Remember when famed DJ and tastemaker, Diplo, got mad at Africa is a Country’s Boima for a post Boima did about global dance music and cultural appropriation? (Click here for the post and scroll down for Diplo’s outbursts). Anyway, Okayplayer’s Eddie ‘Stats’ Houghton (check out his Large Up blog btw) got the two to sit down (and even shake hands) recently in New York City. You can read the transcript of the exchange on Okayplayer’s blog. It is all very civilized. In related news, Diplo is the subject of a rambling Rolling Stone profile that went up today in which vague reference is made to “critics [who] have accused [Diplo] of hipster imperialism.” I hope they weren’t talking about Africa is a Country. Later today (Friday) Boima will join Eddie, Wayne Marshall (of Wayne and Wax) and Venus X Iceberg (it was her twitter ‘beef’ with Diplo that first prompted Boima’s post btw) at New York University for a roundtable discussion at the EMP Museum’s 2012 Pop Conference on “Tropical Music, Appropriation and Music “Discovery” in the Global Metropolis.” Let’s hope there’s a tape.

Further Reading

Afrobeats after Fela

Wizkid’s dispute with Seun Kuti and the release of his latest EP with Asake highlight the widening gap between Afrobeats’ commercial triumph and Fela Kuti’s political inheritance

Progress is exhausting

Pedro Pinho’s latest film follows a Portuguese engineer in Guinea-Bissau, exposing how empire survives through bureaucracy, intimacy, and the language of “development.”

The rubble of empire

Built by Italian Fascists in 1928, Mogadishu Cathedral was meant to symbolize “peaceful conquest.” Today its ruins force Somalis to confront the uneasy afterlife of colonial power and religious authority.

Atayese

Honored in Yorubaland as “one who repairs the world,” Jesse Jackson’s life bridged civil rights, pan-Africanism, empire, and contradiction—leaving behind a legacy as expansive as it was imperfect.

Bread or Messi?

Angola’s golden jubilee culminated in a multimillion-dollar match against Argentina. The price tag—and the secrecy around it—divided a nation already grappling with inequality.

Visiting Ngara

A redevelopment project in Nairobi’s Ngara district promises revival—but raises deeper questions about capital, memory, and who has the right to shape the city.

Gen Z’s electoral dilemma

Long dismissed as apathetic, Kenya’s youth forced a rupture in 2024. As the 2027 election approaches, their challenge is turning digital rebellion and street protest into political power.