http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUC0L778hTI In no particular order, here are another 10 films -- still in production, recently completed or already making the rounds -- we hope to see one day. All of them documentary films this week. First up, Electrical Rites in Guinea-Conakry, Julien Raout and Florian Draussin's music documentary on the omnipresence, the appropriation and the different roles of the electric guitar in Guinea's musical landscape. Trailer above. Next, Le Chanteur de l'Ombre ("Singer from the shadow") is Yann Lucas's portrait of maloya singer Simon 'Dada' Lagarrigue, "pillar of the culture of Réunion" (film pitch), and the role Dada played in the political and union fights in the French département d'outre-mer during the seventies and eighties: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xseq81_chanteur-de-l-ombre-bande-annonce_shortfilms In Revolution under 5' Rhida Tlili tails a group of Tunisian street artists (Ahl el Kahf) in the wake of the ousting of Ben Ali: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fV_Cp1TWFk&feature=plcp Cinéma Inch'Allah! is a film about four Belgian-Moroccan friends who grew up making movies; the documentary follows the production process of their latest film. Promising trailer in French: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQfhQ7rt0cc The Last Hijack is a film about two Somali cousins -- "both a feature-length documentary and an online transmedia experience, which offer the viewer a unique and original way to explore the story of Somali piracy from different perspectives," according to the production's very serious notes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VUGcQv10Mk La vie n’est pas immobile ("Life isn't immobile") is Senegalese director Alassane Diago's portrait of Houleye Ba, leader of a group of "indignées" women who stand up against their men's decision over what will happen to their land. No English subtitles yet: http://youtu.be/k7KGlMR67dM Arian Astrid Atodji put to film the villagers of Koundi's (East Province, Cameroon) decision to organise a union and to create a cocoa plantation to be able to depend on themselves, very much aware of the riches they sit on. Koundi, Le Jeudi National ("Koundi, National Thursday" -- a reference to the monthly day on which the villagers all work on the development of the plantation) is a film from 2011 but only recently surfaced at international film festivals. As yet, no English subtitles either: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsIS4oJUvP0 In Letters from Angola Dulce Fernandez delves into the lives of six Cubans (men and women) and their relation with, and participation in, the Angolan War for Independence: http://vimeo.com/27842996 Documented over eight years, Afrikaner Girl is Annalet Steenkamp's first feature length documentary. It's a portrait of a South African family (her family) -- four generations of Afrikaners in rural South Africa: http://vimeo.com/44303775 And finally, also set in rural South Africa (Eastern Cape), is Tim Wege's King Naki and the Thundering Hooves. Here's the official trailer, but watch this 12 minute fragment: http://vimeo.com/25417974 Next week: more fiction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QtmTYDnJ7A I'm taking cues from Africa is a Country's contributors this week. First up, Boima dropped by Amsterdam's African Hip-Hop radio's studio and delivered this set. One of the tracks featured on there is 'TOHL' (above) by Togo-born tabi Bonney (real name: Tabiabuè -- father: Itadi Bonney), featuring Fat Trel. I don't believe it was aired on Dutch radio before. Next, Mali-born Abdoulaye Diarra aka Oxmo Puccino (I could have sworn Hinda already featured him in one of the Paris is a Continent posts):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX8Nn2LHjJw Etzia is part of the Swedish women’s dancehall reggae movement Femtastic. This is her most recent 'Same Thing A Gwaan': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcQwvgWNEQA Mikko (he knows his Nordic music) adds: "There's also the more poptastic Serengeti with their new video, or one of their older ones." In 'Izulu Lelam' ("heaven is mine"), Cape Town's Driemanskap family express their trust in a brighter afterlife. This is the first video from their forthcoming second album Hlala Nam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCi3cC0__K0 Then The Weeknd's saccharine 'Enemy' (H/T Dylan) -- Abel Tesfaye likes to quote Haile Selassie, but here he channels Morrissey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3VIh8ZB-M8 Orlando's piece on Hassan Hajjaj's work (later reprinted in The Guardian as a wonderful spread) carried a photo of gnawa-player and Electric Jalaba member Simo Lagnawi together with Paris-based Kora-player Boubacar Kafando. Here's an Electric Jalaba living room gig: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUgvAzpytjw ... and another live performance: the new project "Acoustic Africa: Afropean Women" is a collaboration between Côte d'Ivoire singer and percussionist Dobet Gnahoré, Manou Gallo, former Zap Mama bassist, and Cameroonian singer Kareyce Fotso. Siddhartha wrote a feature on them for The Boston Globe this week (they're performing there). Here they are on stage in Bamako: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXMgGtBv6gk Ugochi plugged her latest music video on AIAC's Facebook wall the other day, calling it "a product of my Naija root and Chicago soul influence". It takes a while before the actual tune starts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNa4fdl5nbI Football player Vincent Kompany -- this is for Sean and Elliot -- is getting into the music business. I read in the local (Belgian) press that he has plans to start up a new music label. Belgian-Congolese Coely already got a phone call: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3f8-oxLXr8 And to wrap up the week: Zambian Zone Fam's new video, shot in Nairobi. They're getting big: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HMt7cp4yLA That's it, back on Monday!

