Culture

Stripping back the facade of modern hip-hop to reveal its African roots
Tendai Maraire of Shabazz Palaces breaks down his 'Pungwe' mixtape for us.

The political fight is wherever people gather
Can young Angolan activists inspired by Angola's underground rap scene take on a political elite that has ruled for decades?

Hair politics over a church loop
In this Weekend Bonus Music Break, No.23, features musicians as diverse as Ghanaian-Swiss duo, OY, to familier sightings on Africa Is a Country: Spoek Mathambo and Sinkane.

My favorite things from the last six months
Art South Africa me asked to pick my "Best Six;" basically my "favorite (six) things from the last six months."

A voice that is incessantly in exile
South African jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin's life complicates jazz history and shows how Africans reshaped American jazz in the 20th century.

No one ever finishes anything, we just stop
In Alain Gomis's "Tey', 'Aujourd'hui," a man lives the last day of his life.

Only Decent White People
A Dutch comedy about an interracial relationship may shape Dutch views of black people there in very negative ways from which they may not recover for a while.

Debating Afrocolombianidad
Colombians and outsiders continue to associate Afro-Colombians largely with dance or music. This is a problem.

Steven Soderbergh in Nollywood
Director Andrew Okoko's "The Assassin's Practice" tampers with the tempo of melodrama. It's also Nollywood's response to Soderbergh's "Bubble."

The politics of translation
The film, "Veejays," comes across as an earnest attempt to learn about the ways people are remixing dominant culture industries to make their own.

McDonald’s Baobab Tree
The use of black and African pride by Western fast food chains to appeal to African-Americans in the United States.


Is Mads Brügger a journalist?
The Danish filmmaker believes his work contains qualities missing from most conventional journalism. Especially journalism dealing with Africa

The Kenyan Finns
What would happen if you made a film about a key figure in Finnish history and cast Kenyan actors in the lead roles?

Moroccan Rockstars
The artist Hassan Hajjaj frames his portraits of ordinary Moroccans with a neat shelf crammed with 7 Up and Coca-Cola cans, symbols of a burgeoning import market and aspiration.