Friday Bonus Music Break, N°14
Quite the mixed bag this week. ‘Disco Malapaa’ by Arusha’s Jambo Squad above; nine more below.
Blog
A Room Adrift in London
Here in London we have been having a lot of trouble with pageants. After the riots last August, the state is hoping that summer plans – the Olympics, the Hackney festival – will be distraction from the impoverishment of life and extensive violence done by the conservative government to the Welfare State. Last month the […]
The Very Best Politics
What's the story with The Very Best's video for the single "Kondaine," where they teamed up with an American NGO and shot it in very rural Kenya.
Africa is a Science Fiction Superpower
A film series in London explores what it would mean imbuing Africa with extra-terrestrial powers. We speak to the curators, Al Cameron and Nav Haq.
Spring revolution or a summer of discontent
Can North Africans define their own futures, away from the inventions of old white men in think tanks in Washington DC?
The rising bitterness of South Africa’s black majority
'Dear Mandela' questions whether the history of South Africa's ruling party obscures its corruption and immoralities. And what kinds of movements it would take to challenge the ANC's power head on.
The United States of Africa
Yannick Létourneau talks about the genesis of his film about the Senegelese rapper, Awadi. Also, why so many political musicians come from West Africa.
Binyavanga’s writing out of depression
Writing on depression in Africa is a rarity, so Binyavanga Wainaina's book, "One Day I Will Write About This Place," seems singular.
The New York Times goes to Zimbabwe
American media should focus on the real political struggles in Zimbabwe and not think that the government of national unity has brought Zimbabwe out of a period of violent political conflict.
Steve Bloom photographs 1970s Cape Town
The London Festival of Photography has opened, and one of its most appealing features is an exhibition of images by Steve Bloom – Beneath the Surface – a unique document of South African life in the 1970s. There are images of squatters camps, protests (and police violence) in Cape Town, the demolition of buildings in […]
Struggles over memory in South Africa
Revisionism pervades popular culture in South Africa now, coloring our perception of the past.
Friday Bonus Music Break, N°13
Tchobari duo shot the video for ‘Quem Mandou? (Me Nascer)’ in Catambor, Luanda “to show a different side of our city”.