Born in a small township near Gondar in northwest Ethiopia, Yityish Aynaw recently became the latest Miss Israel. And then made some dumb comments about Ethiopian heritage and beauty. ("We have these chiseled faces. Everything is in the right place,” she said. “I never saw an Ethiopian who was stuck with some big nose.") Which reminded me of the fairly new 400 Miles to Freedom, Avishai Mekonen’s film about Ethiopian immigrants who left their homes to make a living in Israel, and what they found there. It is also about Judaism and race, especially in the United States. Trailer below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS_7jsK5JRk Also about migration, but of a different kind, is Comme un Lion ("Like a lion"). Mytri is a young Senegalese football player who's offered a contract and a bright future in France by one of those many talent scouts swerving through West Africa. Once in Paris, that future turns out to be not quite what Mytri imagined it to be. Director Samuel Collardey's style of realism has been compared with that of Ken Loach. One to watch:  http://youtu.be/NKrXZocTal0 (Related: I read Benoît Poelvoorde is working on a similarly-themed film.) Produced by the German Goethe Institute's Sudan Film Factory, Cinema Behind Bars tells a story of cinema in Sudan. Bahaeldin Ibrahim takes the viewer on a journey to Atbara; "Not spectacularly, but quietly and carefully": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCnGLKlbkaI Sobukwe: A Great Soul recently won best documentary feature at a Saftas gala best quickly forgotten. Its director, South African Mickey Madoda Dube, also won the best director award. Percy Zvomuya wrote an introductory review of the docu-drama about the life of Pan Africanist Congress l­eader Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe when it first came out. http://youtu.be/Ne6HC2UOW9Y And another documentary to watch out for is Malian director Souleymane Cissé's portrait and homage to legendary Senegalese film maker, writer and philosopher Ousmane Sembène (in the photo left). Title: O Sembène! I haven't come across a trailer yet, but the first reviews (in French) are promising. Like this one for example. Choice quote by Sembène: "Europe is not the center, it is on the outskirts of Africa" ("L’Europe n’est pas le centre, elle est la périphérie de l’Afrique").

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFz3fSUx8vY We hardly ever feature Brazilian music, and even less their take on Afrobeat. The above tune by the Abayomy Afrobeat Orchestra dates from last year, but the video's new. Hope to see more from them. We've got 9 more videos lined up for you this week. Ugandan duo Radio & Weasel came up with this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf-RXTLVeM0 Nigerian artists are flocking en masse to Cape Town's seaboard to shoot their videos (taking cues from Congolese artists ten years ago). Clearly not just for "the light". Davido's 'Gobe' one more example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFDu6ACKLKo Lagos' SDC Commandant Obaifeiye Shem's clumsy reply when asked on TV about the address of the website of his Service was that "my Oga at the top" knows it. The rest is history (as is he, it seems). Your viral Naija meme of the week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQgqEMzzoBg M3nsa and Sena repping it for Ghana: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iA32dYaYBKU Tanzanian bongo flava from Belle 9 (call it pop): 'Listen': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHI6T6KhBh4 Also from Tanzania is duo Aika & Nahreel who got themselves a dance hit with 'Usinibwage': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0w6K1bwIGE Kenyan bongo sounds, here's 'Bum Kubam' by Nikki Wa Pili featuring G Nako. Quite the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baQu0PYhRe0 More Kenyan Hip-Hop by rapper Rabbit in 'Adisia': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzDYqxgSkQU And switching gears, this video by Just A Band: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxc-zVqituk H/Ts this week to @Birdseeding, @nemesisinc and GetMziki.

"Vers la forêt de nuages" ("To the cloud forest") is a film by Robin Hunzinger, who tells a story about his Ivorian wife Aya and their son Tim (in the image above), travelling in Côte d’Ivoire to pay tribute to Aya's father who recently passed way. The film intends to offer a portrait of and an "initiation" to the country. Follow the production of the project on its Facebook page. Here's a first trailer: http://vimeo.com/60570879 The director of "Pars et Reviens Tard" ("Leave and come back late(r)") Aurylia Rotolo (with help from Xavier Deleu) first met the documentary's protagonist, "Régis," while in Tanger, Morocco. Cameroonian Régis -- a professional football player in his home country -- had plans to make a living in Europe but wasn't gonna risk his life crossing the Mediterranean Sea illegally. When Moroccan clubs turn out not to be too keen to give him a contract either, he returns home: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNrjCUQVkeI For reasons so far unknown, a screening of Jews of Egypt was banned by the Egyptian National Security earlier this week. The documentary is a portrait of the lives of the Egyptian Jewish community in the first half of the twentieth century until their second grand exodus after 1956. "An attempt to understand the change in the identity of the Egyptian society that turned from a society full of tolerance and acceptance of one another ... and how it changed gradually by mixing religious and political views into a society that rejects the others," in the words of the film's director Amir Ramses: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYFwtgeOypQ "Downtown Tribes" is a short documentary created and directed by Amirah Tajdin, and produced by Wafa Tajdin of 8486 Films, commissioned by STR.CRD and shot at their "Urban Street Culture Event" last year (where Dylan and Antoinette also interviewed Just A Band). Loyal AIAC readers will have fun spotting the many familiar faces: http://vimeo.com/58165008 And "A Batalha de Tabatô" ("The Battle of Tabatô") is a first-time feature by director Joao Viana exploring music, magic and, according to The Hollywood Reporter, "post-colonial angst" in Guinea-Bissau. We're still interested though, because that same review remarks Viana's combining "a strong eye and rich subject matter". Here's a first teaser: http://vimeo.com/57537506 And here's another one.

