Africa Is a Country

Friday Bonus Music Break, N°21

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

Friday Bonus Music Break, N°21

By
Tom Devriendt

Nigerian-Swedish pop star Dr Alban features in this new St. John’s Dance video above. Swedish-Finnish-Gambian (yeh) rapper Adam Tensta is the guy behind the group. (Tensta started with more straightforward rap, but has since found a slightly different sound, as illustrated in this Nollywood-influenced video.) Next, more common Nigerian pop:

Your weekly dose of kuduro courtesy of JD, Nagrelha and Rei Panda:

Jean Grae created this video for ‘Kill Screen’:

A Sauti Sol & Spoek Mathambo collaboration:

Via okayafrica: Octa Push’s ‘Mambowrp’.

A dramatic video for new music by Nëggus (repping for Togo) and Kungobram:

From Grahamstown, South Africa, the Wordsuntame duo:

A down-beat version of the closing song of Terakaft’s new record Kel Tamasheq (from Mali):

And a Nomadic Wax moment with Kisangani (Congo) artist Alesh:

Those Nigeria-Finland-Sweden-Gambia connections? That’s Mikko. We’re back on Monday.

Further Reading

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.

Djinns in Berlin

At the 13th Berlin Biennale, works from Zambia and beyond summon unseen forces to ask whether solidarity can withstand the gaze of surveillance.

Colonize then, deport now

Trump’s deportation regime revives a colonial blueprint first drafted by the American Colonization Society, when Black lives were exiled to Africa to safeguard a white republic.