http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIYvyZBmN3s Gata Misteriosa and Lee Bass (the Mozambican-Portuguese-Ghanaian-German duo who go by the name of Gato Preto) dropped this new video for "Pirao" last night: no longer strictly kuduro, not yet sure what to call it, but right in time for our weekend special of ten. Video above. Janka and the Bubu Gang (Sierro Leone via Brooklyn) also surprised with this belated video for "Feba", lifted from their 2012 record "En Yay Sah" out on Luaka Bop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9Ni2QxtZDc NPR did a nice feature on Jeri-Jeri recently, the collaboration between the Senegalese Bakane Seck-led drum collective and German producer Mark Ernestus, and premiered their new video, "Gawlo", featuring Baaba Maal (below). Remember Jeri-Jeri. But there's more. They've been uploading some other studio material onto their YouTube channel as well. Here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvXGWU11Ol4 Navio and Unique lay down their rhymes over "1960's Ugandan beats" on "Leka Kwenyumiriza". http://youtu.be/k87QhQ4RP_8 More conscious Hip-Hop: Senegalese rap group A-J One (feat. Xuman and Ceepee) on "Ndjite" (there's so much rap coming out of Dakar recently it's hard to keep up; we'll write about it shortly): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzAozKvT484 When Maître Gims (real name: Gandhi Djuna) isn't collaborating with Sexion d'Assaut or his dad (Franco band singer Djanana Djuna) he's putting out records by himself. This is from his latest: "VQ2PQ": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UphzdC9IwxA Recorded in Bamako, Mali, in September 2012, 'Troubles' is the new album from Dirtmusic, the band headed by Chris Eckman (The Walkabouts) and Hugo Race (Fatalists/True Spirit/Bad Seeds), featuring musicians Ben Zabo, Samba Touré and Zoumana Tereta amongst others. Here's "Fitzcarraldo": http://youtu.be/o1Mpl1mswYs Aline Frazão also has a new record out (hoping Claudio might have time to review it soon). Here's the first single, "Tanto", with a lovely video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFDJFzYpBH0 Omar's "The Man", taken from his forthcoming album of the same name (where has he been all those years?): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akZOy9t6GZQ And finally, Charles Bradley, who we can listen to any day. Live @ KUTX: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-ilnEcPl7Y H/Ts this week: Zachary, Sean, Ts'eliso and Claudio.

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty is the creative debut feature of director Terence Nance who we got to know through the work he did together with Blitz the Ambassador. His new film is sold as a take on "young love" in the city of New York. First reviews praise, among other things, the mesh of visual styles:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZabqZmA9lE Below's the pilot video for King Khama: The African Abe Lincoln (assuming the second part of the tile is provisional), a proposed animated movie about Botswana’s King Khama III. Know your history. The project's website has more details (including excerpts of the script). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR7LQl_3P-c The Forgotten Kingdom is a long feature written and directed by Andrew Mudge. The Examiner has an interview with him about the genesis of the film -- we learn the production crew was small, "made up mostly of interns from within the country with no film experience", starring a cast of Basotho and South African actors -- and a first favorable review. Predictably, debates broke out on the film's Facebook wall after the release of the trailer over whether this is "the first film to come out of Lesotho" (the line they're promoting it with), "a Lesotho film," or "a South African film". We won't wade in. No news yet on when it will be showing in Maseru's cinemas: http://vimeo.com/65124370
Tik & the Turkey is a one-hour documentary, currently in post-production, depicting the heroin and methamphetamine (also known as "tik") problem in Cape Town, South Africa and the devastating effects it has on the people and the communities. Some perspective of the story's urgency: a recent report suggested "1 in 5" (stats depend on who you ask) of school-going youth in the Cape flats are actively using tik. http://vimeo.com/45568427
Ali Blue Eyes is a film by Claudio Giovannesi about an Italian teen of Egyptian heritage (lead role for Nader Sarhan) caught between his conflicting identities. Variety's review is onto something when the author remarks that while "(a) young man trying to balance his roots with his environment has long been a familiar figure in cinema, the subject is of more recent vintage in Italy, which has only recently begun coming to grips with an immigrant population." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppJT9w9_zF8