Guest Post by Robert Nathan They're not your average musicians. Sons of West African griots and court musicians brought up in Washington DC and St. Louis, Weedie Braimah and Amadou Kouyate have straddled the Atlantic all their lives. Indoors, they assiduously studied the kora and the djembe under the guidance of their fathers -- master musicians from Senegal and Ghana. But outside people weren't too familiar with the instruments they played, much less the historic institutions to which their families belonged. "I grew up in an African house, true enough," Weedie says. "But at the same time when I walked out of my door, I had a whole different world. I grew up in the Hip-Hop age." That's a paradox they've been living with all their lives.  But it's one to which these uniquely placed artists have reconciled themselves. Masters of their craft -- and just as comfortable on snare and guitar as on calabash and kora -- they're one more example of artists experimenting with a fusion of African and American musical influences. Inheritors of those two traditions, they move between them like there were no boundaries at all. And that, in a way, is what Weedie and Amadou are all about. They're not parroting old djembe rhythms, nor curating a musical museum of African sounds. Above all else, they're creators. And they're letting their creativity run wild. The result is a duo with a captivating show. One minute you're at a Dakar dance party, the next Weedie is hitting the snare so hard you think you're at a Roots concert, and then Amadou lays down a luscious kora riff that unexpectedly turns into a Bill Withers song. They're all over the place -- and it works. See for yourself in this clip recorded before a 700-strong crowd at Victoria's McPherson Playhouse in Canada: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrMTuvsTQeQ This organic blending of influences is infectious. Weedie and Amadou are masterful with any material, and you catch that vibe when they're on stage. They feel the weight of their African musical lineage, but they also that of the American musical greats who inspire them. "I feel a responsibility to my Kouyaté lineage. But I've got a sense of responsibility to making sure Sam Cooke and Donnie Hathaway are heard, that Coltrane gets heard, too." And they want to be understood in that transcultural context. They aren't a curiosity. They don't want people to dig them because they've never heard a kora before and the experience is novel. They want people to like what they do because they like it, and because of the musicianship they bring to the stage. From their perspective, while they respect the Africa-US musical collaborations that have taken place in recent years between artists like Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Touré, these have tended to be superficial. "It's mostly cosmetic," Amadou says in an interview outside a djembe workshop at the University of Victoria. They have the right to speak that way. After all, if you didn't grow up in an environment where you ate your Corn Flakes and then practiced kora with your master musician father before heading to school with the rest of DC, how could you gain the knowledge required to fuse the African and the American at such a profound level? Weedie and Amadou are proud of their complex musical heritage. And they want African Americans to be proud of a musical tradition that belongs to them too -- one that many in the US don't know much about. But at the end of the day, they're artists with musical sledgehammers, and they're breaking down the borders that exist between 'African music' and music writ large. In this respect they're part of a broader global movement to deparochialize African art, and their work resonates with efforts like the Manifesto for a World Literature in French (a document signed by authors like Alain Mabanckou and Nobel laureate JMG Le Clézio that aims to erase the difference between African literature and literature tout court). Indeed, the day when djembe and kora get the same respect as piano and saxophone is they day they'll rest easy. In a way that day's already here, because they play with jazz greats like Chick Correa who love their style. But there's still plenty of work to be done. So until then, expect Weedie and Amadou to bring their transgressive sound to the world stage by stage, showing everyone what it means to be an African, an American, and an artist who transcends these narrow boundaries. * Robert Nathan is a doctoral candidate in African History at Dalhousie University (Canada). Weedie Braimah and Amadou Kouyate's first album will be out soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t8Z_K8crWo Pretty much all of this week's artist are regular guests on the blog. First up: Pitcho. Remember him. Second, lifted from his 'Jama ko' record, here's a Mali-shot video for Bassekou Kouyate:  http://youtu.be/t2vQAmySTfw There's Anbuley's "pushing African music" even further into the future: http://youtu.be/K2kO6kQPOrk Nuru Kane (born Papa Nouroudine Kane, in Dakar) has got a new record out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEUd2isYnAg New video for Ian Kamau as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ8ndbaaZ7w Marques Toliver & The Sometimes in the studio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saT7YgnRHaE Zakwe gets help from Danger and Zuluboy on 'Bathi Ngiyachoma': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vInChgARZYo And Danish duo Okapii sent us through their new video for 'Don't mind the rain', recorded in Barbados: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqYZLQNHNfo

Let's start with two club tracks. It's Friday after all. Above is a collaboration between Boddhi Satva (from the Central African Republic) and Oumou Sangaré (from Mali) who together recorded this video in Bamako. You could dance to it. And a re-edit of the video for London trio LV's (with help from South African Okmalumkoolkat) 'Boomslang' track:  http://youtu.be/XrMllNS86_Q http://youtu.be/Ws-x_JTaeJA The next video for Fore's 'C'est pas bon' tune blends echoes from Zimbabwe (which Fore calls home), Mali (sample by Amadou and Mariam) and Nigeria (where Andrew Dosunmu is from; the visuals for the video are lifted from Dosunmu's 2011 film Restless City). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71jXoHxgE8M Here's German producer Mark Ernestus remixing Malian Ben Zabo (you know we're fans of his work): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zISLtdZGsj4 'Voir sombrer ses fils' is a collaboration between Burkinabé rapper Art Melody (who's dropping a fantastic new record next month; we'll remind you about it when it's out), Joey Le Soldat and DJ Form. Akwaaba has the details. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcxO6hiylw8 This video was recorded in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and produced in Sweden. Marksmen's EP is following soon. "Port Elizabeth Rap in outer space": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHN2GNGZ0uY A new film to watch out for is "La Cité Rose" (here's the trailer; French release is scheduled for next month). The film's soundtrack includes contributions by French artists Soprano, Sexion d'Assaut and Youssoupha. Here's a first out-take: http://youtu.be/JIBJWZb_u1Y Lesotho-based emcees Isosceles and Futuristic join forces as Olive Branch. 'Stat Quo' (video below) is a track off their project by the same name, available here. http://youtu.be/hOqTU8PjCCU A new video for Ghanaian hip-hop artist M.anifest (who you now also know as a football fan): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZsIgG97abY And finally, here's a record to look forward to: Dan Auerbach (of Black Keys fame) produced Niger-born Bombino's second international solo record (to be released on Nonesuch Records soon). The teaser, to say the least, sounds promising... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzBpSclwhsM ...if you like guitar sounds, of course. Dan Auerbach is a busy man, it seems, having also produced Valerie June's upcoming record. But more about her in another post.

