Africa Is a Country

Friday Bonus Music Break, N°18

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

Friday Bonus Music Break, N°18

By
Tom Devriendt

Another ten music videos that we’ve been playing a lot recently. The first one above. Kudurista Titica’s ‘Ablua’ is a stomper. (Talking about Angolan music, and its history: Marissa Moorman has been consulting Afropop Worldwide for a new series called Hip Deep Angola, the first part of which, ‘Music and Nation in Luanda’, you can listen to here.) Next, still from Angola, and I have a hunch Titica served as an inspiration for Edy Sex:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB4dNscISJc

An older Namibian Overitje pop tune, but Ondarata (remember them) just now put their video for ‘Tukutuku’ on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjT61lyrYgE

Janka Nabay and his ‘Bubu Gang’, whose live performances have become legendary by now, made this video for ‘Somebody’:

From Mali, Ben Zabo’s latest music videos are a treat:

As he did with that other project The Busy Twist, Gabriel Benn (alter ego: Tuesday Born) plays around with images recorded in Ghana in this video for ‘Kwabena’:

Jupiter Bokondji (from Kinshasa) and his band Okwess International in the studio:

South African Bongeziwe Mabandla has been working hard on completing his debut album. I hear all kinds of influences here:

On his website, Ian Kamau (who spent much time travelling and performing in South Africa recently) explains why he wrote ‘Black Bodies’:

And because we feature not nearly enough poetry or spoken word, this ‘park jam’ from Obscur Jaffar (Burkina Faso):

Further Reading

On Safari

On our year-end publishing break, we reflect on how 2024’s contradictions reveal a fractured world grappling with inequality, digital activism, and the blurred lines between action and spectacle.

Rebuilding Algeria’s oceans

Grassroots activists and marine scientists in Algeria are building artificial reefs to restore biodiversity and sustain fishing communities, but scaling up requires more than passion—it needs institutional support and political will.

Ibaaku’s space race

Through Afro-futurist soundscapes blending tradition and innovation, Ibaaku’s new album, ‘Joola Jazz,’ reshapes Dakar’s cultural rhythm and challenges the legacy of Négritude.

An allegiance to abusers

This weekend, Chris Brown will perform two sold-out concerts in South Africa. His relationship to the country reveals the twisted dynamic between a black American artist with a track record of violence and a country happy to receive him.

Shell’s exit scam

Shell’s so-called divestment from Nigeria’s Niger Delta is a calculated move to evade accountability, leaving behind both environmental and economic devastation.

Africa’s sibling rivalry

Nigeria and South Africa have a fraught relationship marked by xenophobia, economic competition, and cultural exchange. The Nigerian Scam are joined by Khanya Mtshali to discuss the dynamics shaping these tensions on the AIAC podcast.

The price of power

Ghana’s election has brought another handover between the country’s two main parties. Yet behind the scenes lies a flawed system where wealth can buy political office.

Beats of defiance

From the streets of Khartoum to exile abroad, Sudanese hip-hop artists have turned music into a powerful tool for protest, resilience, and the preservation of collective memory.