My knowledge of European club football doesn't stretch much further beyond what gets posted here on Football is a Country and the odd link I come across on our Twitter feed (blame my wary interest on the historical underperformance of Belgian teams* and a time-consuming preference for all things music) so I was surprised to read Gabonese referee Jérôme Efong Nzolo was voted Referee of the Year by Belgian football players in this year's Jupiler Pro League (that's Belgium's national competition). Nzolo was born in Bitam in 1974, came to Belgium to study for electromechanical engineer back in 1995, worked for some years in a car factory, later became a teacher and started refereeing in the national competition in 2000. National TV put the spotlight on him during his first top match some years ago. This year's election as referee of the year isn't his first time: he previously won in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Is the presence of referees of African descent still as rare in professional European club football as I believe it is, or should I read the footy pages more? * This, no doubt, will change when the Belgian Red Devils manage to qualify for Brazil 2014 and go on to win the World Cup. That's how it goes.

Many collaborations and surprise comebacks popped up in our feeds this week. First, this one by Kenyans DNA and Tanzania's Mr. Nice, who tried his luck in South Africa for a while but now seems to have found his ground again back home: http://youtu.be/12AIjm45CQM A Swedish-South African collaboration between Kwaai, Driemanskap, Syster Sol, Mofeta, Kristin Amparo, Cleo and Kanyi. Video by (photographer) Luke Daniel and Neil Wigardt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLEtXHSl7lI Also shot in the Cape flats: this video for Pharoahe Monch in Mitchell's Plain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32gbtaU-CsA Still based in Brussels these days, Badi (Banx) returned from the DRC with a clip recorded at Nzonga Falls for "Losambo" (part of his ongoing Kin Transit video series): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sy3kC7Bb_A An American-South African Hip-Hop collaboration between HHP, Omar Hunter El, Asheru, Benn Chad, OneTwo, Projector, Zubz, Cassper Nyovest, Nomadic, Element Lehipi Khalil on "Animals": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWH2uAhSVqI Two new videos for Pan-American Los Rakas' short "Mi Pais" (which has Raka Dun expressing his American dreams and struggles before joining Raka Rich in the studio -- head over to YouTube for full English translations) and "No Tan Listo": http://youtu.be/h95ni5yPbAM There's a new single and video for Coely, who's mostly filling Belgian clubs at the moment, but we can see that changing soon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uVEqjDjdDk Johannesburg producer Alkabulans' instrumental "Cross-Dimensional Symmetry". Trust South African Iapetus Records to surprise us: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp9FTl3wzAA London combo Anthony Joseph and his Spasm Band recorded this video in Berlin for "Started off as a dancer": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj1CLx9dMHw And since it's been a while we included some Cabo Verde music here: old master Zé Luis performing "Ku Nha Kin Bem": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRry1LHCjNo

Kicking off this week and running until the 26th of May, the fifth edition of Festival Cinéma Arabe will take place in The Netherlands (in the cities of Rotterdam, Den Haag, Maastricht, Den Bosch and Utrecht). With more than 30 feature films, documentaries and short films by international filmmakers with an Arab background, the festival presents an overview of contemporary film production from countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, but also Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, etc. The festival hopes to portray "the current developments in the Arab world" so there's no way of getting around films and documentaries "clarify(ing) what the demonstrations and revolutions have meant for the people there and how the Arab Spring has brought about undeniable change", as the programme has it. A second theme running through the festival's schedule is the perception in the West about the Arab world, and vice versa. The festival has an impressive line-up. Below are some films set in North Africa -- a selection of those we haven't mentioned here on the blog before: Dance of Outlaws is a documentary by Mohamed El-Aboudi about the Moroccan woman Hind (22) who is raped at the age of fifteen and cast out by her ashamed family because she has lost her value as a marriageable virgin. Without documents, which her family refuses to give her back, she has no rights, cannot get a legal job or even arrange an identity for her daughter. The only possibility to keep her head above water is to work as a traditional wedding dancer and in prostitution. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=T3gDLRn-NUw An sililar theme returns in Malak. In his new film Abdeslam Kelai tells the story of the 17-year old Malak who discovers she is pregnant. Although she knows better, she hopes the father of the child will marry her, but instead runs off. Fearing her family’s reaction, she decides to leave her native town Larache and settle in Tangiers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkqXt-qlyRw Hidden Beauties is set in Tunisia, December 2010: Zaineb is a young woman, engaged to a French-Tunisian contractor, whose mother wants her to wear a veil. Her friend Aisha works in a bakery where her boss wants her to remove her veil "to make her look more attractive". The two young women refuse to be dictated by the men in their surroundings. Each in their own way they fight for their individual freedom, while around them the rumbling and the tension of the revolution can be clearly felt. Director Nouri Bouzid filmed Hidden Beauties during the uprisings in Tunisia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfyQflqngO0 In It Was Better Tomorrow Hinde Boujemaa shows a post-revolutionary Tunisia through the eyes of a homeless single mother searching for a better life. The day after Ben Ali steps down, Aida Kaabi is evicted from her house as she is behind in her payments. The camera follows her, roaming through the streets, hunting for a job and a roof above her head for her and her children. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gggRsdE0V8M And Die Welt is the debut of Dutch-Tunisian director Alex Pitstra. We follow Abdallah, a DVD salesman from Tunis. After meeting the Dutch tourist Anna, he starts dreaming of a better life in Die Welt, as his father always calls Europe. Will he be able to make the crossing with her, or will he have to flee his country in another way? Does he even want to go? The film is based on Pitstra’s own observations in Tunisia, the land of his father, which he was unfamiliar with for the first 25 years of his life. The director will attend the screening of Die Welt on Saturday 11 May. On the 12th of May he will join the talk 'Intercultural Cinema'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MV2aFuNlkmI All details of the festival here.