Post by Addis Rumble * “Ethiopia is an island,” Vincent Moon explains. The French filmmaker has been on the road for four years now travelling and filming music and spiritual rituals across the globe and releasing them through his Petites Planètes label. 2012 saw him spending three months in Ethiopia exploring and recording Easter in Gonder and the sounds of Merkato among other things – either alone or with sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard (who we recently interviewed). We caught up with Vincent after he left Ethiopia and asked him to reflect on the struggles and rewards of filming in the country, his explorations of sacred music and trance in Ethiopia and how his nomadic life is transforming him into a chameleon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN_ynmOZ5Jk You have been traveling around the world documenting musicians for a few years now. What made you come to Ethiopia? It’s a decision I took one day after exchanging mails with Danish fellow artists Jacob Kirkegaard and Malene Nielsen, who already knew the country. They wanted to collaborate on a project made there, I jumped on the idea as I dreamed for a long time of Ethiopia, and I decided to go. When I take a decision I usually never come back on it, so it was stuck in my mind. In the end Malene didn’t come and we made a very different project with Jacob but life took us on this path. How does your work typically take form when coming to a new country? Where do you start and do you have any common themes that you explore across the countries you are visiting? Usually I travel with a few contacts in a country, some people who have been in touch with me maybe in the past years (showing my films, or just exchanging ideas about music and cinema) and with whom I kept in touch and proposed them to produce some local films in their own city, country. I never work with professionals and I am always more inclined towards people who have never done anything like this – same for sound recording actually, I tend to ask local people to record the sounds of a shooting and I explain them on the spot what to do with it. So to collaborate with Jacob was definitely a very different challenge. But as for me coming to Ethiopia in the first place, this time I had almost no contacts at all in the country and I thought maybe a bit too optimistically that I would find them there. Well, things went a bit more complicated! I arrived in the country two months before Jacob and went to explore many parts, the north, the east, the south. And I ran into so many problems it was almost like a joke. I really had a terrible time for a while there, until things started to get more harmonized. I didn’t have many plans beforehand anyway in terms of recording, all I knew was that, as I was familiar obviously with the Ethiopiques releases made by Falceto, I wanted to avoid anything related to it and dig into the unknown for me. Apart from Alemu Aga with whom we made a very nice recording (and God how wonderful this man is, it was a light in my trip), all the other ‘music’ I recorded there, I had no idea they were existing just a few weeks ago. There was maybe a common theme, which is something I am researching in all my travels now – exploring the sacred music, and relationships of the people with any religious rituals. What was your approach to filming in Ethiopia? How much of your work done in Ethiopia was planned beforehand, and how much of it was improvised? As said before, I don’t like to plan much as I give myself a lot of time in the places I visit. In Ethiopia, I didn’t plan anything specific, and I found all my subjects there on the spot. This is apart from Alemu Aga maybe, whose record I loved so much and which sounded from another planet, so I contacted him as soon as I arrived and proposed him a film – I waited to the end of my trip and the coming of Jacob to make it sound fantastic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5obSvevmoCM The Gamo people from Addis I met early on and planned a recording later, again waiting for Jacob to arrive to make it better. While hanging out at the Taitu Hotel and talking with some funny explorers there (I love Taitu for the incredible characters you bump into), I met some people who told me about the Zar practices still happening in the north and about the exorcism rituals in Addis Ababa. It’s through Japanese ethnographer Itsushi Kawasse that I heard about the Lalibalocc tradition. I planned to visit Gondar during Easter and wanted to make a recording of the ceremony, which I did in this magnificent Debre Berhan Selassie church. I went to Harar with the intention of reaching the Zikris rituals and I met there with Amir Redwan who opened the doors of its ‘nabi gal’ for me. And it’s Jacob Kirkegaard who told me about the fabulous sounds we could record in Merkato. All in all, you could say it was often very much improvised on the spot, with some intense researches made the days before in the same area. How is filming in Ethiopia different from of some of your other recent destinations? To put it simply, so much more complicated! Ah, I laugh about it now but at the time, it was driving me crazy. Since then I have been traveling through Ukraine and the North Caucasus of Russia recording ancient music, and it’s been such a contrast, so easy on everything, that I looked back to those three months spent in Ethiopia with a very different feeling. In Ethiopia, people didn’t care at all about being recorded. Most of the musicians I ran into were so pretentious and asked for so much money to perform (I never paid any musicians before for the recordings, so the contrast was a bit tough) that I was feeling very awkward – I didn’t have any money to give them, being completely broke myself (bad idea, you can travel being broke in many places around the world, but not in Ethiopia), and the simple fact of paying someone to perform was something I avoided always to keep a ‘true’ relationship to the musicians. Was I wrong? Maybe. So I paid most of the people I filmed in Ethiopia. Did they play better because of the money? I don’t think so. Did it create a weird relationship on my side? Most of the time, but it’s my own fault. I remember this quote from Michel Leiris: “Africa does not need me.” Well, Ethiopia didn’t need me! For outsiders coming to Ethiopia the first time, Ethiopia often seems like a unique, closed and secretive society with strong traditions difficult to understand and interpret. What was your experience like? Could you get access to the subjects, places, and ideas you wanted to work with? Ethiopia is an island in my mind, that’s how I see the country – being so cut off from its neighbors because of its mountainous land, developing a unique culture in Africa and so on... We know the story now. It’s a fascinating place, incredibly beautiful and with such unique traditions, I was quite blown away. I didn’t find it hard to access at all, people being very open although complicated to deal with sometimes. As long as you keep in mind that spirituality here still has a strong meaning, you can navigate easily and spend a fabulous time immersed in the culture. As I said, my only difficulty in terms of shooting was that almost no musicians was interested in what I wanted to do. I completely understand it although I suffered a lot from it. But you know... the eternal faranji paradox. Your films from Ethiopia are quite an eclectic mix – from the sounds of Merkato via the begegna of Alemu Aga to the polyphonic singing of the Gamo and Dorze tribes etc. Do you have any favorites among your films done in Ethiopia? Maybe two favorites. The most beautiful experience shooting