Africa in Motion, Scotland's African Film Festival, kicks off in Edinburgh and Glasgow today. Here's a selection of scheduled films which might as well double as our weekly "10 films to watch out for" series. The festival opens with the debut feature film from South African filmmaker, author and playwright Ndaba ka Ngwane, Uhlanga ("The mark"), set in KwaZulu-Natal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-PiYbhtXDk In Yellow Fever, Ng’endo Mukii explores concepts of skin and race, using a mix of different media and interviews: http://vimeo.com/42048317#at=0 From AIM's "African Films for Children" event: The Pepper Merchant, an episode of the Ethiopian animated children series which follows twins Abeba and Abebe. Below is another example of the many episodes available on the series' YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62LrNMW8asA Two from the short film competition. Moroccan director Lamia Alami's Salam Ghourba ("Farewell exile"), a film from 2011, tells the story of Fatima, waiting for a letter from her husband who has migrated to France: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IZSNwtOsZ8 ...and Who Killed Me, by Tanzanian director Amil Shivji, a short on the life (and death, I presume) of Hassan, a Congolese immigrant in Canada: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LUVlVeiIIQ In the festival's "Arab Spring Documentaries" section, there is Rouge Parole, a work of Elyes Baccar on the uprisings in Tunisia and their aftermath: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtKKzKFh-7c Granny's Flags, a short by Naziha Arebi about Haja Fatma, a mother to eight children, considering freedom in Tripoli during the Libyan Revolution: http://vimeo.com/50601096 Also featuring in the Tripoli Stories series is The Secret Room by Ibrahim Y. Shebani about the caretaker for the National Museum of Libya: http://vimeo.com/50601321 Filed under "African Popular Arts" is Volker Goetze's The Griot, the musician's documentary on contemporary West African oral epics (I'll watch any film which has Mamadou Diouf or Randy Weston as talking heads)... http://vimeo.com/25781073 ...and Twende Berlin ("Let's go to Berlin"), a documentary about Hip Hop group Ukoo Flani's 2010 visit to Berlin -- with some help of Nairobi's Goethe-Institute project BLNRB (you remember their music videos): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0bE2WXbbso Africa in Motion can also be found on Twitter and Facebook. It runs until 2 November. Full programme of scheduled films and events here. Saturday's scholarly symposium looks good too.

On show at the Islamic Cultures Institute in Paris until January, 50 Years of Reflection, is an exhibition of the work of French-Algerian artist Halida Boughriet. It is one of many recent installments in France commemorating Algeria's half-century of independence. Boughriet lives and works in Paris, where she has made videos, created installations, and continues to broaden her photographic portfolio. Below are her 5 favorite photographs, and her comments on how they came into being.

Mémoires dans l'Oublie (Memories in Oblivion)

Photography often borrows its topics from painting, a tradition inherited from Gustave Courbet. The photo series 'Memories in Oblivion' (which was part of the 'How to tame ghosts' exhibition, curated by Bonaventure Soh Ndikung at SAVVY Contemporary gallery in Berlin earlier this year), are images of great historical figures seen through a reversed lens --one that takes ownership of the stigma attached to each of them. This aesthetic approach becomes a ritual and an act of portrayal. It is an approach that is critical of Orientalism, and inseparable from reality and its humanism -- contrary to the Orientalist representations that didn’t see the human, and were mostly concerned with their own projections and lust.

'Memories in Oblivion', the first photo in the series (above), is still part of a work in progress. It is part of a series of portraits of widows who have suffered the violence of the war in Algeria. I was born and raised in France by my Algerian parents, and this period is an intrinsic part of my family’s history. These women in the portraits represent a collective memory: they are the last witnesses. However, when one evokes the war in Algeria, one never thinks about them, mainly because official history, nor popular imagination of the war includes them. However, these widows were very much part of that history, and that war: they have suffered, resisted, lost their husbands. I find them beautiful, regardless of their age, and I wanted, in my project, to help re-include them as a significant part of French-Algerian history in both official and popular imaginaries.

This series also relays the journeys made by these older men and women, rather than a static history in which they remain stuck. Their collective passage from one place to another resonates throughout this series of paintings.