From Luanda: Dj Djeff has Nacobeta, Agre G & Game Walla doing their thing in the new video for "Mwangolé". There's a standard success script for all those kuduro videos out there. Not that we mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqmamaJ30NM Glen Lewis's Shona tune "Ndiyo ndiyo" will keep South African clubs warm this winter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw7szeOHLWM Kenyan P-Unit released this track, "Mobimba", last month, featuring Sweden-based Alicios. Originally from Congo (that's Alicios), you don't have to look far where they took their inspiration from this time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO0XTSsUpnw Not entirely sure what's going on in this jumpy clip for MoBlack's (also known as Domenico Falcone) "MeKa". Is there a remix out yet? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZDW_mN3XIA M.anifest is working hard this year. Here on a new collaboration with EL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILhCu6zOOaI Talib Kweli went to South Africa and came back with a music video for "High Life": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvTNj5--a9o A first single for Guinean Masta G (Conakry) off his album "Introspection". Produced by Ahms Beatz; the final mixing was done by Redrum. (More music by Masta G here.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke6aDv-GtJQ Kae Sun's got a new album coming out soon as well ('Afriyie', dropping later this month). "When the pot" is a second excerpt (remember last year's "Ship And The Globe"): http://youtu.be/So57DijOdvU Samba Touré's album, Albala, was released this week. First single is "Be Ki Don" (YouTube notes have a translation of the lyrics -- here): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II3SuAnQmDE And your moment of Zen: this video for Ghostpoet (born Obaro Ejimiwe, who has Tony Allen playing on drums on his latest record). Recommended: http://youtu.be/ABkQ96dh0eQ