was the Fasika (Easter) night in Gonder. I was alone and wanted to access the church for the ritual, I tried to get some contacts in town the days before but all of them were so unreliable that I dropped them and just went by myself, late afternoon. I was there before anybody, and little by little the church started to get filled with priests and so on. All of them were surprised to see me and asked me what I was doing, I just said I was curious, that I was a catholic who wanted to switch to orthodoxy. Little by little over four hours I gained their confidence by looking and smiling at each of them and then at one moment of the night I took my camera out of my bag. Nobody then asked me what I was doing, if I was making a film or anything like that. They just took me with them until the end of the night. It was a very powerful experience, and a very beautiful film although anybody who knows about the church in Ethiopia will probably look at it without any interest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0-D3BbDhAM The second favorite recording was with Tilahun, the Lalibela singer. I got his contact through Kawasse, I called him and he asked for so much money that we couldn’t find an agreement. Two days later he calls me back and says he is in Addis, ready to record. I ask him to share a coffee with me, and bargain with him, smashing the table, saying this will be one of the most important moment of our lives. He is a beautiful soul, very quiet and he gets my point even though I used the aggressive method. He leaves and I realize I even forgot to ask him to sing! I don’t know at all how good he is. Very early next morning we are with Jacob in the dark streets of Addis, following this tall shadow going from one house to another, wondering why the hell did we woke up so early. He starts finally to sing in front of a door, his voice reaches such heights that we all shake. Maybe the most beautiful voice I ever recorded. Several of your films from Ethiopia focus on the mix of music, religion and rituals, e.g. the Orthodox Easter ceremony in Gonder, the sufism tradition in Harar and exorcism rituals at Entoto Maryam. Was this a specific objective from your side or the result of Ethiopia being a very religious society? I enjoyed very much Ethiopia being a strong spiritual place, but my choice to make such recordings already started in my recent researches on religious rituals, on relationships between music, trance and so on. I already made some films on Zar ceremony in Cairo (although there it’s a quite different story), filmed various sufi rituals in Indonesia, recorded trance rituals amongst afro-brazilian religions, made many experiences with shamanism and so on in Colombia or the Philippines. It’s a personal spiritual quest which is maybe my main objective in life nowadays. When the conversation turns to Ethiopia, most non-Ethiopians still think of famine and long-distance runners. What is the first thing that comes to your mind? Nowadays when I think back I remember a country so unique in its culture that it has no equivalent in the world. And I really wish I can go back there soon, and explore more of the southern part of it, the richness of its animism and so on. Also comes back to mind this extreme tension between a culture so rich, a nature so beautiful, and an economy so poor that it really made you seriously question the way we want things to evolve in such a place. What started your move from doing the Take Away Shows of indie musicians (and others) to recording traditional music across the globe through the Petites Planètes series? Curiosity, to put it simply. I can’t stop moving and doing something else, it’s more a sickness than anything else. 4 years ago I was still in Paris, still recording indie music, and I ended up homeless by accident and started to travel, invited in various places around the world. At first I continued to record indie music, in Chile, in Argentina, but then little by little I was more and more drawn into traditional music, ancient singings, sacred music and so on. It’s a very natural move I think for someone who travels, you leave your culture little by little, not from one day to another, and start to adopt other cultures for a short period of time. You become a sort of chameleon, your personality changes everyday and life appears as a game, a new adventure all the time. And what keeps you motivated now after years on the road – the need to document and archive musical heritage, eagerness to explore the world, restless? A mix of all this, but especially the feeling of being younger and younger everyday living such a life. There is no tomorrow, just the excitement of being with people you didn’t know anything about 5 minutes before and having an intense experience. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfqm7fDxmEY * This is a slightly edited version of an interview originally published by Addis Rumble. We've been long-time followers and admirers of Vincent Moon's work (and featured some of it here on the blog before, notably his collaboration with Femi Kuti, Brazilian artists and Egyptian muezzin Saeed Khaled) so we're grateful Addis Rumble allowed us to cross-post it. More of Vincent Moon’s films from Ethiopia are available here, here or here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bogqBbx-33o Friday/Weekend Bonus Music Breaks got side-tracked a bit lately because of the Afcon fever. Good times were had by all. Let's pick up the thread though. Here are 10 music videos you might have missed over the past weeks. Burkina-American Ismael Sankara (remember Mikko's write-up about Ismael's surname and possible affiliations) released a new video: above. Tyler the Creator-Yonkers-style, Elom 20nce's masks imagery, swag lyrics, stir, et voilà. Neat beats. More diaspora music: Nina Miskina (who was part of the Brussels-based Congolese Héritage project) seems to have put her theatre acting on the back burner to focus on her musical career. Here's a first video for 'Un verre de plus', taken from her debut EP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n1CHwgePDI Another Belgian-Congolese artist is Coely. When footballer-and-aspiring-record-label-manager Vincent Kompany says we should like her, we'll like her: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsyezFSaOAw There's a high-profile (and heavily sponsored) electronic music festival happening in Cape Town, South Africa this weekend. Surprised not to find good old synth-duo Tannhäuser Gate on the bill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skGk3s4zMfw Originally from Bangui, Central African Republic, Idylle Mamba now lives and works in Cameroon. This new video blends all kinds of styles: http://youtu.be/GcBcVkkp20s Also repping Cameroon (via the Netherlands) is Ntjam Rosie. From the video below, it looks like she's taking a break from her previous "soul jazz" work: http://youtu.be/lShAyHunUdU More funky rock courtesy of the Senegalese Daara J Family (they've been around for a while), vintage dancing and 'celebrating': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewVzhnbxmGQ This acoustic session by Gasandji and her band made me sit up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBNJFlAkms8 Cuban jazz pianist Omar Sosa has a new record out. He presented and talked about it at WNYC radio studios recently: a tribute to Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, while channelling the "Eggun" spirits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_FcHcEJCUI And finally, this portrait by Vincent Moon of muezzin Saeed Rifai Ali Khaled in Cairo. Watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-vfT_FKriY

