Africa Is a Country

Weekend Music Break 58

Weekend Music Break 58

By
Tom Devriendt

Your weekly dose of 10 new music videos. First up, from Kenya, Muthoni The Drummer Queen’s ode to Nairobi:

M.anifest, “Ghana man since 19 kojo-hoho”:

Indocile is a hip-hop crew from Liège, Belgium:

South of Belgium, representing the Congolese diaspora in France, new work by Black Bazar:

Ol’Kainry (representing Benin) and Youssoupha bring their version of that Pusha T & Kendrick Lamar ‘Nostalgia’ video from earlier this month:

Davido’s Skelewu already had an instructional dance video (accompanied by some controversy), but it comes with a new story now:

Cape Town’s winding mountain roads were made for longboarding — assuming you’ve seen this one already:

DJ Kent gets help from pop duo The Arrows on ‘Spin My World’:

Toro y Moi (an AIAC favorite) remixed Billie Holiday a while ago:

And a last South African tune to get your weekend started, courtesy Character, Oskido and Mono-T: ‘Inxeba Lendoda’:

Further Reading

A power crisis

Andre De Ruyter, the former CEO of Eskom, has presented himself as a simple hero trying to save South Africa’s struggling power utility against corrupt forces. But this racially charged narrative is ultimately self-serving.

Cinematic universality

Fatou Cissé’s directorial debut meditates on the uncertain fate and importance of Malian cinema amidst the growing dismissiveness towards the humanities across the world.

The meanings of Heath Streak

Zimbabwean cricketing legend Heath Streak’s career mirrors many of the unresolved tensions of race and class in Zimbabwe. Yet few white Zimbabwean sporting figures are able to stir interest and conversation across the nation’s many divides.

Victorious

After winning Italy’s Serie A with Napoli, Victor Osimhen has cemented his claim to being Africa’s biggest footballing icon. But is the trend of individual stardom good for sports and politics?

The magic man

Chris Blackwell’s long-awaited autobiography shows him as a romantic rogue; a risk taker whose life compass has been an open mind and gift to hear and see slightly into the future.

How to think about colonialism

Contemporary approaches to the legacy of colonialism tend to narrowly emphasize political agency as the solution to Africa’s problems. But agency is configured through historically particular relations of which we are not sole authors.

More than just a flag

South Africa’s apartheid flag has been declared hate speech by a top court. But while courts are important and their judgments matter, racism is a long and internationally entrenched social phenomenon that cannot be undone via judicial processes.