http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA6F553L17g 'I am Malawi' is a short documentary by Geert Veuskens and Pieter de Vos. (Part 1 above, part 2 below.) Veuskens gave us some more details about their project:

We shot the images for the documentary in May-June 2010 in and around Lilongwe. Working with artists like Mandela '3rd Eye' Mwanza, Dominic 'Dominant 1' Sangalakula, Qabaniso 'Q' Malewezi, Peter Mawanga, Waliko Makhala and Lucius Banda, this film aims to tell a story about identity, 'pride' and uprising in a globalized world. Although 'pride' is a word that I don't like all that much, I don't really have an alternative for it either. It is suggested in the film, but it mainly refers to the dependence on foreign aid and to the awareness of the people I worked with that historically many things have happened that created a personal discomfort they now try to break. In fact, the film is also structured in this way. The first part tells the story of how they perceive foreign aid and dependency. The second part tells how the artists search for 'artistic' solutions. Each in their own way. The artists, all from different backgrounds, talk about their country, their history and their search for an identity that can stand out in the global community.

While doing research for the film, we particularly looked on facebook for Malawian organizations focusing on media and art. Through these organizations, we got in touch with the artists. The story slowly began to take shape and we continued the conversation when we met up with them in Malawi. The artists we chose to feature are on the one hand people who sought for a style elsewhere (the hip-hop duo 'Dominant 1' and '3rd Eye') and, on the other hand, people that return to their cultural heritage, picking up traditional instruments again.

We wanted to work with these artists to achieve a concrete exchange of ideas, visions, identity, politics and culture.

Here's part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apa-zs1Ix84 Also worth watching is the music video that comes with the documentary and another short video Veuskens created for and about 'Rhythm Of Life', a UK registered organization working in the Malawian music industry ("supporting and facilitating the growth of the creative industries").

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmoaZ4Tv924 Since Friday's Special was reserved to Sierra Leone -- and for archival purposes -- here's your Sunday Bonus. First up, above, from the same label that brought us Baloji, Konono N°1 and Staff Benda Billili comes a new recording by Jagwa Music: 'Live in the Streets of Dar' (es Salaam, Tanzania). ‘Night in Tunisia’, the opening track from Hugh Masekela’s 1974 LP ‘I am not Afraid': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTH7UoXA2bA Fatoumata Diawara's 'Kèlè': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZDUM9IVXH0 Remember DJ Cleo's FaceBook? This is the Twitter version.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJkRfJlMyoQ Alabama Shakes played 'Be Mine' live on Jools Holland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLPMAho8K-0 From that same show: The Chieftains with Carolina Chocolate Drops. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akjH9QEejWA Fuse ODG's 'Azonto' gets a make-over: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rowlq0iMy-Q YaoBobby's deceptively naïve 'Mémoire d'un continent': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbFwgQQ_h4M Blood Orange's Champagne Coast went viral this week. We can see why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO6y1-erVEw The Very Best return after a long silence with 'Yoshua Alikuti': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE7c0WYIAJs And an interesting music video filming singer Jimetta Rosa at her actual job: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVQNwQ1XR5k

Nowadays we're doing multiple #musicbreaks on Twitter and Facebook when the spirits move us. We figured we'd put the ten favorite ones up every Friday as our #BonusMusicBreak. First up, old school jazz man Pharoah Sanders is still doing it. Here's a video (uploaded this week on Youtube; recorded last year) of him and his band playing (and him getting down): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N3kd5NAWeM Since we're on the old schoolers. Here's the video for Ebo Taylor's 'Ayesama', shot in his hometown of Saltpond (Ghana): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpdyFTCDjuw I really like Lee Fields. You're The Kind of Girl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0izlYypNyu0 Zimbabwe celebrated its independence this week. Here's Tendai, one half of Shabazz Palaces with "rhodZi" (the video is directed by Seattle-based filmmaker and critic Charles Mudede): http://vimeo.com/40481149 California-based Ethiopian artists Meklit Hadero, Gabriel Teodros and Burntface combine to form CopperWire (H/T: siddhmi): http://youtu.be/vVLGVx6ro58 'Bang Bang' by one of Sean's New School students, Selena Dhillon (originally from Toronto) featuring Humble The Poet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3FLthEtdaM THEESatisfaction's "funk-psychedelic feminista sci-fi epics": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGWFBt_IPOg Nicki Minaj is selling ice water in Accra? Zongo! http://youtu.be/Zk9_FcuX4Jk Boima: "Yup, I'm a fan." PR: "Sierra Leone's Premier Rap Guy From Freetown Releases His Long Awaited Video Featuring Farda G. Shot Entirely On Location In Freetown The Vid Promises To Be Raw, Grity & Strictly Hip-Hop": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REtQwlUurb4 Finally, kuduro baile from Germany; Gato Preto's 'Tschukudu' (H/T: TropicalBass): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fRbaSznGlI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3QJ_wOUxig From the Otelo Burning soundtrack (we still owe the soundtrack a review), here's 'Walk on Water' by Reason. The film about a group of young South African surfers, set in 1989, comes with an official mixtape.