The Supreme Price is ambitious both in its scope and its intentions: "Following the annulment of her father's -- Moshood Abiola -- victory in Nigeria's 1993 Presidential Election and her mother's -- Alhaja Kudirat Abiola -- assassination by agents of the military dictatorship, Hafsat Abiola faces the challenge of transforming a corrupt culture of governance into a democracy capable of serving Nigeria's most marginalized population: women," plugging her organization along the way. Produced and directed by Joanna Lipper, the film comes with some high-profile backers (MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation/Just Films, ITVS, etc). The extended trailer below was commissioned by Gucci to launch their "global Chime for Change Campaign". We'll have to watch it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSIt-apN7z0 A second film to watch out for is Tu seras mon allié ("You will be my ally") by Cameroonian director Rosine Mfetgo Mbakam (remember her portrait of Congolese artist Freddy Tsimba from a while back). The short tells the story of a woman from Gabon, played by Bwanga Pilipili, who gets stopped at the airport upon her entry to Belgium, and on what happens next. The cast further includes Gael Maleux and Isabelle Anciaux: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TccHO5DdnSk The Secret Capital is the second joint production by Mukhtar Shehata and Samuli Schielke -- after their “The Other Side“ (2010). Set in Egypt, the question it asks is a complicated one: Was there a revolution? "Two years after the beginning of the January 25 Revolution," they write, "many Egyptians ask themselves this question. The answer is not to be found on Tahrir Square, but in the villages of countryside, the secret capital of Egypt." The filmmakers follow the struggles, hopes and frustrations among people from Shehata's home village who between February 2011 and December 2012 tried to bring the revolution to their village in northern Egypt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho2QzErIx5I Angolan director Pocas Pascoal's first feature film Por Aqui Tudo Bem ("All is well") won the European Union Award at FESPACO earlier this year. Synopsis: "In the late summer of 1980, Alda and her sister Maria, at the age of 16 and 17, arrive in Lisbon to escape the civil war in Angola. Left to themselves, they must learn to survive in a foreign city." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6UhZCLZ8M0 And The Capacity of Capcity is director Sara Chitambo's story* on the rise, demise, and "imminent revival" of Pretoria's hip hop scene. The documentary features interviews with a broad range of key stakeholders, from producers such as Nyambz and Thirteen, to emcees such as Maliq and Damola, and fringe observers such as Hype magazine editor Simone Harris and DJ Kenzhero. http://vimeo.com/63806754
* File this one under "shameless self-promotion" since Ts'eliso helped out with the editing. The film will premiere on 27th April at the Back to the City Festival (Newton, South Africa). For future screening dates, keep an eye on the film's Tumblr.

This year's turning into a good year for quality music videos. Here's another selection of 10. First one below is a single from Durban's Nandi Mngoma's new album (she has a fancy blog though there's more chance of catching updates via her Twitter account): South African dance as you know it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUff0BOiNPo Next, finally here: the first video for OY's debut record -- remember Boima's recent write-up -- delivers. Shot in Accra, Ghana. YouTube notes tell us the dancers are Bugi Bust. Well here you have it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJM_0ghPd80 Also shot in Accra is this video for Tawiah's "FACes", off her upcoming mixtape album, FREEdom Drop (yes, that's Wanlov and Mensa in the clip): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkpgFk6ZHTc There's Josephine, born to a Liberian mother and Jamaican father, describing herself as having "enjoyed the advantages of a colourful West African culture as well as feeling intrinsically British". Can't possibly do wrong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3aiknJs5iQ A beautiful oddball by SKIP&DIE whose singer Catarina Aimée Dahms, aka Cata.Pirata, is South African: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VANjdVQXkH0 (They know how to throw a party too.) New video for Afro-Panico's "Matimba". Filed under: Afro-House | Kuduro | Pantsula: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9DoqAGtPc8 Brazilian Pan-African rap vibes from Ba Kimbuta on "Consumo" (over a Mulatu Astatke sample): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu1hQv38TAk Mo Kolours also released a new video for his "Promise" tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbfMcwQNnU0 There's Outspoken & The Essence's "own interpretation of Hip-Hop". The track, called "The SlaveMasters Whip," is a first from their upcoming Nomadic Wax-produced album Uncool and Overrated: God Before Anything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MttQsGm-JMU And finally, on high rotation ever since it came out this month: "Azamane Tiliade" from Bombino's album Nomad, produced by Dan Auerbach. Play it loud: http://youtu.be/Ss9Znucx4GM

