Radio Freedom’s Afrikaans Service
Learning that Radio Freedom, the exiled ANC’s radio service, broadcast in Afrikaans, further undermines the idea of the language as belonging to the oppressor.
508 Article(s) by:
Sean Henry Jacobs
Sean Henry Jacobs is the founder of Africa is a Country and Professor of International Affairs at The New School.
The elephant in the room
The DJ’s, Venus X and Boima, talk about their approach to music, but also about their run-ins with tastemaker Diplo, who has shaped popular music tastes globally.
Acoustic Guitar Break
We thought it would be nice to compile a Bonus Music Break centered on acoustic guitar
The Passing of Ernest Cole
We don’t know why the South African photographer decided to apply to become “coloured” under Apartheid’s racial classification laws.
Photographer Gregory Chris: Shooting Nneka, Meta and Just a Band
Photographer Gregory Chris shot African music stars Nneka, Meta (of Meta and the Cornerstones) and Just a Band in and around New York City. Here he talks about how he came to chose these artists and what he tried to convey. "I wanted to shoot the artists in the streets of the city, in the neighborhoods where they live, their favorite places, inside their homes, in a place they feel comfortable. Basically, I wanted to shoot them as they are."
Mahesh Shantaram’s Addis Ababa Diary
Images of Ethiopia by Indian photographer Mahesh Shantaram
In Praise of Jeffrey Gettleman’s Pulitzer
Pulitzer awarded Gettleman $10,000 for “his vivid reports, often at personal peril, on famine and conflict in East Africa.”
Film Review: “The Education of Auma Obama”
Republican party propaganda wants to paint President Barack Obama's Kenyan family as alien to America. In this propaganda, Barack Hussein Obama Snr and the old man's supposed "anti-colonial" and left-wing biases. In this propaganda Kenyans are reduced to anti-American zealots. Yet the strongest impression one gets from the Obama family in Branwen Okpako's beautiful, and substantive documentary of Obama's half sister, Auma Obama, is how familiar and American (i.e. the values Republicans proffer of hard work and guile) the Obamas are.
The 19th New York African Film Festival: “Relentless”
"Relentless" is fundamentally a film about Lagos. About how director Andy Okoarafor sees it. In Okoarafor's rendering, Lagos is a hard, inhospitable city, where people look stressed out, always hustling. They're always on the move. But Okoarafor also has loves this city.
Coke and cynicism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyT_bYUUG6o I won't bother to unpack this commercial, but this is exhibit A for the case
The 19th New York African Film Festival: ‘How to steal 2 million’
In South African director Charlie Vundla’s “How to Steal 2 Million,” Johannesburg is equated with “a jungle.” Main protagonist, middle aged Jack–fresh out of jail and looking for a job and opportunities–compares the city unfavorably to New York City, where, in contrast, people “are in it together.” Mostly shot in empty streets or in dark interiors and at night, the Johannesburg of the film lives up to this characterization. But it’s not just the main character who pines for a projected version of New York City; the film itself longs for its double, adapting and mirroring New York’s association with film noir.
The Jacob Zuma Era
Coming on June 1 is Northwestern University journalist professor Doug Foster's new book, After Mandela: The Struggle
If Africa really is a country …
One of our readers took our title literally.
Friday Bonus Music Break, N°5
One of my favorite MCs / hip hop producers, Damu the Fudgemunk. I always check for
‘Really you’re African?’
New humorous, but sharp, web series on "the African experience in America" wants to "refute negative portrayals of Africans in the media" and simultaneously work "as a window into the lives and traditions of individuals from different parts of the continent of Africa."
The dancing Senegalese man
Senegal voted this weekend. Abdoulaye Wade is gone after 12 years. Macky Sall, once Wade's protege and variously prime minister and minister of mining under the old man is now in charge. We hope to have a few post election analyses posts up in the next few days. Till then enjoy the exuberance of "the dancing man" filmed by Al Jazeera journalist Azad Essa in Dakar last night.
Friday Bonus Music Break, N°4
Five for the weekend. I haven't done this in a while. First up Philadelphians Chill Moody (rapper) and
Diplo vs Boima Redux
Remember when famed DJ and tastemaker, Diplo, got mad at Africa is a Country's Boima for
This is democracy
http://vimeo.com/37612321 In Durban, South Africa, "shackdwellers are taking their municipality to court. The government evicted poor
The coup against democracy in Mali
Here's video of the coup announcement in Mali. Ridiculous. The screen is dark at first -- they were having technical difficulties -- but the image appears after 30 seconds or so. See the scene. As for the speech, it's the usual pompous nonsense, poorly delivered by a junior officer out of his depth.