Here, also, I wanted to use the colors within the image and transform them into the subject of the photographs, re-appropriating the surface of the image. Light is very important to my work in these portraits, though I am, of course, interested in the faces of the women and men -- light and colour help draw attention to the depths of history written on their bodies, and the silences surrounding them. I have photographed all of them in the same position: lying on their side, with a sort of aura that falls on them in a relatively dark space. I am inspired here by the orientalist paintings of Ingres, Boucher and Fragonard. I love the contrast between the sensuality, the lasciviousness of their posture and the twilight appearance of the room. The halo reminds me of Bernini sculptures. But my work is a kind of reinterpretation of the 'Great Masters' of Europe who wrote our bodies into the 'western' imaginary; I work with Orientalism, and against it at the same time.

These photographs of retired Algerians, like the one below, were taken in French “Sonacotra” homes (homes for migrant workers, social residences, guest houses, hostels, shelters for asylum seekers, etc.). What the subjects in the photos have in common is that they’re all left to their own. They are the representatives of an era ending.

Maux des Mots (Problems with Words)

The objective of an artist residency in Jijel (Eastern Algeria) in which I took part not too long ago, was first to collect texts on the notion of guilt and to transcribe them in red ink on the surface of a male and female back, meaning two different entities. The intention was to leave a space to speak, to write, somehow, in the form of a quest for redemption, but also towards human existence, its doubts and fears, or to rethink a collective responsibility.

Reflections around this question of guilt have helped me to collect testimonies by artists, playwrights, directors, slammers and poets. In Jijel, I photographed these actors with the help of Mustapha Ghedjati who worked on the calligraphy on the surface of the backs of the actors.

The photos were taken in many different places, including at the edge of the sea, as a purification to wash away the evils of the world. But my choice of photos here is this diptych in which the individuals have their bodies washed by a slight movement of the water, lapping over their nude backs, the ink slowly erasing. The rhyme on the man’s back is more dense than the one on the woman’s. Some changes of color allow for a unification of these two different worlds. The sepia harmonizes both and takes over their reality. This photographic diptych, which is now part of the MAC/VAL collection (located in the Paris commune of Vitry-sur-Seine), is printed on dibond bronze, which again modifies the photographic effect.

Artists have traditionally produced works intimately linked to our collective history. Some of these works were intended to remind viewers of the important role played by those who fought for freedom--this is especially true for those of us who are both French and Algerian. I want my work to be both incisive and engaging; as an artist, I feel that it is important to be a part of how audiences re-shape their memory as they readjust their opinions in light of new information about their history.

Paul Ricœur refers to this ambiguity of the concept of an oeuvre. An oeuvre, a work, is what we do, what we create and what we make of our lives ... what we are. I just know that I have always wanted to work on reality, memory, man. Through art, I want to live my time, my presence. I have been making photographs for 10 years and I hope to make something universal. My multifaceted productions are marked by some violence, informed by my own story and those of others.

http://youtu.be/i1z5W_FZxtA Nigerian-Swedish pop star Dr Alban features in this new St. John's Dance video above. Swedish-Finnish-Gambian (yeh) rapper Adam Tensta is the guy behind the group. (Tensta started with more straightforward rap, but has since found a slightly different sound, as illustrated in this Nollywood-influenced video.) Next, more common Nigerian pop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLA52oWvIvc Your weekly dose of kuduro courtesy of JD, Nagrelha and Rei Panda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pS-Pt6qwMI Jean Grae created this video for 'Kill Screen': http://vimeo.com/50202799 A Sauti Sol & Spoek Mathambo collaboration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA3YV-4YZHI Via okayafrica: Octa Push's 'Mambowrp'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m26ELSIJQVE A dramatic video for new music by Nëggus (repping for Togo) and Kungobram: http://youtu.be/9nd88OkiOTE From Grahamstown, South Africa, the Wordsuntame duo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbzh5rDicz0 A down-beat version of the closing song of Terakaft's new record Kel Tamasheq (from Mali): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdeGj8lBgL8 And a Nomadic Wax moment with Kisangani (Congo) artist Alesh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eczF6vEGtoc Those Nigeria-Finland-Sweden-Gambia connections? That's Mikko. We're back on Monday.

