Africa Is a Country

Weekend Music Break, N°22

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

Weekend Music Break, N°22

By
Tom Devriendt

I’m taking cues from Africa is a Country’s contributors this week. First up, Boima dropped by Amsterdam’s African Hip-Hop radio’s studio and delivered this set. One of the tracks featured on there is ‘TOHL’ (above) by Togo-born tabi Bonney (real name: Tabiabuè — father: Itadi Bonney), featuring Fat Trel. I don’t believe it was aired on Dutch radio before. Next, Mali-born Abdoulaye Diarra aka Oxmo Puccino (I could have sworn Hinda already featured him in one of the Paris is a Continent posts): 

Etzia is part of the Swedish women’s dancehall reggae movement Femtastic. This is her most recent ‘Same Thing A Gwaan’:

Mikko (he knows his Nordic music) adds: “There’s also the more poptastic Serengeti with their new video, or one of their older ones.”

In ‘Izulu Lelam’ (“heaven is mine”), Cape Town’s Driemanskap family express their trust in a brighter afterlife. This is the first video from their forthcoming second album Hlala Nam:

Then The Weeknd’s saccharine ‘Enemy’ (H/T Dylan) — Abel Tesfaye likes to quote Haile Selassie, but here he channels Morrissey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3VIh8ZB-M8

Orlando’s piece on Hassan Hajjaj’s work (later reprinted in The Guardian as a wonderful spread) carried a photo of gnawa-player and Electric Jalaba member Simo Lagnawi together with Paris-based Kora-player Boubacar Kafando. Here’s an Electric Jalaba living room gig:

… and another live performance: the new project “Acoustic Africa: Afropean Women” is a collaboration between Côte d’Ivoire singer and percussionist Dobet Gnahoré, Manou Gallo, former Zap Mama bassist, and Cameroonian singer Kareyce Fotso. Siddhartha wrote a feature on them for The Boston Globe this week (they’re performing there). Here they are on stage in Bamako:

Ugochi plugged her latest music video on AIAC’s Facebook wall the other day, calling it “a product of my Naija root and Chicago soul influence”. It takes a while before the actual tune starts:

Football player Vincent Kompany — this is for Sean and Elliot — is getting into the music business. I read in the local (Belgian) press that he has plans to start up a new music label. Belgian-Congolese Coely already got a phone call:

And to wrap up the week: Zambian Zone Fam’s new video, shot in Nairobi. They’re getting big:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HMt7cp4yLA

That’s it, back on Monday!

Further Reading

After the uprising

Years into Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict, the rebellion faces internal fractures, waning support, and military pressure—raising the question of what future, if any, lies ahead for Ambazonian aspirations.

In search of Saadia

Who was Saadia, and why has she been forgotten? A search for one woman’s story opens up bigger questions about race, migration, belonging, and the gaps history leaves behind.

Binti, revisited

More than two decades after its release, Lady Jaydee’s debut album still resonates—offering a window into Tanzanian pop, gender politics, and the sound of a generation coming into its own.

The bones beneath our feet

A powerful new documentary follows Evelyn Wanjugu Kimathi’s personal and political journey to recover her father’s remains—and to reckon with Kenya’s unfinished struggle for land, justice, and historical memory.

What comes after liberation?

In this wide-ranging conversation, the freedom fighter and former Constitutional Court justice Albie Sachs reflects on law, liberation, and the unfinished work of building a just South Africa.

The cost of care

In Africa’s migration economy, women’s labor fuels households abroad while their own needs are sidelined at home. What does freedom look like when care itself becomes a form of exile?

The memory keepers

A new documentary follows two women’s mission to decolonize Nairobi’s libraries, revealing how good intentions collide with bureaucracy, donor politics, and the ghosts of colonialism.

Making films against amnesia

The director of the Oscar-nominated film ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ reflects on imperial violence, corporate warfare, and how cinema can disrupt the official record—and help us remember differently.