By Dan Magaziner* South Africa’s 1970s are rightly remembered as a time of rising militancy. From the universities to the docks to the schools–the decade saw the rise of Black Consciousness and Steve Biko’s calls for a radical reorientation of black culture towards the struggle for political and mental liberation. We curate our memorials to […]
The third in my series of musical breaks from Paris, France, features L'Algerino, Nessbeal, Corneille and La Fouine.
An eclectic one. Ethiopian and Ivorian pop, Philly neo soul, Swedish and South African rap and Brazilian jazz. Philadelphia neo soul keeps it topical. One thing we could not figure out: Bilal–half breaking with the dress code of his hosts Kindred–does a guest verse and throws in a line about ‘USA to Africa’: “And your […]
What happens when humanitarian agencies ditch the tried-and-trusted fundraising method of splashing disaster porn across screens and news pages?
The presence of black people in France spans the last three centuries.
There’s a fast growing collection of cross-over hip hop songs produced by Central and West African artists making a living in the diaspora (especially in French-speaking hotbeds like Marseilles, Paris or Brussels), lyrically reaching back to the countries they’ve left. This collaboration between Togolese artist YaoBobby (rapping in Mina) and the prolific Fredy Massamba (singing […]
How meanings, symbolism, and narratives of “other” places and products shift when contextualized within and against South Africa.
Blind clichés, projections and stereotypes masquerading as analysis in Foreign Policy by Karen Leigh, Time Magazine’s correspondent for West Africa.
Long after midnight, once the tourists and the party-goers have left Cape Town’s Long Street, the city’s darling hub looks pretty vacant, apart from the accidental taxi-driver — it forms the backdrop for South African rapper Rattex’s new video ‘Ewe Nje’. With an album and a mixtape under the belt, but hard to find in […]
‘Kichwateli’ (‘TV head’ < Swahili) is one of the many chapters in the BLNRB project. Contributors are Just A Band (read Siddharta Mitter’s profile of the Kenyan trio here), street collective Maasai Mbili and the German electronic artists Modeselektor. The video was created by Bobb Muchiri (around the 5:00 mark neatly juxtaposing Nobel peace prize […]
On Friday, November 10, 2011, Angola marked its 36th Independence Day since the proclamation of independence, November 10, 1975. It’s a few days later but better way to acknowledge the day than to focus on … Angola asylum seekers? By and large, the Western media paid no attention to Angola on Friday, but then again what […]
Late last month the English goalkeeper David James wrote in The Observer that he was surprised at the accusations of racism against his national teammate John Terry. The latter was accused of racially abusing an opponent, QPR player Anton Ferdinand. James also claimed racism has been rooted out of the game a long time ago. […]