On display this month at the Centro Cultural Franco-Moçambicano in Maputo are Mozambican photographer Mário Macilau's portraits he made of elderly people all over the continent (Nigeria, Congo, Mozambique, Cameroon, Kenya, Mali, etc.) during the year 2012. The title of the series is “Esquecidos” (Forgotten). In a short email, Mário Macilau explained his project:

A number of studies indicate that the average life expectancy has increased in the last decades. The implementation of technology, agriculture, medicine and sanitation have contributed to this phenomenon. As a result, this significant part of the population is reaching an age that does not permit this population to participate in labour nor to contribute to the production of everyday activities and self-maintenance. The growth of the population over sixty-five years – the age of retirement – is only increasing to such an extent that the elderly population might constitute half of the entire European population in the coming twenty years. Could ageing thus be understood as a blessing?

In affluent societies, the demands of the high-performance labour that is paired with the increasing life expectancy, a culture of care homes has been put in place. Elderly members of the family are placed in these homes under care of professionals who are often strangers to these vulnerable groups. Care homes are part social club, dispensaries and hospices.

This culture of displacement stands in contrast with social values of the traditions of living together and growing old in one homestead, whereby senior members of the family were cared for by their offspring. Such cultures can still be found in rural areas and some parts of African countries.

* "Esquecidos" runs until 5 March 2013 at the Centro Cultural Franco-Moçambicano.

Nigerian photographer Jide Odukoya's portfolio offers an exceptional insight into the social fabric of Lagos. His Facebook page documents fashion events, open mic 'happenings' and weddings, while his official website reveals focused street photography series, such as 'ADay in the World (Creek Road Market)', 'Kids in Makoko', 'Lazy Obalende' or 'The Business of Worship'. As part of our "favorite photographs" series, we asked Odukoya to pick his 5 favorite shots, and share some words about how and where the images were made.

Recently I was selected to be a part of the Invisible Borders Trans-African Photography Project, which involved photographers, visual artists and film makers. Every year this collective welcomes new participants who travel through five to six countries in Africa all together in a van with the aim of telling African stories (by Africans) and building inter-relationships amongst participating artists and artists in countries visited. This year we travelled from Nigeria through Cameroon and Gabon before heading back to Lagos, Nigeria. The image above is one of the photographs I took in the process of passing through the muddy border village of Ejumoyock. It shows local villagers trying to pull out our van at Ejumoyock on our first night in the rain forests of Cameroon. I particularly like this photograph because it reminds me of the first of four nights we spent here trying to pull our van across roughly ten kilometres of severely muddy forest pathways. It was a tough experience for me; we slept in the van for five days and engaged only with the nearby village boys and the forest ants who kept us company through the night in the cold forest. These boys had just found a new job of helping stuck vehicles out of the forest. Due to land issues between the Nigerian and Cameroonian governments, the road which connects the south of Nigeria to the west of Cameroon has been left unattended to for years. The contract had just been awarded to a Chinese construction company which just recently began working on the road. The scene is one I would never forget in a hurry.

The following image is one I really love from the series Nigerians in Libreville, a documentary I did in Gabon which explores the paradoxical stories of Africans living on African soil, but in countries other than their respective native countries. There have been reported incidents of xenophobic discrimination and socio-political nightmare. A number of Nigerians who fled Nigeria during the Biafran war are now resident in Gabon. There are also others who arrived travelling through a deadly sea in search of a promised greener pasture. Most would agree that the economy of Gabon is far better than Nigeria while some, entrapped in circumstances far beyond their control, feel there is no place like home. Their stories recount their experiences; the dangers of migrating through the sea, challenges of starting a new life in a francophone country, a frictional relationship with the authorities, and the threatening fear of returning back to their homeland as empty as when they came.

I met Daniel on the 4th day we got into Gabon while still doing a street walk round a nearby market close to where we stayed. He saw me with my camera and was happy. For the first time I met someone who understood English and I asked to take a shot. Libreville is a photophobic city and people would readily shy away at the sight of a camera. I got into conversation with Daniel and got to know he was also a Nigerian. He told me how he had been managing his small business as an ice cream seller and how he wished to return to Nigeria later in December. I later returned days after our first meeting to take this shot of him. Although content with his current work and status, he says it’s time for him to visit his homeland Nigeria since he left as a child 23 years ago.

As part of my daily work on the trip, I documented the daily lives of Gabonese on the country's coast line. I came across this French man playing with the kids on the beach. This brings to mind the long-time relationship between France and Gabon, as noted by a Gabonese who said it’s much more difficult for somebody from a neighbouring country to come into Gabon than a visitor from France. Interestingly, it had been rather tedious for our team to get Visas into the country.

Next is one of my favourites from the Invisible Borders trip. While coming back from the trip, travelling several kilometres during the night through hilly and mountainous landscapes of Cameroon, we got to a village called Tiben as the day broke. Tiben has a very beautiful scenery and was very chilly with the clouds at sea level. I quickly grabbed my camera and ran down towards the hill. As I tried to capture the awesome spectacle, this girl appeared on my viewfinder out of nowhere. I was astonished! I never thought any human being could be living in that region, let alone a little girl.

