A Port of Spain Christmas
On Christmas Day, AIAC Radio heads to Trinidad and Tobago to celebrate a unique Black Atlantic tradition.
Music
A Cuban individual
A new project from Cuban rapper El Individuo humanizes the Cuban perspective, inadvertently flying in the face of the United States Republican Party's agenda.
Freetown’s musical soup
The first episode of the new season of Africa Is a Country Radio, our monthly music show, focuses on the port city of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Listen on Worldwide FM and follow us on Mixcloud.
Where are the flowers for Gilbert?
The drummer Gilbert Matthews was a visionary of South African jazz. The silences on his passing from official quarters are discordant.
A city on a hill
The viral sensation “Jerusalema” and its dance challenge reveals a deeper longing and desire to re-imagine the world.
Naira Marley is no revolutionary
A fan of rapper Naira Marley writes that it will take more than counter-cultural popularity to effect any tangible change in Nigeria.
Weekend Music Break No.113
We're back with another playlist of songs for your weekend!
The soul is dialectic
Drummer Asher Gamedze’s new album is a groundbreaking body of work in the musical trajectory of South African jazz.
Reading List: Xavier Livermon
Livermon’s new book explores how South African kwaito artists, Lebo Mathosa and Mandoza, pushed against the boundaries of gender and performance in their music.
This artist doesn’t want to sing for the Kenyan government
Government money, artistic freedom, and integrity in Kenya in the time of COVID-19.
The roots album that never got made
The “World Music” record industry has a lot to do with what kinds of reggae music we get to hear and consume.
Hip hop futures in Kenya
Rapper Khaligraph Jones (government name: Brian Ouko Robert) chronicles the challenges faced by young people in Nairobi, Kenya.
Wole Soyinka’s little known musical endeavors
Among other notable achievements, Wole Soyinka made political music. In 1983, he even released an album.
Home is the space
From exile, bassist and composer, Johnny Mbizo Dyani (1945-1986), explored and promoted the folk music traditions of South Africa.
African political techno
The evolution of techno, from within Detroit’s African-American community to Kampala, Uganda.
The ‘abnormality’ of Cape Town’s traditional carnival
Breaking with the usual media conversation about the carnival that recalls Cape Town’s slave past.
Vanquisher of troubles or light of our home
The music of Albalabel, a pioneering women’s group in conservative and patriarchal Sudan, endures over decades of struggle.
Linda Ronstadt is still playing Sun City
Nearly four decades later, Linda Ronstadt’s arguments against the cultural boycott - repeated in a new film - ring hollow.
Fela enshrined
Fela Kuti’s friend, Carlos Moore, the black Cuban emigre writer, is the subject of a film about their at times difficult relationship. The result is complex.