In the introduction to The World According to Bylex, Filip De Boeck and Koen Van Synghel describe the Congolese artist Pume Bylex as "not interested in the day-to-day reality of Kinshasa. [He] turns his attention to what lies beyond the horizon of the visible and the tangible (...) a world with perfection and harmony at its centre." Pume Bylex is showing new work at the Halle de la Gombe (Kinshasa) until April 28 and from May 23 to July 21 at the Revue Noire gallery (Paris).

Mali's on our mind. Mostly because of the confusion. Reports from Bamako abound, while there's still very little information available from the north. Malian artists in the diaspora, it seems, are as confused. (Check Mokobe's site for example.) Earlier this week, Tuareg band Tamikrest gave a shoutout to "our friend" Ben Zabo. (Is it true what his European label says? Is this "the first album ever to be released by a Malian of Bo descent"?) His hommage to Dounaké Koïta: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4yxgvvIBQI While we're waiting for their new album to be released (later this year, if all goes well), South African Driemanskap made time to record another video, this time for 'Ivamna', still off their debut album: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOjHn_hJEsQ Nomadic Wax keeps working hard to push hip hop from Zimbabwe. They'll even shoot a video in Washington DC for it. (And, for the record, in Harare.) Dumi RIGHT, Outspoken and MC Pep: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WNTFhnwlYY A week after first seeing this video (on This is Africa's page), I still think this is one of the wildest songs I've heard in a long time. I also believe we'll get to hear many more 'Facebook'-titled tracks in the future. Not just from Senegal. Eumeudi Badiane, Wally Seck and Abou Thioubalo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5XhiaJRHH8 And to slow things down, Guinean Ba Cissoko live in Paris. 'Politiki': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHrQi-fBWxk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvzZ4yShtog I never understood why E-Type's 2002 smash hit 'Africa' didn't really catch on outside Sweden. The video is slightly embarrassing. It's like watching a Scandinavian version of the b-grade movie 'Soul Plane.' But it has its tongue firmly in its cheek. Or so one hopes. [Eller hur?]

Tuareg musicians Tinariwen, on tour in Europe these days, spent some time in Belgium this weekend. Belgian public broadcaster VRT [they’ll do a feature on Mali blues once a year, usually at the end of June, covering the one high-profile ‘world music’ festival Brussels has in summer, squeezing them into a one-minute slot alongside performers from the Balkans, a visiting Soukous star, a French rapper and a Jamaican reggae artist] asked Tinariwen members Eyadou Ag Leche and Mina Walet Oumar what they made of the coup in Mali. It’s a short but useful video interview since most of what we get to read in international media over the past weeks are translations of and interviews with the military commanders of the coup, and then some other wires by foreign journalists based in Bamako. I haven’t read much reports coming from the north, i.e. from the Tuareg front. Below’s a brief translation of the VRT’s interview with Tinariwen's guitarist and singer:

Eyadou: Our music was created under the same circumstances as the American blues. It was created in exile. We’ve been living for years as exiles between Algeria, Libya and Niger since the 1960s until 1990.

Mina: Our people have been dying because of bombardments by the Mali army. They’re nomads. Not rebels. People who have nothing to do with the war. They don’t make war.

Eyadou: The Tuaregs want independence. This is nothing new. We’ve wanted this since the French have left. For thirty years we have big problems: we don’t have hospitals, schools... We don’t feel Malian. We live under the same [Mali] flag, but we don’t consider ourselves true Malians. (...) The coup in Mali serves us because the people will start looking at Mali. They will direct their attention to Mali and see what’s happening there. People will start to understand Mali’s reality. Many people knew what was happening there but closed their eyes to it. (...) From Timbuktu to Gao, the border between Niger and Algeria ... that is our country, that is our territory, that is where our families live. That belongs to us. We’re not colonizing anything; we have been colonized ourselves.

Asked about the Libya-Gaddafi-Al Qaeda-Tuareg connection:

Mina: We’re not bandits. We’re not terrorists. We’re a people who claim their rights. Our rights have been ignored for more than 50 years by the Malian state. Our people fighting there right now are no Al Qaeda people. It’s true that some among them have returned from Libya, but they just returned to their homes. They were born in our region, left, and have now returned.

Eyadou: Our cause is here, now, and it’s a cause that won’t go to sleep.

If you’ve been following Tinariwen and reading (or listening to) their lyrics, this doesn’t come as a surprise. What was new to me though, were the numbers cited in the VRT program’s debate after the interview. Estimates are that Libya returnees joining the Tuaregs' ranks numbered less than 200 (some of the Gadaffi soldiers also joined the government's army before the coup), bringing along their weapons, but apparently enough to defeat the 7000 men strong Malian government army -- and take over half of the country (including Timbuktu and Gao).

