From Luanda: Dj Djeff has Nacobeta, Agre G & Game Walla doing their thing in the new video for “Mwangolé”. There’s a standard success script for all those kuduro videos out there. Not that we mind:

Glen Lewis’s Shona tune “Ndiyo ndiyo” will keep South African clubs warm this winter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw7szeOHLWM

Kenyan P-Unit released this track, “Mobimba”, last month, featuring Sweden-based Alicios. Originally from Congo (that’s Alicios), you don’t have to look far where they took their inspiration from this time:

Not entirely sure what’s going on in this jumpy clip for MoBlack’s (also known as Domenico Falcone) “MeKa”. Is there a remix out yet?

M.anifest is working hard this year. Here on a new collaboration with EL:

Talib Kweli went to South Africa and came back with a music video for “High Life”:

A first single for Guinean Masta G (Conakry) off his album “Introspection”. Produced by Ahms Beatz; the final mixing was done by Redrum. (More music by Masta G here.)

Kae Sun’s got a new album coming out soon as well (‘Afriyie’, dropping later this month). “When the pot” is a second excerpt (remember last year’s “Ship And The Globe”):

Samba Touré’s album, Albala, was released this week. First single is “Be Ki Don” (YouTube notes have a translation of the lyrics — here):

And your moment of Zen: this video for Ghostpoet (born Obaro Ejimiwe, who has Tony Allen playing on drums on his latest record). Recommended:

Further Reading

Progress is exhausting

Pedro Pinho’s latest film follows a Portuguese engineer in Guinea-Bissau, exposing how empire survives through bureaucracy, intimacy, and the language of “development.”

The rubble of empire

Built by Italian Fascists in 1928, Mogadishu Cathedral was meant to symbolize “peaceful conquest.” Today its ruins force Somalis to confront the uneasy afterlife of colonial power and religious authority.

Atayese

Honored in Yorubaland as “one who repairs the world,” Jesse Jackson’s life bridged civil rights, pan-Africanism, empire, and contradiction—leaving behind a legacy as expansive as it was imperfect.

Bread or Messi?

Angola’s golden jubilee culminated in a multimillion-dollar match against Argentina. The price tag—and the secrecy around it—divided a nation already grappling with inequality.

Visiting Ngara

A redevelopment project in Nairobi’s Ngara district promises revival—but raises deeper questions about capital, memory, and who has the right to shape the city.

Gen Z’s electoral dilemma

Long dismissed as apathetic, Kenya’s youth forced a rupture in 2024. As the 2027 election approaches, their challenge is turning digital rebellion and street protest into political power.

A world reimagined in Black

By placing Kwame Nkrumah at the center of a global Black political network, Howard W. French reveals how the promise of pan-African emancipation was narrowed—and what its failure still costs Africa and the diaspora.

Securing Nigeria

Nigeria’s insecurity cannot be solved by foreign airstrikes or a failing state, but by rebuilding democratic, community-rooted systems of collective self-defense.