This week Nigeria--yes the country whose history Rick Ross mangled in his latest music video (Ross should have taken lessons from Chinua Achebe)--turned 52 to this week. Here, the "First Lady of Mavin Records," Tiwa Savage sings the national anthem of Nigeria on a Nigerian TV show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXGGzBSaklA London-based Nigerians Afrikan Boy (he used to collaborate with M.I.A.) and Dotstar try their hand at the azonto craze: http://youtu.be/ej4lnFUQIHg And your obligatory dose of Nigerian pop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8h0G3wrH7s Brussels-based rapper Pitcho (his family is from Congo): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8l2KinsGX8 Oddisee (born Amir Mohamed el Khalifa)--father Sudanese; mother African-American--channels Bon Iver: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA5JlvlId6o Either Fokn Bois is still on their mission to get Ghanaians (and the world) to be less serious about religion (remember their "Gospel Porn" album) or they just want attention: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qIIocuquoI Anything we missed?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOQDPR5cR7o 'One Man's Show' is the latest film by Newton I. Aduaka (probably best known for his 2007 film 'Ezra') with Emile Abossolo Mbo as the comedian who has to confront his children and past relationships after hearing he has cancer. (Two more teasers: here and here.) Next, 'Maj'noun' by Tunisian director-cinematographer Hazem Berrabah is "an abstract love story" told through contemporary dance, somewhat inspired by the stories about Qays ibn al-Mulawwah and Layla Al-Aamiriya, and the relation between Louis Aragon and Elsa Triolet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOOGA1uk8xo

'Morbayassa' is director Cheick F Camara's second long-play feature, starring singer Fatoumata Diawara (left). The film follows Bella, a Guinean woman who gets trapped in a prostitution network. Recorded in Dakar, Conakry and Paris, it is in its post-production phase. Here's the crowdfunding page.

Solomon W. Jagwe (from Uganda) calls 'Galiwango' "a 3D Animated Gorilla Film" doubling as "a wildlife conservation effort with a goal of reaching out to the Youth":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY3DkqGWHX8 Another animation film (series for TV), 'Domestic Disturbance' is the work-in-production of Kenyan filmmaker Gatumia Gatumia (who trained in Canada): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmHLR1Db-8c 'Le Thé ou l'Électricité' ("Tea or Electricity") by Jérôme le Maire is a documentary set in the small, isolated village of Ifri, enclosed in the Moroccan High Atlas Mountains. For over three years, the director captured and traced the outlines and arrival of the electricity network in the village: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaG1U0MIw60 'Another Night on Earth' follows the lives of a selection of Cairo taxi drivers during the 2011 Egyptian uprisings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqA3xR0g46M 'Congos de Martinique' is a film by Maud-Salomé Ekila portraying "Congolese" descendants of people who were shipped as slaves to the French Antilles (and Martinique in particular). No English subtitles yet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49c5qRodezQ 'African Negroes' is a short South African documentary about a soccer team that was used as a front for political activities in the small Karoo town of Graaff-Reinet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIHuYl8btYY And 'Into the Shadows' aspires to give insight into Johannesburg's inner-city life, focussing on migrants' lives and talking to different stakeholders: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyaBky73b18 * Our previous new films round-ups: part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.

Among the most striking portraits in South African photographer and filmmaker Sydelle Willow Smith's online portfolio are those taken in the Western Cape, reflecting much of what Cape Town and the wider province stand for: the engaging (solidarity and protest marches; parades; a reportage about Blikkiesdorp, no longer just a "temporary" village echoing the crudest forms of Apartheid-like urban planning), the entertaining (the music and party scenes), and the ugly (simmering xenophobic feelings against foreign migrants). When asked to pick and comment on her five favorite photographs, she sent through the following.

This first photo (above) was taken on the outskirts of Livingstone during Greenpop's Trees for Zambia Project last July. I am always amazed at how keen people are to have their photograph taken, even if you tell them you probably won't be able to get them back a copy. The kids began performing for the camera at their school and we took a couple of fun shots of myself and them; in a moment they relaxed and I snapped, and got the "real" moment I was hoping for -- whatever that means.

Earlier this year I was given a press pass to photograph the J&B Met, a high-end horse racing event in Cape Town. I wondered around in the hot sun thinking of Martin Parr's work. At the end of the day, sunburnt and annoyed with the lavish nature of the event I left. At the entrance a group of promoters were eagerly harassing passers-by and I snapped this picture. I love the balance between the strength of the man and the delicateness of the woman:

In January 2010 I was lucky enough to travel to Diani Beach in Kenya to work on 'Skiza', a cultural exchange project. After that my partner and I decided to go and explore Lamu Island. Off the coast of Mombasa, teeming with Muslim Kenyans, a couple of tourists, and donkeys, this no car tourist haven was fascinating.

Fishermen still use ancient dhal fishing boats, the serenity was incredibly calming. When we left we learnt oil had been discovered off the coast. I am not sure what Lamu is like now.

