AfricaIs aCountry

Dirty Paraffin is "genre-defying"

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Dirty Paraffin is "genre-defying"

By
Sean Jacobs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5hvSTsYTGk&w=500&h=307&rel=0]

We’ve been following The Fader’s Pitch Perfect documentary series since the start of the World Cup two weeks ago. In episode 2, The Fader documentary team receives a “short history of SA dance pop” from Johannesburg’s “genre-defying” duo, Dirty Paraffin. I’ve never heard of these guys before but after watching this video, I’m hooked. That party looks dope. But then again, everything looks better in black and white.

Check them out in their “Exhibit A” music video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrjuMSWuFW4&w=500&h=307&rel=0]

– Allison Swank

Further Reading

No one should be surprised we exist

The documentary film, ‘Rolé—Histórias dos Rolezinhos’ by Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Vladimir Seixas uses sharp commentary to expose social, political, and cultural inequalities within Brazilian society.

Reading List: Barbara Boswell

While editing a collection of the writings of South African feminist Lauretta Ngcobo, Barbara Boswell found inspiration in texts that reflected Ngcobo’s sense that writing is an exercise of freedom.

Kenya’s stalemate

A fundamental contest between two orders is taking place in Kenya. Will its progressives seize the moment to catalyze a vision for social, economic, and political change?

An annual awakening

In the 1980s, the South African arts collective Vakalisa Art Associates reclaimed time as a tool of social control through their subversive calendars.

More than a building

The film ‘No Place But Here’ uses VR or 360 media to immerse a viewer inside a housing occupation in Cape Town. In the process, it wants to challenge gentrification and the capitalist logic of home ownership.