Stripping back the facade of modern hip-hop to reveal its African roots
Tendai Maraire of Shabazz Palaces breaks down his 'Pungwe' mixtape for us.
Culture
The political fight is wherever people gather
Can young Angolan activists inspired by Angola's underground rap scene take on a political elite that has ruled for decades?
Hair politics over a church loop
In this Weekend Bonus Music Break, No.23, features musicians as diverse as Ghanaian-Swiss duo, OY, to familier sightings on Africa Is a Country: Spoek Mathambo and Sinkane.
My favorite things from the last six months
I was asked to pick my "Best Six," that is your "favorite (six) things from the last six months."
A voice that is incessantly in exile
South African jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin's life complicates jazz history and shows how Africans reshaped American jazz in the 20th century.
No one ever finishes anything, we just stop
In Alain Gomis's "Tey', 'Aujourd'hui," a man lives the last day of his life.
10 films to watch out for, N°9
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 […]
Only Decent White People
A Dutch comedy about an interracial relationship may shape Dutch views of black people there in very negative ways from which they may not recover for a while.
Debating Afrocolombianidad
Colombians and outsiders continue to associate Afro-Colombians largely with dance or music. This is a problem.
Steven Soderbergh in Nollywood
Director Andrew Okoko's "The Assassin's Practice" tampers with the tempo of melodrama. It's also Nollywood's response to Soderbergh's "Bubble."
The politics of translation
The film, "Veejays," comes across as an earnest attempt to learn about the ways people are remixing dominant culture industries to make their own.
McDonald’s Baobab Tree
The use of black and African pride by Western fast food chains to appeal to African-Americans in the United States.
The struggle of the Sahrawi people
Several years ago, I visited Casablanca in Morocco for a few days. What I remember most about that trip is the Hassan II mosque, the largest mosque in the world that non-Muslims are allowed to enter. Perched on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, with a towering, mechanised ceiling that can open to allow the […]
Weekend Music Break, N°22
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 […]
Film Africa (1): ‘The Beautiful Game’
This documentary film about football in Africa is actually not that terrible once you get past the empty platitudes by celebrities at the start, saying little substantive about African football. Whether former professional footballers–like Anthony Baffoe, Roger Milla and Jay Jay Okocha–or Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan and, odd man out, FW de Klerk–the last President of […]
There’s an African film festival in Scotland
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”), […]
Is Mads Brügger a journalist?
The Danish filmmaker believes his work contains qualities missing from most conventional journalism. Especially journalism dealing with Africa
The Kenyan Finns
What would happen if you made a film about a key figure in Finnish history and cast Kenyan actors in the lead roles?
Moroccan Rockstars
The artist Hassan Hajjaj frames his portraits of ordinary Moroccans with a neat shelf crammed with 7 Up and Coca-Cola cans, symbols of a burgeoning import market and aspiration.
Jakes Gerwel and “the intellectual home of the left”
The fate of the University of the Western Cape, set up for coloureds, radicalized by black consciousness and from where the ANC prepared to govern.