The Revolution Won’t Be Televised is Rama Thiaw's (born in Mauritania, grew up between Senegal and France) second long-feature film. She documents one year in the life of Thiat and Kilifeu, members of the Senegalese Keur Gui band who went on to organize the ‘Y'en a Marre’ movement. This will probably not be the last documentary on the collective: http://vimeo.com/58118187 (Related: ‘Y'en a Marre’ doesn't have an English Wikipedia entry, so Ethan Zuckerman created one.) Further South, Cape Town Hip-Hop (is it a movement?) gets portrayed in Die Hip in Kaapse Hop ("The Hip in Cape Hop"), featuring familiar and less familiar artists such as Dplanet, Rattex --that's his tune "Welcome to Khayelitsha" in the trailer below--, Emile YX, Codax, Brazuka, graffiti artist Falko, Shameela ShamRock, Driemanskap, Ready D, Rezzano, Azuhl, and Bliksemstraal. Produced by MCL Pictures and LS Design Lab: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt-eYeoVvrA On December 17, 1962, Mamadou Dia, President of the Senegalese Council of Ministers, was arrested and given a life sentence, accused of organizing a coup d'état by his friend and companion Leopold Sedar Senghor. He would be imprisoned with four of his closest ministers. Among them, Joseph Mbaye, Minister of Rural Economy, uncle of Ousmane William Mbaye, who made a documentary about what happened in the run-up to that day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n03lGFeE9nk Les Rêves Meurtris ("Shattered dreams") is a short film by Hady Diawara, dedicated to Yaguine Koïta and Fodé Tounkara, the two young men from Guinée-Conakry who froze to death as stowaways on a flight to Belgium back in 1999: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFlOS7aL4u0 Une Si Belle Inquiétude ("Such a beautiful restlessness") is a 12-minutes short by Brahim Fritah, in which he looks back on his travelings between France and Morocco through the use of some of the (archival) photos made along the way: http://vimeo.com/44736446 Bonus: you can watch the film in full over at French news website Mediapart.

http://youtu.be/SgkxUP3HpSY Here's ten new videos to get your weekend started. Some pop, some rap, some indie, but first, some dance (what's in a name). Above's Black Coffee latest, feat. Nomsa Mazwai and Black Motion on "Traveller". Next: Owiny Sigoma Band (that's Joseph Nyamungo, Charles Okoko and friends in London) put out this festival-vibes video for "Nyiduonge Drums" (which, oddly, is not on the record they recently released): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGLha1dwrXo Congolese "Hustler" (his word) Fally Ipupa is "Back"; these loosely choreographed videos never cease to amaze: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58neA_pmKV0 Nigerian trio Weray Ent's second single "Masquerade" features Ghanaian group Vibe Squad. Important disclaimer in the opening lines; what follows is a feast of styles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHSY6npyE-8 Dochi and Ali Kiba bring the weekly Bongo sounds on "Imani": http://youtu.be/TvZvAzYBxfA With the arrival of their first EP, Bells Atlas released a video for “Lovin You Down” — recorded while the band was on tour recently (and spent time in Miami during the International art event Art Basel): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEswOqxU2t4 Rokia Traoré could have come up with a different title for her new record, but the songs that are on there are magnificent. Quite politically engaged lyrics too, like much of what's coming out of Mali over the past year. Production: John Parish. This is a first single, "Mélancolie", and video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vshD7FLuVpI UK youth broadcaster SB.TV put up a live video of UK artist (and AIAC household name) Akala, performing his track "Lose Myself", a collaboration with Josh Osho -- a new web series to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tvZzX3eVNI Playing in London tonight (and pretty much everywhere else in Europe later this month; they sent us a reminder earlier