I am working as an anthropology researcher/photographer on a book by The African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town. I met a woman, Thoka, selling chickens ("nkukus") on Landsdowne Road and got to know some of her chickens soon to be sold for R15-20 a pop, township free-range style.

When I was studying photography at The Market Photo Workshop I used taxis to get from the North of Johannesburg where I grew up to town. Jozi taxis use a sign system. When I moved to Cape Town I was fascinated by the fact that taxis work in a team with a gaatjie who shouts out the route, counts the change (thank god as getting stuck in the front of a Jozi taxi and having to count change sucks). This gaatjie let me hang out with him for an afternoon on his Claremont route, he also explained that he used tik while he was working as the kick made him better at his job of herding potential customers to his taxi.

Visit Sydelle's website and her facebook page to see more of her work.

Here are another 10 films we're hoping to see in the (near) future. First, three "fiction" films. 'Winter of Discontent', a film by director Ibrahim El Batout is set against the backdrop of the 2011 Tahrir Square protests, zooming in on the the lives of activist Amr (Amr Waked), journalist Farah (Farah Youssef) and state security officer Adel (Salah Alhanafy): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1uhGTmGzxY 'Kedach Ethabni' ("How Big Is Your Love") is a film by Algerian director Fatma Zohra Zamoum probing "tradition and modernity" through the lives of a three-generation family in Algiers. An English-subtitled trailer here and an interview with the director here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcBiR3crIIs 'Black South-Easter' by director Carey McKenzie, starring Tony Kgoroge, is set in Cape Town and tells a story of police corruption. I'm told it has a very good soundtrack too. No trailer yet.
And seven documentaries: 'Babylon' is a film by Ismaël Chebbi, Youssef Chebbi and Ala Eddine Slim. In the aftermath of its own revolution, Tunisia received an influx of displaced persons from Libya, who got housed in camps. The film traces, without any voice-over commentary, the construction and closure of one such camp. A fragment: http://vimeo.com/44331700 (Three more fragments here.) 'Noire ici, Blanche là-bas' ("Black here, White there") is an addition to the growing diasporic body of recent and very personal films about the searching for one's roots. Born in Congo to a French father and a Congolese mother, and having moved to France at a young age, Claude Haffner films her own ongoing quest, returning to and visiting relatives in Mbuji-Mayi. No English trailer yet: http://youtu.be/5-oDgv6QAfU Philippa Ndisi-Herrmann is working on a documentary about the development of "Africa's largest port" on the island of Lamu, off the Kenyan coast. We Want Development (but at what cost?) http://vimeo.com/49944202 In 'Our Bright Stars', a film directed by Sidi Moctar Khaba and Frédérique Cifuentes, various people from South Sudan share their expectations of the new nation: http://vimeo.com/48059078 François Ducat and Frank Dalmat have made a documentary about Zimbabwean music band Mokoomba ('d'une rive à l'autre'; "from one [river] bank to the other"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xzMOv5Xsrw (Here's another fragment.) In 'One Day in the Madrassa', filmmaker Youssef Ait Mansour goes on a journey to meet his brother who has chosen to live in a secluded madrassa in the Moroccan desert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Dw0Yw46qU And, also set in Morocco, 'Bahr Nnass' ("Sea of Tears") by director Marouan Bahar is a critical film that follows a seaweed-digging diver as she struggles to make ends meet for her family: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az1aKrDuL1U * Our previous new films round-ups: part 1, part 2 and part 3.

