Five for the weekend. I haven’t done this in a while. First up Philadelphians Chill Moody (rapper) and Cody Kahmar with the music video for “My Eyes”:
Malfred‘s reggae homage to Tanzanian mothers, “Asante Mama”:
Staying in East Africa, here’s new music from Uganda’s Maurice Kirya:
The Mexican-Ethiopian rapper Gonjasufi‘s video for “The Blame”:
And finally, any week of music breaks I’m involved in won’t be complete without some Nigerian-American pop:
The Super Eagles don’t suffer from a shortage of talent, but represent a country unwilling to admit that greatness is not a birthright.
Distanced at club level, and scrutinized at home, there is no player with more to prove at this Africa Cup of Nations than Mohamed Salah.
Bafana Bafana’s resurgence has been forged where South African football always lives—between brilliance and the bizarre.
An African Cup of Nations at home for red hot Morocco is a chance to put past trauma aside and charge on to the world stage.
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.
A dispatch from Benin City tells the unfinished story of the Museum of West African Art.
The scandal around Ezra Olubi has exposed the contradictions of Nigeria’s middle-class, online feminism.
In his latest exhibition, Khanya Zibaya charts the psychic and spatial terrain of a city where homelessness, decay, and human resilience sit uneasily together.
At the UN’s annual Western Sahara debate, everyone gets heard except the Sahrawis themselves.
The dispute over Benin City’s museum project shows that returning stolen art does not settle the question of ownership.
Somalis have answered Trump’s latest racist tirade not with outrage but with a tidal wave of trolling.
From Actonville to global stages, Pops Mohamed blended tradition, futurism, and faith—leaving behind a musical archive as luminous as the spirit he carried.
From IMF history to astrophysics, Nairobi’s Drunken Lectures turn casual drinkers into an engaged public.
A $20 billion iron ore mega-project is reshaping Guinea’s economy and politics, but communities in Simandou say they still lack water, electricity, and accountability.
Khartoum’s recovery is not a national recovery. Until Sudan confronts the violence that has long been concentrated outside the capital, ‘liberation’ will remain a hollow word.
As the White House hypes “Christian genocide” and floats military action, northern Nigerians are responding with satire.
What began as a revenue lifeline for small island states has become a global market where the wealthy buy mobility and sovereignty itself becomes a commodity.
The economic emancipation of the American working class cannot come at the expense of the global working class.
The post-colonial settlement has left Africa vulnerable to conflict, external pressure, and intellectual dependency. What comes next?
Trump’s threats of military action against Nigeria are not about Christian genocide, but are about rare earths, China, and the scramble to control Africa’s mineral future.