this week) are Cuban combo Alexander Abreu y Havana d'Primera. Don't miss it if you like your salsa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9NxNr1I1DU And, finally, your moment of zen: this video for four-piece London band Woman's Hour's "To the End", directed by South Africans Oliver Chanarin and Laurence Hamburger. Trampolinists are Siphiwe Mosoang and Xolani Nxumalo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x1OzVibsOo Woman Hour's debut EP's soon to be released on Parlour Records. Now watch that video again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3aGgktbGyY British filmmaker Roy Agyemang's documentary on Robert Mugabe, "Villain on Hero?", intended to be a three-month mission but turned into a three-year mission. "Roy and his UK based Zimbabwean fixer, Garikayi, worked their way through the corridors of power, probing the cultural, economical and historical factors at the heart of the “Zimbabwean crisis”. In their quest to interview Mugabe, Roy and Garikayi were mistaken for the British Secret Service" (film notes). Trailer tells us they got the interview, but not how it ended. Next, Rêve Kakudji is a documentary film by Ibbe Daniëls and Koen Vidal about Congolese opera singer Serge Kakudji. Kakudji is introduced as "the first African to sing arias in the predominately white world of opera music" -- is that so? "Bridging the gap between Europe and Africa": http://vimeo.com/61906079 Operation Vula is a documentary by Naäma Palfrey about Conny Braam who, in the mid-eighties, in addition to her chairmanship of the anti-apartheid movement, is secretly in charge of more than 70 Dutch volunteers over the course of 5 years. Together with the ANC leadership, Conny and these volunteers pursue an operation to support and manage South African ANC exiles that are being disguised in Amsterdam to infiltrate South Africa with false identities to continue and intensify the underground resistance from within. A good additional read on this is Bart Luirink's recent book Zwart Goud ("Black Gold"): http://vimeo.com/47863716 Director Kaizer Matsumunyane (born in Lesotho) explains the idea behind his upcoming documentary The Smiling Pirate (6 minutes into the video below): "In October 2013, Sony Pictures will release a Tom Hanks motion picture purporting to tell the story of the Maersk Alabama’s hijacking in 2009 by a band of Somali Pirates. This narrative is told from the vantage point of its captain, Richard Phillips, played by Tom Hanks. My documentary, however, tells the story and more but from the vantage point of the one surviving Pirate, a teenager named Abduwale Abdukhad Muse. With three other Somali teenagers, Muse took the ship’s captain Richard Phillips hostage. During the rescue by US Navy Seals, Muse’s three compatriots were killed but he survived to become the first person to be charged of piracy in the United States in more than a century. The documentary will tell the story of Muse growing up in Somalia, the girl he was working to marry, the recruitment into piracy at the age of 16, the piracy training he undertook, the three ships he hijacked, being captured and held hostage by the Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab in Somalia, the hijacking of the American flagged ship, the trial in the U.S, experience of solitary confinement for more than a year, life in prison and his fight for a retrial." http://vimeo.com/61450044 Penny Woolcock's documentary One Mile Away is portrayed as a "riveting portrait of the complex, contentious reality of the streets, and the courage it takes to make a difference...it could well be this year’s most important British film" (Time Out). The film charts the attempts by two warring gangs in inner city Birmingham, the Burger Bar Boys (B21) and the Johnson Crew (B6), to bring peace to their neighbourhoods. Some background: here and here. The trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meGf2IhDMXM And here's a bonus: register your interest in seeing "One Mile Away", and watch it: here. Or here (H/T Duma).