'O Grande Kilapy' ("The Great Kilapy" -- 'kilapy' is Kimbundu for 'scheme', or 'fraud'), the new film by director Zézé Gamboa, portrays the last decade of Portuguese rule in Angola through the story of Joao Fraga (played by Lazaro Ramos): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpwAn7RtEDU The film's facebook page has some clips. Also check this production video for the images and footage that helped the makers recreate the Angolan '70s atmosphere. 'Los Pasos Dobles' ("The Double Steps") by Isaki Lacuesta is set in Mali with most of the dialogue in Dogon and Bambara. The story is somehow inspired by the life of writer and painter Francois Augiéras. An ominous trailer, but Lacuesta's previous poetic work has always been no less than interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMK6qVXNl9g (From the same filmmaker, there is also 'El Cuaderno del Barro', a documentary about the Spanish artist Miquel Barceló, which serves as a counterpart to -- the making of -- 'The Double Steps'.) 'Les Pirogues des Hautes Terres' (literally: "the small boats of the highlands"; the film's official English title is 'Sand's Train') by Olivier Langlois is a made-for-TV production but has been showing at some recent film festivals -- and getting good reviews too. It tells the story of the 1947 Senegalese railroad workers strike which set in motion various anti-colonial movements: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqdTJ__NeGE (For those interested in the making of the film, I came across these snippets.) Kenyan "gangster" movie 'Nairobi Half Life' is making waves in Nairobi at the moment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRjBLAnx2jU 'Jajouka, Quelque Chose de Bon Vient Vers Toi' ("Jajouka, something good comes to you"), is a film by Eric and Marc Hurtado, set in the village of Jajouka (in the Rif Mountains of Morocco) featuring Bachir Attar and his "Master Musicians of Jajouka". The inspiration for the film are the fertility rites led by Bou-Jeloud, a Pan-like "Father of Skins": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3LEuhJC4Dw And then some documentaries. 'Stitching Sudan' is a film by Mia Bittar about four Northern Sudanese characters from Khartoum who set out on a road trip to discover their newly separated country: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFcOqyHJFJw 'Brussels-Kigali' is the latest film by Marie-France Collard. In 2009, a Belgian Court tried in absentia Rwandan Ephrem Nkezabera, one of the leaders of the Interahamwe militias. Collard was able to film the case and the surrounding debates. With victims and persecutors continuously crossing each others' paths (both in Rwanda but also abroad), questions are asked about the possibility of mourning, reparation and justice. No trailer as yet, but you'll find a fragment here.
'La Khaoufa Baada Al'Yaoum' ("No More Fear") is a feature documentary by Mourad Ben Cheikh about the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iHZDVMt0ps In 'La Vièrge, les Coptes et Moi' ("The Virgin, the Copts and Me"), French-Egyptian filmmaker Namir Abdel Messeeh goes to Cairo to investigate the phenomenon of miraculous Virgin Mary apparitions in Egypt's Coptic Christian community. A subtitled fragment, and the trailer (in French, but I'm hopeful it will be soon available in English as well): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j_iMucFW2M And written by Réunion-born Jean-Luc Trulès, “Maraina” is said to be the first 'Opera from the Indian Ocean': it tells the story of ten Malagasy and two Frenchmen who left from Fort-Dauphin, Madagascar for Réunion Island in the 17th century to plant and farm tobacco and aloes. The film traces the opera cast's journey back from Réunion to Madagascar, via France: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95138qb3CxY Bonus: Maraina, the opera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iverlIH__h8 Another ten music videos that we've been playing a lot recently. The first one above. Kudurista Titica's 'Ablua' is a stomper. (Talking about Angolan music, and its history: Marissa Moorman has been consulting Afropop Worldwide for a new series called Hip Deep Angola, the first part of which, 'Music and Nation in Luanda', you can listen to here.) Next, still from Angola, and I have a hunch Titica served as an inspiration for Edy Sex: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB4dNscISJc An older Namibian Overitje pop tune, but Ondarata (remember them) just now put their video for 'Tukutuku' on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjT61lyrYgE Janka Nabay and his 'Bubu Gang', whose live performances have become legendary by now, made this video for 'Somebody': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwr5IkzdjBI From Mali, Ben Zabo's latest music videos are a treat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyHLkc8g4_s As he did with that other project The Busy Twist, Gabriel Benn (alter ego: Tuesday Born) plays around with images recorded in Ghana in this video for 'Kwabena': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5XWRjBkDFw Jupiter Bokondji (from Kinshasa) and his band Okwess International in the studio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2MGsWU-nxc South African Bongeziwe Mabandla has been working hard on completing his debut album. I hear all kinds of influences here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ6R1ixrblM On his website, Ian Kamau (who spent much time travelling and performing in South Africa recently) explains why he wrote 'Black Bodies': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9KTwfrw-cU And because we feature not nearly enough poetry or spoken word, this 'park jam' from Obscur Jaffar (Burkina Faso): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cvSFxtaHok