For over two decades, West African Muslims from the Murid Sufi Brotherhood come together at the annual Cheikh Amadou Bamba Day march in Harlem, New York. Scholar Zain Abdullah calls it "a major site where they redefine the boundaries of their African identities, cope with the stigma of blackness, and counteract an anti-Muslim backlash". Mamadou Diouf (in his preface to 'A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal') considers Bamba's message an "unfinished prophecy". Above and below are photographs Marguerite Seger took during the parade in July 2010.* * Marguerite Seger is a New York based photographer of Sri Lankan and French decent, born and raised in Sweden. Her photography, she writes, "is versatile yet with a strong personal style". Seger has exhibited regularly the passed years both in solo and group shows. She describes her work as "urban, raw, yet romantic", shooting anything from MMA fighters to jeans ads, music videos, boxers and short films. More of her photographs here and here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2psxl2-lp8 At the occasion of the recent publication of Senegalese philosopher Souleymane Bachir Diagne’s book ‘African Art as Philosophy: Senghor, Bergson and the Idea of Negritude’ (originally published in French in 2007) and listening to this interview where he speaks about his new book, 'Bergson Postcolonial', I intended to write a short post wondering why it often takes years before important work by African authors (both fiction and non-fiction) that is originally published in French becomes available in English -- if at all. Browsing through English news and culture blogs focussing on 'all things African', one does find a lot of visual work (by francophone artists, fashionistas or musicians) because that work is easy to blog and reblog (Tumblr & co), but when it comes to engaging with French opinions and writings... it’s a desert out there. It's hard to shake off the feeling the result is a virtual and cultural space consisting of two separate worlds missing out on each other’s written work. Short, a post on why French African authors matter and why they are often absent on English platforms. Until I came across the argument above, by Souleymane Bachir Diagne himself, who expresses their importance far more eloquently than I could have. (As a scholar of Léopold Senghor's work and as a friend of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Diagne couldn’t leave them out of the argument.) In English. I'll still make that list of French works which I believe need to be translated and read -- another day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OMHfmP_Mig Kenyan artist Rabbit is working hard to get the word out about his new album Orutu Ya Masudi. The music video for 'Yesterdays' (and The Main Ingredient's inspiration) will help.

Think tanks love to paint maps, often accompanied by short descriptions of the different crises a country is facing -- short, broad strokes for clarity's sake. Except, of course, that these different shades of blue obscure realities that, in typical jargon, are defined as 'non-violent' crises. The map above shows where in Sub-Saharan Africa violent conflicts happened in 2011. Thus, for example, the xenophobic attacks against foreigners in South Africa will appear on the map but the country's crisis of deep-rooted poverty will not. What caught my eye on this map though was the little blue dot west of the DRC: it made me read up on Cabinda, the Angolan enclave, which seems to have dropped off the international press's radar again since the deadly ambush on the Togolese football team there in 2010. Searching the websites of the BBC, the NYT and The Guardian all returned the same result: each had one article in January 2011 asking whether Sudan's split would herald a balkanization of Africa and bring independence to Somaliland, Western Sahara and...Cabinda. (Nothing on CNN or Al Jazeera nor in El País, Die Zeit, Jeune Afrique or Le Monde.) Which is surprising, considering the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research report:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQb5qJRy0QY German singer-songwriter Joy Denalane (born to a South African father who's a cousin of Hugh Masekela) recorded her song 'Im Ghetto von Soweto' twice. I prefer the original, less explanatory, German version (a tentative translation of which I'm including below) to the later English adaptation (rewritten for an international audience, I assume -- it has some extra lines at pains to explain why, for example, one of the figures in her lyrics was detained). Masekela himself also contributed to the song and features in the above video they shot in Soweto in 2003, mixing it with archival material. This is auntie Jane’s house When the first shots were fired Come in quickly, my child, and don’t cry Lie down on the kitchen floor This is Orlando West in June 1976 See the school kids run The boy Pieterson The police are shooting them A stone flies, a shoe drops A car burns, a child runs Images everyone here knows When the brown dust settles What remains is the grey smoke in the air In the ghetto, ghetto of Soweto This is auntie Nancy’s house She wanted to do Karabo’s laundry He nearly missed the train in the morning She pulls his pass from his jacket’s pocket '84 in Diepkloof It’s already been a week Did anybody see whether they took him To prison at John Vorster Square? They stopped him, he doesn’t have a pass They took him, and put him in jail Only now did she find out When the red dust settles What remains is the brown smoke in the air In the ghetto, ghetto of Soweto It should have been a day of joy At auntie Eve’s house The daughter gave birth to a child that night But both are lost They are positive In Moroka, Pimville, Dube... No house is safe They battled apartheid but then came Aids And they fight it in 2002 It used to be TBC from the mines Today they're infected with HIV I’m talking about every second pregnant woman When the brown dust settles What remains is the grey smoke in the air In Soweto Stands Auntie’s house...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5AYK-MilVM Londoner Szjerdene's Blue Lullaby. Her music is produced by Glenn Nichols, while the video was made by Saul & Josh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhyqJb0VZtQ What better way to start the week than with some a cappella soul courtesy of South African singers Buhlebendalo Mda, Luphindo Ngxanga and Ntsika Fana Ngxanga (better known as 'The Soil').