When Tendai Maraire broke down his Pungwe mixtape for us last year.

I remember when Zimbabwe gained independence. My mother had a big party at the house in Seattle — with all her friends, Zimbabwean and American. My uncle, who fought in the guerrilla war against the white Rhodesian state, flew in weeks later. She started celebrating every year and even would get together with friends to sponsor groups from Zimbabwe to come and perform. Years later she focused more on performing, and non-Zimbabweans took over. They called it a Marimba festival and later transitioned it to Zimfest, which still exists. One year, my brothers and I went when my father was still alive living in Zimbabwe. After we came back, we saw that it had not represented our culture, history or the people indigenous to Zimbabwe. So we started flipping tables etcetera. The festival was stopped and dialogue started on how things needed to change. I promised that day to everyone that I would change it.

See, Zimbabwean music has a rich story-telling history. Some songs have messages that are inappropriate for those of European descent to sing. But yet they still feel comfortable doing so even though Shona people feel this way. So ‘Boom’ is me throwing my first punch at those that still disrespect the music. While I touch on some subjects that personally affect me when they do it. Boom!" Here is the video for the mixtape's second track, "Boom": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmuKI5d9p2Q    

5 new documentaries this week. Crop: Talking About Images is a film directed by Marouan Omara and Johanna Domke. The film, quoting its website, "reflects upon the impact of images in the Egyptian Revolution and puts it in relation to the image politics of Egypt's leaders. Instead of showing footage from the revolution, the film is shot entirely in the power domain of images -- Egypt's oldest and most influential state newspaper Al Ahram." From the top-level executive office down to the smallest worker, the documentary follows a photo journalist who missed the revolution due to a hospital stay. Here's an excerpt:  http://www.vimeo.com/52194528 Même pas Mal (No Harm Done) is a film by Nadia El Fani and Alina Isabel Pérez that follows up on El Fani's 'Securalism – Inch’Allah'. The tone in 'No Harm Done', according to first viewers, has become darker, the director’s attitude noticeably more radical. "This may be due in part to her personal history: her cancer, the operation, chemotherapy on the one hand, paralleled by the unprecedented radical Islamist hate campaign against her film in Tunisia, which culminated in death threats against the director published on the social networks." French-Tunisian Nadia El Fani received the best documentary film award at Fespaco this year. The film hasn't been screened in Tunisia yet. Nor can the filmmaker return home. http://vimeo.com/45506794 The documentary Creation in Exile: Five Filmmakers in Conversation follows Newton Aduaka, John Akomfrah, Haile Gerima, Dani Kouyaté and Jean Odoutan: five African filmmakers in the diaspora (Paris, Washington, London, Uppsala), their everyday lives echoing sequences of their films. A film by Daniela Ricci: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiktFIXBP5c Returning the Remains ("A Khoe Story 2") is poet, writer and filmmaker Weaam Williams and Nafia Kocks' 50 minute documentary about the history of the "unspoken of genocide" on South Africa's Khoe/Khoi people. "The most challenging documentary film we've ever made," Williams describes it in a recent interview. Here's a first clip: http://www.vimeo.com/52990200 On a lighter note, Geoff Yaw's King Me explores the world of competitive checkers play as seen through the eyes of South African Lubabalo Kondlo. In 2007, Kondlo, with the help of some sympathetic Americans, traveled to the U.S. to compete in the U.S. National Championship of Checkers in Las Vegas, Nevada. A relative unknown in the legitimate checkers world, Kondlo crushed the competition and earned the right to challenge 20+ year reigning World Champ, Ron 'Suki' King: http://vimeo.com/36505480

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahvRbLEnGj4 Congolese (Brazzaville) filmmaker Rufin Mbou Mikima has uploaded* his latest documentary "Tsofa" to YouTube. The film tells the story of a group of Congolese men, many of them highly qualified university graduates who got offered a 600 euro/month job by a Romanian company to go and work as taxi drivers in Bucharest, the European country's capital. "To Romanians, black people living in their country must be either football players, or students," Mbou Mikima notes in one of the film's opening scenes. He first met the group back in 2008 while working in Bucharest himself. Through the use of the men's own photos, mobile phone images and other video material, he retraces their initial steps, hopes and expectations, where it went wrong (it did), and what happened after the return of some of them to Congo (Brazza). Conversations, interviews, voice-over and subtitles are in French and Lingala. (No English subs, unfortunately.) The result is a sensible document. Bonus: music by Fredy Massamba.  * Update: "had" it uploaded; it's been set to private now. Désolé. Replaced it with an opening scene.

Another month, another special Africa issue. This one is by French weekly newspaper Courrier International (part of Le Monde group), edited by Isabelle Lauze and Ousmane Ndiaye. Many of the articles have appeared elsewhere but are published here for the first time in French. Features and profiles include those on Congolese photographer Kiripi Katembo, Angola's "indignados", Senegalese collective Y'en A Marre, Nigerian Nollywood, Ghanaian journo Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Ethiopian entrepreneur Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, a very short introduction to Francophone Hip-Hop, etc. Full table of contents here. The cover photo is lifted from Omar Victor Diop's 2012 series “The Studio of Vanities”. It's not clear why they decided to focus only on Sub-Saharan Africa. That said, they've used excellent sources.

It is hard to underestimate the importance of pianist Bebo Valdés' contributions to Cuban music. "Bebo", who passed way at the age of 94 in Stockholm, Sweden yesterday, is considered to have been instrumental in "wedding traditional Afro-Cuban dance rhythms with the improvisational freedom of American jazz" (JazzTimes). His earliest performances were in rumba style but his exposure to jazz in the 1930s "altered the course of his music as he adopted the African-rooted rhythms and the swing of the American big bands to his own playing and arranging." In 1947 Bebo took a job as pianist-arranger in Haiti, an experience that he says "increased his knowledge of African-based rhythms." He returned to Cuba in 1948, where he gained fame as the musical director of the Tropicana club in Havana. In October 1952, he did a series of recordings for American producer Norman Granz, a descarga that is considered to be the first Afro-Cuban jazz jam sessions recorded on the island. Following Cuba's revolution in 1959, Bebo left for Mexico, then the United States, and finally Europe where he settled in Stockholm, playing in piano bars and touring occasionally. In 1994, Cuban musician Paquito D'Rivera sought out Bebo for a recording session, released as "Bebo Rides Again". The LP's sleeves has it that this was Bebo's first recording after 34 years (although that is noted as not entirely correct). Once more, some silent years followed this recording, living "a quiet musical existence," as JazzTimes calls it in an older article -- untill the year 2000, when Fernando Trueba brought together some of Cuba's great musicians for the film "Calle 54", and reintroduced Bebo's playing to an international audience.

