Africa Is a Country

Friday Music Bonus Edition

Friday Music Bonus Edition

By
Tom Devriendt

This week saw the passing of Don Cornelius. You’ll remember Letta Mbulu was once a guest on his Soul Train. I wondered what a Soul Train show set to an afrobeat would have looked like. YouTube helped:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4HHwgPG0JE&w=600&h=347]

Also on YouTube, the comments to the new Shabazz Palaces video offered a translation of the Amharic conversation between mother and daughter on their ‘Are you… Can you… Were you? (Felt)’ track:

A month later “A special Kwanzaa present from Marcel Cartier, Akala, Nana D and Agent of Change.” We’ve said this before: everybody’s using archive material:

Blitz The Ambassador plugged “my boy Bez” on his facebook page some days ago. ‘That Stupid Song’ has Nigerian Soul:

Finally, earlier this week okayafrica posted this video of Finnish singer-songwriter Mirel Wagner. It is, indeed, exceptional:

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.

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?

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.