This music video for Big Frizzle's 'All Black Everything', produced by London-based media house GlobalFaction made me wonder about GlobalFaction's politics, and their use of imagery. I'm struck by the flood of historical images featuring in recent Congo-related music videos. Congo, in many music videos, gets often used as a stand-in for 'Africa' in general. And Big Frizzle's, I'd say, is just one more example. The list is long. Especially but not exclusively, as this video shows, francophone rappers. It shouldn't come as a surprise of course. Photos, documentaries from colonial archives, fiction films and clips of those films started to circulate ever since the arrival of YouTube or DailyMotion, and (music) video makers have been having a ball downloading and pasting them to conscious and less conscious lyrics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugl3IvPB05A One of those photos used here (around the 4:00 minute mark) is a portrait of monsieur 'Nkazi' by Stephan Vanfleteren. It's a contested photo. It graces the cover of a massive tome by Belgian author David Van Reybrouck about Congo's history (published in Dutch some years ago, recently translated in French and German, and soon available in English too). More than two-hundred thousand copies of the book have already been sold. Monsieur Nkazi died before the book came out. The portrait is contested because Nkazi's family claims it reinforces a stereotypical image of "a poor African" and that they didn't consent on having his portrait used for the book. And so they are asking for a compensation. The foreign language versions of the book won't be carrying the photo. Anyway, to return to the video, the use of these images, and the politics behind these kind of videos: I wanted to hear other opinions so I asked the Africa is a Country desk. Sean Jacobs: At first it looks like a parody of Big Black Af (played by Mos Def) and his crew (whose fictitious members included Charli Baltimore, Cannibus and MC Serch as "One-Sixteenth Blak") with its overbearing black global politics and "back to Africa" politics, but it is clear that it is a much harder version of what Kanye West half-heartedly wanted to do with 'Diamonds of Sierra Leone'. Only problem, with much of rap, is that it doesn't offer much else than consciousness and identity politics. Wills Glasspiegel: What's up with the link between massacres in Congo and the idea that he too seems to be down for the use of "any means necessary?" Mikko Kapanen: I have been thinking about this a lot: what is the purpose of political music? I am interested in Hip-Hop in particular. I think at best it can be a soundtrack to political activity or politicising the audiences. Giving them references and pointers to find more information. There are some exceptions to this rule -- I never get tired of sharing this link -- but for the most part music and musicians just direct their audiences towards what they feel is important. Like said, I am specifically talking about political Hip-Hop, but did A Change is Gonna Come communicate hard information or just a mood of certain people in certain time and place? Or Public Enemy? The answer is 'sometimes yes' and definitely the artists themselves have consistently talked politics in the interviews and on stage, but more often than not, the lyrics capture something less easy to describe and that’s why many times these songs can work as a soundtrack to other struggles as well. In my opinion this specific song and video are great. I enjoy them and I have enjoyed music from Big Frizzle before (he’s more of a chorus guy normally) and videos from GlobalFaction whose YouTube channel has at the moment nearly thirteen million views. We must realise that these guys have got a lot of muscle amongst certain audiences regardless of the fact that mainstream media don’t really support them in any way. What the mainstream media do support however is a whole lot of shallowness and I welcome any opposing force to that. That is why I think that there is a massive and massively significant connection between Congo and "by any means necessary". It’s part of the same conscientising campaign these artist are on and I for one applaud that. I would also say that the circles that the artist and video maker represent are involved in other positive movements outside of their primary artistic expression. It's true by the way what Sean says about Bamboozled style Mau Mau anger; one is reminded of it, but I'd go as far as saying that the UK -- I mean people elsewhere are still surprised that there are Black people in the UK -- has a very different context to the US. Of course there's no need to make more general statements, but I have observed in my four long years in Birmingham that the African-Caribbean community in the UK has got its own kind of identity politics and they don't have a similar umbrella as, say, African Americans. All in all as a fan of Hip-Hop -- when it’s done in a progressive spirit -- I always want to support positive movements. It’s easy to be cynical about music like this, but the market pressures around it are strong and they are directing all the attention and money to music that is between empty and hateful and this -- together with many other songs of course -- is a welcome interruption to it. Dylan Valley: I think it's a dope beat and conscious lyrics but it doesn't feel very timely, it feels a little played out and a bit contrived. It reminds me Wole Sonyinka's response to the French Negritude movement: "A tiger doesn't proclaim its tigritude, it acts." And although I'm still nodding my head to this, I prefer Hot Cheetos and Takis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YLy4j8EZIk Boima Tucker: Hot Cheetos and Takis is cute... and real. Plenty youth I've run into out here think that's what passes for a meal. American malnutrition. Let's rap about it. I think I still prefer to read a book (3.5 million views and counting) if we're looking at novelty factor. But if we're talking about impact towards further action? I don't know if any overt political message via popular culture can do that. These days especially, it seems that the subliminal (mainly fear) is what most moves people to action. A video like Big Frizzle's is mostly useful, in our contemporary moment of digital identity politics, for those of us who are going to post it to our tumblrs and twitters. Now your followers can know you're #fashionable #global AND #militant. As far as militant Black British, it's nice to see. Played out identity politics from the US perspective? Perhaps. But not being an insider to contemporary UK culture, it makes me want to find out more, and as Mikko illustrated, maybe collaborate with these folks. And that in itself I guess is a form of movement towards action. I personally can't wait for the video for Somali Malitia Mali Mob's 'Pirates' to drop. The producer told me there will be lots of guns. And all that's why VYBZ KARTEL IS SO ENIGMATIC AND AMAZING!

