.

After the uprising

Following two years of mass protest, Kenya stands at a crossroads. A new generation of organizers is confronting an old question: how do you turn revolt into lasting change? Sungu Oyoo joins the AIAC podcast to discuss the vision of Kenya’s radical left.

Redrawing liberation

From Gaza to Africa, colonial cartography has turned land into property and people into populations to be managed. True liberation means dismantling this order, not redrawing its lines.

Who deserves the city?

Colonial urbanism cast African neighborhoods as chaotic, unplanned, and undesirable. In postcolonial Dar es Salaam, that legacy still shapes who builds, who belongs, and what the middle class fears the city becoming.