French language proved a painful barrier as I tried to ask the girl some questions and have some small talk. She didn’t understand English either, I thought. She walked away. I now focused on the beautiful scenery. I am proud to be an African, living in a place called Africa.

It is hard to reflect objectively on the proliferation of Churches in Nigeria. There are many reasons for this, the major one being the manner in which spirituality has formed a sensitive layer in the subconscious of Christians, especially in the country's southern parts. The proliferation touches on media, the economy, and social structure. Many have attributed this quest for a better life to underdevelopment and poverty, but it is difficult to assume this lies at the crux of the growth and prosperity of churches. When I began to photograph the evidences of Christian life in Port Harcourt (where I currently live), I wanted to discover the subtleties inherent in Port Harcourt’s Christianity. I was interested in the way invitations stood out, how church leaders (with varying titles) used their posters not simply as advertisement but as self-aggrandizement.

It bothered me to question how these churches, in their numbers, and with thousands of worshippers, struggled for space, credibility and relevance. Was it really a struggle? Was there some unity in the similarity of posters, of postures, of worship? I understood, immediately, that I was trying to capture a landscape that captures attention through words and images. Out of all the images, the one above particularly stands out as it appears to have been inspired by Prison Break, the popular American prison series.

* Jide Odukoya resides in Lagos, Nigeria. His website: http://www.jideodukoya.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4bYGpOWoQ4 Let's start our weekly round-ups of new music videos this year with some bangers. Representing Congo this week, rapper (and professional dancer) Dinozord: above. Next up, there's new music and visuals from Art Melody (representing Burkina Faso): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J44uVvBsMF0 "Lefteneh" by Bajah and the Dry Eye Crew -- by the way, about the meaning of that Sierra Leonean "dry eye": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCIhVFmNNPQ Ty (born Ben Chijioke -- Nigerians claim him) has a new video out as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G1vb5KuCp4 From Liberia (Alloysious Massaquoi) and Nigeria (where Kayus Bankole's parents come from) via Scotland (Graham Hastings's place): Young Fathers: http://vimeo.com/57104451 Lee Fields played a set in a Dutch church last year. Yes, we'll feature all of his videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tFQRtzRAgA Another acoustic performance; by France-based Oxmo Puccino (né Abdoulaye Diarra): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcngLeBJckM Judging by the rate at which Laura Mvula is putting out quality videos recently, it seems she's intent on making the year 2013 hers. We don't mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5akYnlwubDo And in response to what's happening in Mali, Fatoumata Diawara and her label have brought together a big group of musicians to record the song below. Artists performing on the track include (I'm copy-pasting) Amadou and Mariam, Oumou Sangare, Bassekou Kouyate, Vieux Farka Toure, Djelimady Tounkara, Toumani Diabate, Khaira Arby, Kasse Mady Diabate, Baba Salah, Afel Bocoum, Tiken Jah, Amkoullel and Habib Koite. Bruce Whitehouse's got the details on the meaning of it all; and wonders where the Tuareg musicians are: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elwA7SHM8_U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=301NtFqV5SI Here's a resolution for the new year: to feature more Togolese pop. If you don't know who the above Toofan duo is, google "Cool Catché". Kuduro on the other hand we can never feature enough -- this is a new video for MC Maskarado: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr1SCxvUrlQ Don't miss this week's NPR piece on kuduro by the way, "The Dance That Keeps Angola Going"; they interviewed AIAC's Marissa Moorman for it. Next, from Uganda: Vampino and friends (arriving "from far") visit a rural village; a party ensues. A different kind of dance-hall/pop/(add style): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q0mUEuMLQM Gambian artists Xuman, Djily Bagdad, Tiat and Ombre Zion take a stand 'Against Impunity': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7I81EK-_JE South African Tumi Molekane directed a video for MC Reason (who is signed on Tumi's record label): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuQ-jg0LdLA Talking about labels...here's a new video for South African rapper Kanyi. The story is funny-sad, but probably quite real too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WRqq1SPeIc A video for Fatoumata Diawara's song about men trying their luck crossing the Mediterranean to get to Europe. Here's a translation of the lyrics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piXLHdmAEMQ Malian trio Smod (remember them) is all for 'a united Mali': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv8cco3CSz4 Wonderful new video for Asa's Bond-esque 'The way I feel': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZy8cE4yQ74 