Reading List: Dotun Ayobade
What can the lives of the women behind Afrobeat tell us about creativity, resistance, and the interplay of power and pleasure in 1970s Nigeria?
Music
Integrity should be integral
Samthing Soweto and DJ Maphorisa’s clash over a song credit raises the question of whether numbers trump respect in the Amapiano music scene.
The anti-extractivism of Mdou Moctar
'Funeral for Justice' is a bracing recording that blends the critical sensibility of Frantz Fanon with the melodies of a genre born from an ongoing liberation struggle.
Born coloured, not born free
Jazz bassist Benjamin Jeptha’s latest project interrogates the meaning of Creole identity in South Africa, thirty years after the end of white-minority rule.
The genuine goema captain of Cape Town
The musician Mac McKenzie, who passed away in April 2024, helped pioneer a sound that captured the Mother City’s Creole heritage.
Born of struggle
What an amapiano song tells us about post-apartheid South Africa.
Círculo completo
O cantor holandês e cabo-verdiano Nelson Freitas sobre o crescimento e a popularidade da cultura africana em todo o mundo.
Full circle
Dutch and Cape-Verdean singer Nelson Freitas on the growth and popularity of African culture across the world.
Beware of false prophets
Is the beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake really devoid of politics?
La CAN et la politique des affects
La CAN de cette année en Côte d'Ivoire a montré que ce n'est pas seulement la politique du football qui compte, mais aussi la politique de l'ambiance.
Quando eu digo África
Por que as histórias sobre o sofrimento africano são tão persistentes?
The affective politics of AFCON
This year’s AFCON in Côte d'Ivoire showed that it’s not just the politics of the football that matters, but the politics of the vibe as well.
La femme fatale africaine
Africa Is a Country is partnering with AfroWave Echoes to present their quarterly playlist of African music.
It’s not over
Burna Boy’s ‘Monsters You Made’ takes the debate about the need for material decolonization outside the ivory tower and into the public sphere.
The amapiano wars
Between the Grammys and AFCON semi-final, it's been a big week for the rivalry between Nigeria and South Africa.
AFCON is a playlist
On this second day of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, we’re bringing you a playlist exploring some of the most iconic songs in African football.
Weeping for Palestine
In 1987, a band led by a group of South African Jewish brothers released a song against apartheid repression. Today, its lyrics speak to conditions in Palestine as well.
Keeping Afrobeat decolonial in Buenos Aires
One bandleader's quest to keep Afrobeat political in Latin America.
Taking care of each other
How a new underground club in Nairobi offers Kenyans respite from the harshness of everyday life.
The “Caribbeanization” of Afrobeat in Colombia
In Colombia, doing straightforward political music carries many risks, including confronting state repression, political armed rebellions, and organized crime.