When Tendai Maraire broke down his Chimurenga Renaissance mixtape for us last year, he said about “It’s Time For You To Go”, a song inspired by a family visit to Zimbabwe (“driving down the street bumping Biggie’s ‘Juicy’”): “Young Maraire Boys being crazy at home.”

Toronto, Canada-based Zambian artist Chansa recently released his debut single, titled “Immigrant”, and has a video for it too:

Simba, Milton Gulli and Zubz’s “Scenario”, a first single taken off their Tribute To A Tribe Called Quest, which is a production by Mozambican arts collective Grasspoppers:

We now also have images to go with Ghanaian-Swiss audio experimentalist Oy’s hair philosophy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZmcAXy_7Bo

Matshidiso goes for a run in and around Johannesburg:

New soul from Sandra Nkaké who hails from Yaoundé, Cameroon but resides in France:

Anoter soul-ish one from the Mozambican lady who’s got Lusophone Africa on lock: Lizha James’ highly-stylized ode to her mother:

Jacques Vergès, Femi Falana and Thomas Sankara are but a few names who feature in this new track and video by Togolese rapper Elom 20ce (which he dedicates to Gouyano Sinandare, the 12-year-old who got murdered by the police during the student protests earlier this year):

Bajah (from Sierra Leone) recorded a Last.FM session with Prince Polo at The Kennel Studios in Brooklyn:

And Oliver Mtukudzi and the Black Spirits played an almost 30-minute set on Seattle radio station KEXP:

* The photo of Sandra Nkaké by Claire Vinson.

Further Reading

Slow death by food

Illegal gold mining is poisoning Ghana’s soil and rivers, seeping into its crops and seafood, and turning the national food system into a long-term public health crisis.

A sick health system

The suspension of three doctors following the death of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s son has renewed scrutiny of a health-care system plagued by impunity, underfunding, and a mass exodus of medical professionals.

Afrobeats after Fela

Wizkid’s dispute with Seun Kuti and the release of his latest EP with Asake highlight the widening gap between Afrobeats’ commercial triumph and Fela Kuti’s political inheritance

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.