And one of the albums I've been listening a lot to this year -- more about that next week -- is Carmen Souza's Kachupada. This is her version of Cape Verdean artists Humbertona and Piuna’s 1970s classic 'Seis one na Tarrafal': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOnAAEBROlM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5f_KAkAIWI Kuduro pioneer Sebem (fresh out of prison; he was in for repeated traffic violations, from what I understand) has a new video out (above); the clip's rural setting is surprising, given kuduro's over-all urban flow. Next, a Senegalese collaboration between Djibril Diop and Aida Samb: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_vLab3fiTg Kenyan Jeraw draws inspiration and images from local blockbuster film 'Nairobi Half Life': http://youtu.be/CPe-ADtSq1c A new video for Belgian-Congolese (but mostly Bruxellois) rapper Pitcho -- taken from his new album Rendez-Vous avec le Futur: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQuzRRzgheY Earl Sweatshirt wrote a "letter" to his South African dad Keorapetse Kgositsile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCbWLSZrZfw From Lesotho, a new video (shot in Mozambique) for Kommanda Obbs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_t_rtkVmP8 London-based, Douala-born "one-man band" Muntu Valdo has a new video -- not sure why YouTube won't allow you to embed it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaM1_CmxjXk Swiss-Ghanaian singer/improvisational musician Joy Frempong "Oy"; you already know we've been following her work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4S6Z-9qR6U And two acoustic sessions to wind down. Guinea-Conakry-born, Canada-residing Alpha Yaya Diallo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZatR8sZMf8 And Cape Town-based Beatenberg (whose debut record 'Farm Photos' you should give a listen as well): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmVClLSAu3c Et voilà, back on Monday!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvF-sDfO_wU The Professor is a fiction film by Tunisian director Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud. Synopsis: Tunis 1977. Khalsawi Khalil, Professor of Constitutional Law is responsible to defend the official State's position in a period of tension between the government and the Interntional League for Human Rights. One day, Khalil learns that Houda, one of his students with whom he has an affair, has been arrested in the south of the country with two Italian journalists who came to investigate on strikes in the country's phosphate mines. Al Djazira ("The island"), an Algerian short directed by Amin Sidi-Boumédiene which recently won "Best Film from the Arab World" at the 2012 Abu Dhabi film festival. Below's the trailer. Follow the film's Facebook page for updates. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUXxBaJOSRM Al-khoroug lel-nahar ("Coming Forth by Day") is an Egyptian short film written and directed by Hala Lofty (her debut) about a mother and daughter looking after their stroke-ridden husband/father. A first review in Variety sounds promising: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD6O8Q78yi4 The film Malagasy Mankany ("Legends of Madagascar") by Haminiaina Ratovoarivony premiers in Antananarivo later this month. It's a drama-comedy-cum-road-movie about Malagasy youth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPo6VyFHchc Technically not a film yet to come, but an interesting campaign of films used for the 2012 Dream City event on public art in Tunis last September. "The project aim[ed] to develop and support artistic creations in public spaces in order to promote the democratisation of art and social change among ordinary citizens." They made a series of beautiful teaser videos in different colours: pink (with a Tinariwen soundtrack), red, green, yellow, and a general trailer (with a Massive Attack soundtrack): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cP2VECDJCE La charia ou l’exode, réfugiés du Mali ("Sharia or exodus, the refugees from Mali") is a documentary by Arnaud Contreras who interviewed Malians on the run for violence in their home towns/villages, "none of [whom] mention the destruction of the mausoleums of Timboctou": http://youtu.be/BmanPUXicpQ In Sen Kaddu: Autour des cinémas de Dakar, Momar Diol and Thomas Szacka-Marier interview people in Dakar about their most cherished memories of cinema and cinema halls. This project was done at the occasion of Dak'Art Off 2012, the Biennial of Contemporary African Art in Senegal. http://vimeo.com/42152002
Le Maréchalat du Roi Dieu ("The Marshalcy of King-God") is a documentary by Nathalie Pontalier, who tells the story of André Ondao Mba from Libreville, Gabon. Mba shares a house with his two sons but he is ill, suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. He has been painting murals for over twenty years -- containing messages and mythologies that remain opaque to many.
And LUX is a film by French photographer Sébastien Coupy about rural Burkina Faso. It's a collage of his photos, with commentary and voice-overs by Burkinabés about the many meanings and the scarce availability of electricity, "lumière", light, LUX. A first fragment here, and a second below: http://vimeo.com/49025586

