Africa Is a Country

Weekend Music Break, N°29

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

Weekend Music Break, N°29

By
Tom Devriendt

Here’s a resolution for the new year: to feature more Togolese pop. If you don’t know who the above Toofan duo is, google “Cool Catché”. Kuduro on the other hand we can never feature enough — this is a new video for MC Maskarado:

Don’t miss this week’s NPR piece on kuduro by the way, “The Dance That Keeps Angola Going”; they interviewed AIAC’s Marissa Moorman for it.

Next, from Uganda: Vampino and friends (arriving “from far”) visit a rural village; a party ensues. A different kind of dance-hall/pop/(add style):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q0mUEuMLQM

Gambian artists Xuman, Djily Bagdad, Tiat and Ombre Zion take a stand ‘Against Impunity’:

South African Tumi Molekane directed a video for MC Reason (who is signed on Tumi’s record label):

Talking about labels…here’s a new video for South African rapper Kanyi. The story is funny-sad, but probably quite real too:

A video for Fatoumata Diawara’s song about men trying their luck crossing the Mediterranean to get to Europe. Here’s a translation of the lyrics.

Malian trio Smod (remember them) is all for ‘a united Mali’:

Wonderful new video for Asa’s Bond-esque ‘The way I feel’:

And one of the albums I’ve been listening a lot to this year — more about that next week — is Carmen Souza’s Kachupada. This is her version of Cape Verdean artists Humbertona and Piuna’s 1970s classic ‘Seis one na Tarrafal‘:

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.