Africa Is a Country

Weekend Music Break, N°39

Weekend Music Break, N°39

By
Tom Devriendt

This year’s turning into a good year for quality music videos. Here’s another selection of 10. First one below is a single from Durban’s Nandi Mngoma’s new album (she has a fancy blog though there’s more chance of catching updates via her Twitter account): South African dance as you know it.

Next, finally here: the first video for OY’s debut record — remember Boima’s recent write-up — delivers. Shot in Accra, Ghana. YouTube notes tell us the dancers are Bugi Bust. Well here you have it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJM_0ghPd80

Also shot in Accra is this video for Tawiah’s “FACes”, off her upcoming mixtape album, FREEdom Drop (yes, that’s Wanlov and Mensa in the clip):

There’s Josephine, born to a Liberian mother and Jamaican father, describing herself as having “enjoyed the advantages of a colourful West African culture as well as feeling intrinsically British”. Can’t possibly do wrong:

A beautiful oddball by SKIP&DIE whose singer Catarina Aimée Dahms, aka Cata.Pirata, is South African:

(They know how to throw a party too.)

New video for Afro-Panico’s “Matimba”. Filed under: Afro-House | Kuduro | Pantsula:

Brazilian Pan-African rap vibes from Ba Kimbuta on “Consumo” (over a Mulatu Astatke sample):

Mo Kolours also released a new video for his “Promise” tune:

There’s Outspoken & The Essence’s “own interpretation of Hip-Hop”. The track, called “The SlaveMasters Whip,” is a first from their upcoming Nomadic Wax-produced album Uncool and Overrated: God Before Anything:

And finally, on high rotation ever since it came out this month: “Azamane Tiliade” from Bombino’s album Nomad, produced by Dan Auerbach. Play it loud:

Further Reading

Not exactly at arm’s length

Despite South Africa’s ban on arms exports to Israel and its condemnation of Israel’s actions in Palestine, local arms companies continue to send weapons to Israel’s allies and its major arms suppliers.

Ruto’s Kenya

Since June’s anti-finance bill protests, dozens of people remain unaccounted for—a stark reminder of the Kenyan state’s long history of abductions and assassinations.

Between Harlem and home

African postcolonial cinema serves as a mirror, revealing the limits of escape—whether through migration or personal defiance—and exposing the tensions between dreams and reality.

The real Rwanda

The world is slowly opening its eyes to how Paul Kagame’s regime abuses human rights, suppresses dissent, and exploits neighboring countries.

In the shadow of Mondlane

After a historic election and on the eve of celebrating fifty years of independence, Mozambicans need to ask whether the values, symbols, and institutions created to give shape to “national unity” are still legitimate today.

À sombra de Mondlane

Depois de uma eleição histórica e em vésperas de celebrar os 50 anos de independência, os moçambicanos precisam de perguntar se os valores, símbolos e instituições criados para dar forma à “unidade nacional” ainda são legítimos hoje.