And this is what YouTube is made for. The film featured this duet of Bebo and his eldest son, Chucho: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zffxPnsUMZg In 2003, Trueba went on to produce the instant classic Lagrimas Negras album, teaming Bebo with flamenco singer Diego El Cigala: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcpoEazKge4 In 2004 he was again filmed by Trueba for El milagro de Candeal, a film about the role music played in the historically black neighbourhood of Candeal, Salvador (state of Bahia, Brazil). A fragment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6iRCAg0iQ8 In 2008, a documentary was made about his life by Carlos Carcas: Old Man Bebo. Here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLYU7VN1WWU And released in 2010, Chico and Rita is an animated feature-length film directed by, again, Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal. The story is set against the backdrops of Havana, New York City, Las Vegas, Hollywood and Paris in the late 1940s and early 1950s and it is inspired by the life of Bebo. The film also has an original soundtrack by Bebo (alongside tracks by Thelonious Monk, Cole Porter, Dizzy Gillespie and Freddy Cole). And here's the nice part: you can watch it in full on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaDC_BsC2b0 Gracias por la música, Bebo Valdés. R.I.P.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OBZY46-hb8 Not too long ago, a new video by Amadou & Mariam would have made a bigger splash. There's no way denying their (?) questionable choice to get Bertrand Cantat on board for their latest record has somewhat tempered the global enthousiasm for their music. Which is regrettable -- the end result is a fine record. And the above animated video for 'Africa mon Afrique', produced by No-Mad Films, ticks all the right boxes (including Africa's launching of a "space program"). Next, Congolese artist Didjak Munya's latest single, "feat. Bill Clinton" (yeh), before his album drops. (Via Akwaaba.) Filmed between New York City and Kinshasa:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn_yzxL3w9U 'Dance For Me' by Ghanaians "Ruff N Smooth" Ricky Nana Agyeman and Clement Baafo is a TUNE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkqbQCZf4Vs Something else. Let's get this straight. Tunisian rapper Weld El 15's track below might not be everybody's musical cup of tea, but when the "actress" and the cameraman involved in the making of the controversial 'Cops are Dogs' video are both sentenced to six months in prison for their contribution to the video while "Weld El 15 (himself) remains on the run and was sentenced to two years of imprisonment in absentia," Tunisian government needs to be called out on this loud and widely. Says Weld El 15: “As an artist, I chose the (police's) violent language to criticize their violent behavior and harsh treatment. I tried to express my opinion freely thinking that Tunisia has democracy, yet I was mistaken.” Head over to Les Inrocks for a longer interview with the artist. Surely Tunisia's Ministry of Interior's got better things to do. We'll follow up on this story. http://youtu.be/6owW_Jv5ng4 Meanwhile, back in Nigeria, Ajebutter 22's got other things to worry about. Pastors and stuff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89_m06oRbMM Abobolais and his Ivorian crew bring the better coupé-décalé moves this week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0gmadlo5tY There's been more than one collective musical effort to unite Mali recently. Here's another one. Featuring: Oxmo Puccino, Inna Modja, Féfé, Cheick Tidiane Seck, Doudou Masta, Rouda du 129H, Ousco, King Massassy, Abbba Mamadou Ba, Lélé, Elie Guillou, Toya, Rim, Ramsès, Lyor, Guimba Kouyaté, Camille Richard, Tanti Kouyaté, Amkoullel l'enfant peulh -- many of whom are based in France: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG4lEuHeKuA You already know we're a fan of Carmen Souza. Here's a video for her 'Donna Lee': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC9hQVGTqSg Nicole Wray and Terri Walker are touring with (AIAC favorite) Lee Fields this spring. Can't wait to see them bring this live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3IMPYJ7MiY And to conclude, there's no official video yet for the trans-Atlantic "Family Atlantica" project, but Soundway Records released the following song on YouTube: 'Escape To The Palenque', featuring Mulatu Astatke -- and that will do for this week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q5Lf9g-DoU