Born in Lagos, photographer and artist Abraham Oghobase still lives in the Nigerian metropolis. His work has been exhibited in his home country, the UK, France, Finland and has traveled elsewhere as part of the Bamako Photography Encounters Exhibition. Asked about his own "favorite photographs", he sent through these five portraits and explains what brought him to make them:

Untitled

I recently moved to a new area in Lagos called Ajah, an extension of the Lekki peninsula which, not that long ago, was a scantily populated 'border town' on the outskirts of Lagos but is fast becoming one of the many commercial and residential hubs of the city. One day as I was driving close to home I noticed and was drawn to the particular stretch of wall advertisements (a common sight in other highly populated areas of Lagos) that inspired me to feature them in a series of self portraits capturing my almost daily interaction with this particular aspect of the Lagos environment.

Lagos, the commercial capital of the country, is a city of over 10 million people where competition for space is a daily struggle and extends from accommodation to advertising (and everything in between). As such, every available space, from signboards to the sides of buildings, are indiscriminately plastered with hundreds of handbills and posters and scrawled with text advertising the many and diverse services offered by the city's enterprising residents and drivers of a robust large informal economy. Validating the authenticity of the information contained in these ads becomes quite a complex task for the consumer, however, due to the disorganized mode of presentation and often incomplete details. My engagement with one such wall of 'classifieds'  [above] serves to question the effectiveness of such guerilla marketing.

Lost in Transit

This series captures my time spent on a short language course in Berlin, in a city and country so different from my home. It was a confusing, anxious and lonely period as I was also going through other personal transitions at the time; it was also the first time I turned the camera on myself.

With Lost in Transit I explore the challenging process of finding my place in an alien environment. The mind is a function of thoughts and emotions – loneliness, hope, anxiety, enthusiasm. These feelings are revealed in my sojourn in a foreign land as I subconsciously plug into the social and cultural system, yet confused in my quest to find my place in the landscape of the city, Berlin.

In Padua

This body of work was inspired by my experience as a visitor in Padua, an economic hub in northern Italy. Of Padua’s population of 212,500, approximately 3% are African immigrants, who are generally regarded in a negative light due to a recent scarcity of jobs that has forced many migrant labourers to beg on the city's streets. As a visiting artist in Padua in the summer of 2010, I was struck by a similar, distorted perception of me arising from the colour of my skin, my accent or perhaps my obvious unfamiliarity with a new city and country.

By creating self portraits in spherical street mirrors around the city, I explore a sense of two-way distortions – my outsider’s view of Padua and in turn, the city’s reflection of my (perceived) identity – often very small in relation to the landscape. At the same time, the mirrors allow for greater visibility, extending one’s vision beyond the immediate vicinity – perhaps reflective of my desire for a “bigger picture” view of the obviously more complex people we all are.

Päätön (headless)

I was in Helsinki, Finland in 2011 for a residency supported by the KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, and also took part in the ARS 11 exhibition of contemporary African artists. I stayed on an historic Island called Suomenlinna, a sea fortress that is a ferry ride away from the Helsinki. I was there in April, which was still the middle (!) of winter there, and was struck by the reality of how people on the Island live, while also trying to adapt to the harsh climate myself. I naturally continued my exploration of self in yet another 'alien' environment.

This work explores the human body in an alien environment - in this case, a wintry landscape void of other human beings. There is a choreographed assimilation of the body and other masses in that space. Here the body takes the form of a headless being to imply its invisibility while validating its presence by taking an 'alien' form itself in the environment.

Ecstatic

This series began as an experiment about using my body in relation to space, and juxtaposes the body form and the idea of freedom / self expression with a chaotic / restrictive environment. It's an ongoing series that I am photographing in different neighbourhoods and landscapes of Lagos (and other cities).

How does one exhale in a demanding and constrictive city where millions of people struggle not just for physical space but also a mental anchor point? When one decides to climb higher than where one is expected to be, then suddenly realizes what is promised doesn’t even exist in that space at the top, do you remain there or jump? When one decides to jump, in an ecstatic moment of escape and temporary liberation, where does he expect to land?

These and many other questions overwhelmed me when I first started this series, Ecstatic. In performing and photographing Ecstatic, I make my way to the top of vehicles around my neighborhood in Lagos only to take a rapturous leap, in effect creating a temporary social space for myself before gravity returns me to reality. This unique space forming as my body curves through the air allows me to agonize, scream, exhale and at the same time empathize with other Lagosians like me in the daily struggle to exist. The inner turmoil created by a merciless city whose pressures tug at me from every side needs some form of exorcism, and Ecstatic has provided me that momentary exhilaration.

These images are all excerpts from larger bodies of work, which can be viewed on Oghobase's website.