Africa Is a Country

Weekend Music Break 53

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

Weekend Music Break 53

By
Zachary Rosen

If you don’t know now you know. Weekend soon come. We got music from South Africa, Togo, Ghana, Senegal, Zambia, Kenya, Ireland and Belgium in this week’s music break. So let’s get started:

South African house producer Oskido is always on the hunt for new musical talent. He’s found it now in the energy and sound of Busiswa. Here’s their track with Uhuru called “Ngoku”:

Uniting Brussels (via Kinshasa) and Queens, emcees Aja Black and Big Samir are The Reminders. Check out their interview on the Sway show and see how they use words for ammunition in “If You Didn’t Know”:

Irish hip-hop musician Rejjie Snow returns with a lyrical story of his name in “Snow” and raises the bar for sonic production:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbaAf4aSIQQ

Togolese singer Papou has the formula for a solid dance joint with “AGO”:

A jazz singer from Ghana’s Volta region, Jojo Abot lived in Brooklyn before returning home to sing and act. Check out this live performance/interview footage to see what she’s about. The return has been good to Jojo. She has performed at the Chale Wote Street Art Festival (which is happening again this weekend in Accra — we’ll have some impressions up on the blog next week) and she stars alongside legendary palmwine singer Koo Nimo in the new film Kwaku Ananse directed by Akosua Adoma Owusu.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0tsbjHc1AY

One of the best male house singers in the South African game, Shota, presents the new track “Ben10” off his album THE WARRIOR. This one will do some damage on the floor, but too bad his girl in the video seems more attracted to a strange animated character than she is to him:

Senegalese chanteuse Coumba Gawlo, with Pape Thiopet at her side, will give you a taste of laamb wrestling and kola nuts in her latest mbalax jam “Lamb Dji”:

Young Kenyan rapper Cool Kid demonstrates he already has a taste for the mic in the track “Burn Cool” with Mtapa:

Ghanaian producer and talented vocalist Bisa Kdei keeps the momentum from his hit “Azonto Ghost” as he confronts his enemy with personal strength in “Metanfo” (“My enemy”):

And Zambian crew Zone Fam get into the language of the body with “Translate”:

Share your favorite new videos in the comments below.

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.