Africa Is a Country

Don’t kill yourself because of suffering

Don’t kill yourself because of suffering

By
Boima Tucker

Weekend Music Break, No.104 is just a playlist of ten great songs accompanied by predictably striking visuals from across Africa and its diaspora.

Malian singing legend Oumou Sangare performing in Essaouira, Morocco in June 2012.

Weekend Music Break is back to our regularly scheduled programming.  This week we start out with Malian legend Oumou Sangaré’s first release in seven years – and to top it off, she appears with Tony Allen in tow. The main message is about staying alive: “Don’t kill yourself because of suffering /  No-one should commit suicide because of pain / My brothers and sisters, we should not take our own lives /
because of suffering …”

Life on earth is not easy, but-no one should kill themselves

Then we head to Kenya where Muthoni channels a bit of (UK singer) MIA to call out corrupt politicians in her home country.

Up next, MHD and crew head from Paris to Manchester, and showing the Brits the French-African flavor their gonna miss out on as they start the EU exit process this week.

But London-based Mazi Chukz shows that the British-Africans can hold their own when it comes to stews.

Let’s head back to our continent now, alongside Wizkid who takes on a journey as he plays another packed live show somewhere on the continent.

Back home in Nigeria Lil’ Kesh makes an appeal for no fake love.

Cassper Nyovest does his best “I’m from Atlanta” impression with”Tito Mboweni.”

Let’s calm down from that a bit and head to Tidiane Thiam’s and Amadou Binta Konte in Senegal, and enjoy a more stripped down sound: one guitar, a hoddu and a microphone.

And let’s close out this week’s playlist with my current home of Brazil, and a who’s who of Afro-Brazilian rappers of many different stripes. Here they’re making an appeal for better and more and equal representation in their own country.

Further Reading

Beyond the headlines

Recent violence across the Eritrean diaspora is being instrumentalized by populists. But the violence is a desperate cry for attention and requires the Eritrean opposition to seize the moment for regime change.

Action required

Held in Nairobi this month, the inaugural Africa Climate Summit is an important step for the continent’s response to climate change. Still, the disasters in Libya and Morocco underscore that rhetoric and declarations are not enough.

The strange non-death of Bantustans

That South African political parties across the spectrum were quick to venerate the politician and Zulu prince Mangosutho Buthelezi, who died last week, demonstrates that the country is still attached to Bantustan ideology.

Shifting the guilt

Even though Israeli novelist Agur Schiff’s latest book is meant to be a satirical reflection on the legacy of slavery and stereotypes about Africa, it ends up reinforcing them.

Banana Republics

Western leftists are arguing among themselves about whether there will be bananas under socialism. In Africa, however, bananas do not necessarily represent the vagaries of capitalism.