http://vimeo.com/50370012 Documentary filmmakers are better at spreading the word about their new work on the web compared to fiction directors, or there's just more documentary films being made. (Or I'm looking in the wrong places.) Here are ten more films to watch out for. First, four fiction features: A Menina dos Olhos Grandes ("The girl with the big eyes") is based on a popular story from Cape Verde: a "creole girl" returns from Europe to her homeland due to the sudden death of her father where she will come up against an unfamiliar reality and ghosts of her past. Trailer above. (Also check this older trailer to get another feel of the film.) Tourbillon à Bamako ("Swirl in Bamako"). Synopsis: A wild chase in search of a lottery ticket through the streets of Bamako. Film Details:

• Country: Mali
• Director: Dominique Philippe
• Production: Babel Films
• Cast: Chek Oumar Sidibé, Mama Koné, Fatoumata Coulibaly

The film's Facebook page has a trailer.
A Lovers Call is a short film by Najma Nuriddin about Aasim, a young single Muslim man living in Washington DC who falls for a poet named Kala. The film is filed in the portfolio of Nsoroma Films, a US-based production house "of the African diaspora ... dedicated to telling organic stories." Here's a trailer: http://youtu.be/XtH6w5iR6lI Elelwani is a new film by South African director Ntshavheni wa Luruli (whose film The Wooden Camera was awarded the Crystal Bear for Best Youth Feature at the Berlinale in 2004). Selling-line: "the world's first Venda film": http://youtu.be/ZXCJR7MhvKg And six documentaries (made/in-the-making): The Engagement Party in Harare is a 35mins documentary film by British/Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Piotrowska "about post-colonial identities at the Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe." The film features the HIFA organizers as well as Zimbabwean artists such as Raphael Chikukwa (photo left) and Tsitsi Dangaremba. No trailer yet.
Rwagasore: Life, Struggle, Hope is a film by directors Justine Bitagoye and Pascal Capitolin and producer Johan Deflander about Burundi's struggle hero Prince Louis Rwagasore who became the country's first Prime Minister, and was murdered a few days after the formation of his government, on October 13, 1961. According to the film's website "the film [was] shown during the [2012] cinquentenaire festivities on July 1st at the Burundi embassy in Moscow. This mainly for the Burundese diaspora in Russia." Here's a first trailer for I Sing the Desert Electric, a short film about electronic based musical phenomena occurring from Mauritania to Northern Nigeria. Cue sahelsounds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82Y3kpXgT6o Underground/On the Surface revolves around a new underground musical genre known as Mahraganat Shaabi which despite being rejected by the mainstream has become very popular with the youth in the streets of Cairo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE7oo9PLm20 (Related: don't miss Afropop Worldwide's recent feature on Cairo's musical "underground".) Mother of the Unborn is Nadine Salib's first feature length documentary and looks at the challenges faced by Egyptian women unable to conceive, and subsequently face rejection by their families and stigmatization by their communities. The film tells stories of several childless women who navigate their world of rural Egyptian myths, legends, habits and traditions surrounding childbearing and infertility: http://vimeo.com/45878733
And in 1962: De l'Algérie française à l'Algérie algérienne ("From French Algeria to Algerian Algeria") Malek Bensmaïl and Marie Colonna revisit French and Algerians' moods and expectations during the seven weeks that separated the official France-Algeria cease-fire on March 19, 1962 from the first elections for the National Algerian Assembly. The film's website has a trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mkrhoILrK0 Azonto and its growing global reaches... Somebody should write a book about it. 'Tribal Azonto' above: Ghana via the UK -- sampling South African electro? Next, from Accra proper, a rap convo with Trebla, Hotjam, EL and Stargo (and many other cameos): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMCpxdneQCw Rap from a different kind and country: here's a new video for Milk Coffee & Sugar (that's Edgar Sekloka and Gaël Faye): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4PYgENqB_k Nigerian D.i.s Guise's track 'Mr Bambe' now has a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ExBP_S5FAQ And one last rap. The video is older, but Tanzanian collective X Plastaz released the long (and excellent) Shule mixtape this week. Ziggylah's 'Bang Bang' is on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhFISb_gcpI 'Mabone' is a dance tune by Lesotho-born Refiloe "Chocolate Soul" Thoahlane. It comes with a glorious video: http://youtu.be/TqPL73vk9Dg We haven't included too many Mozambicans here recently. A pretty wild video for Dama do Bling's poppy 'Champion': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2S7FyTUxb4 More pop, from Uganda come Radio and Weasel (remember their 2010 classic 'Heart Attack Vuvuzela' -- they've upped the production quality of their music videos since): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZpinLkjyi8 Meanwhile in London: DJ Yoda, Afrikan Boy and Soom T throwing a party on a bus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azvirURDc1 And Melina Matrsoukass shot the video below in Jamaica for Chicago dance-hall duo Wild Belle's (brother and sister in fact) track 'Keep You'. It has elicited some interesting YouTube comments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLKOmXm6W3s H/T's to @zach_rosen, @TIholie (via @nemesisinc), @ianbirrell, @Tribalmagz, @25toLyf and @Birdseeding.

http://vimeo.com/53588479 Ladies' Turn is a documentary film by Hélène Harder about a team of Senegalese women who fight to follow their passion for football "all the way from small, neighborhood fields to the tournament finals in Dakar’s newest stadium." More details on the film's website. Trailer above. For screening dates, check on their Facebook page. The Curse is a short film by British-Moroccan director Fyzal Boulifa, based on an anecdote told by his Moroccan mother and shot in the rural part of Chichaoua, "a little nowhere town" on the highway between Marrekech and Essauoira. Sight&Sound has an interview with Boulifa. The film is an allegorical tale about female sexuality, male dominance and gender relations in contemporary rural Morrocco, and Boulifa, backed by the UKs BFI & Channel 4 is surely heading towards a feature film next. The lead role is played by Ibtissam Zabara (left).
The Shore Break by Ryley Grunenwald (director) and Odette Geldenhuys (producer) follows a young rural activist and her 79-year-old headman in their joint fight to defend their family’s land (located in Pondoland, South Africa) after a government decision to allow the construction of a highway through their ancestral lands, which gives an Australian mining company access to their titanium-rich and eco-sensitive coastline. Follow the production and funding process on their Facebook page; in the meantime, here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHckNAVmRbo Also about mining, on the other tip of the continent, is Tunisian filmmaker Sami Tlili’s Cursed be the Phosphate, which tells the story of the 2008 revolts in the Gafsa mining basin, and more particularly in the town of Redayef. Tlili suggests these protests were an important precursor to the country's 2011 Revolution: http://vimeo.com/51321241
Mercy Mercy is the latest instalment in what seems to have become a business itself: documentaries on (Ethiopian) adoptions gone wrong. Somewhat grandiose production quote: "Inspired by tales of globalisation such as Iñárritu's Babel, [the film] also draws on the epic style of Fridthjof 
Film's Armadillo." Here's a video interview with Katrine Riis Kjær, the Danish maker of the film. Judging by the few comments on the film's website, it seems to have left first viewers perplexed. No trailer yet.
Kinshasa Mboka Te is a Congolese-Belgian "documentary road-movie" (directed by Douglas Ntimasiemi) set in the streets of Kinshasa, weaving together personal interviews, music and animation: http://vimeo.com/28147224
Sudanna al Habib ("Our Beloved Sudan"), by director Taghreed Elsanhouri, "takes the historical trajectory of a nation from birth in 1956 to its death or transmutation into two separate states in 2011 and within this structure it interlaces a public and a private story. Inviting key political figures to reflexively engage with the historical trajectory of the film while observing an ordinary mixed race family caught across the divides of a big historical moment as they try to make sense of it and live through it" (source: again, the film's Facebook page -- it's remarkable how many films on a smaller budget make good use of this platform). Here's a recent interview with the director. There are a few first reviews available online (here and here).
Maffé Tiga (Peanut Butter Stew) is a short fiction film by Senegalese-Guinean director Mohamed Dione: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXT2ja_7Lxc (If you have some bandwidth to spare, you can watch the film in full here.) We Never Give Up II is the follow-up documentary to a first film by the same title, produced in 2002, which highlighted the exclusion of survivors by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the battle for final reparations by those included. Ten years later, the Khulumani Support Group continues its campaign for comprehensive and inclusive reparations from the South African Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, and from multinationals that aided apartheid. (If you're in Cape Town this month, the documentary will screen at the Baxter Theatre Concert Hall.)
And information about Ode In Blood is sparse for now, but with this kind of synopsis, and a trailer like the one below, it can hardly go wrong. Director is South African Rea Rangaka: http://vimeo.com/52419118