Africa Is a Country

The art and activism of Gabriel Teodros

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

The art and activism of Gabriel Teodros

By
Boima Tucker

This past weekend I had the immense pleasure to sit alongside Gabriel Teodros, Bocafloja, and Linda Guyse at a series of panels in (very cold) Wooster, Ohio, for Wooster College’s Africa Week. During the day we discussed with students everything from African identity in the US, the failures of the international non-profit industrial complex, the continuation of American slavery in the form of the US prison-industrial complex, and trying to stay independent amidst the Silicone-Valley dominated corporate music-industrial complex. Many industrial complexes were discussed, and amongst the wide range of topics Gabriel’s sincerity, and the drive with which he pursues both his art and his social activism stood out.

How he is able intertwine these dual pursuits is nicely illustrated in his latest video for Greeny Jungle, a marimba-sampling, classic boom bap rap tune featuring Shakiah and SoulChef. The video was shot during a recent #BlackLivesMatter protest amongst the streets of (neo-liberalizing) Seattle, and features both live performance footage, and Teodros and Shakiah marching alongside their fellow community members. Look out for a heart-warming handshake with a young fan towards the end!

Further Reading

Kagame’s hidden war

Rwanda’s military deployments in Mozambique and its shadowy ties to M23 rebels in eastern Congo are not isolated interventions, rather part of a broader geopolitical strategy to expand its regional influence.

After the coups

Without institutional foundations or credible partners, the Alliance of Sahel States risks becoming the latest failed experiment in regional integration.

Whose game is remembered?

The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations opens in Morocco amid growing calls to preserve the stories, players, and legacy of the women who built the game—before they’re lost to erasure and algorithm alike.

Sovereignty or supremacy?

As far-right politics gain traction across the globe, some South Africans are embracing Trumpism not out of policy conviction but out of a deeper, more troubling identification.

From Cape To Cairo

When two Africans—one from the south, the other from the north—set out to cross the continent, they raised the question: how easy is it for an African to move in their own land?