Twelve years after ground was first broken on an oil pipeline between Chad and Cameroon, the documentary film, Quel Souvenir explores the impact of this World Bank sponsored project on local communities from inland Chad to the Cameroonian coast. While the World Bank and oil companies like Exxon and Chevron promised local development along the […]

Berlin based Dub and Techno producer Mark Ernestus (check his previous work with Rhythm and Sound) fell in love with Mbalax (how could you not?), went to Senegal, found a band, and produced a collection of songs for release on Honest Jons records. The first release is Mbeuguel Dafa Nekh from the group Jeri-Jeri (led by […]

The German writer Norman Ohler described Johannesburg’s Ponte City, Africa’s tallest residential building, thus: “Ponte sums up all the hope, all the wrong ideas of modernism, all the decay, all the craziness of the city. It is a symbolic building, a sort of white whale, it is concrete fear, the tower of Babel, and yet […]

South African kwaito house with an explicit message: we don’t get to hear it often. Shota’s Etshwaleni has been playing in clubs for months, I’m told. Its straightforward lyrics make it stand out: have fun while still respecting others (“hlonipheni abanye abantu”) and drink responsibly (“pasop ugu dakwa”) during sleepless (“asisalali”) weekends. But you figured […]

A woman in Germany removes her clothes and poses for a magazine photographer with her famous boyfriend. Her boyfriend’s father happens to be Tunisian and the pictures are reprinted in Tunisia. Three journalists are arrested in Tunis and charged with “violating public morals by publishing a nude photograph.” It would be fair to say that in […]

Last month the Daily Beast decided that Cairo had lost its voice. It reminded me of a New York Times article which renamed Cairo The City Where You Can’t Hear Yourself Scream. It’s a city (or something), not a commercial for cough medicine. This seems to be a commonplace for writing about cities in developing countries; […]

It has recently been announced that Roland Joffe, (Londoner and) director of films The Mission and The Killing Fields has cast Forest Whitaker to play Archbishop Desmond Tutu in his upcoming film. In an adaptation of Michael Ashton’s play inspired by the events at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, the film — titled […]

It’s not too late to take your vitamins. And this. Jazz bass player and bandleader Esperanza Spalding, who defeated Bieber nation last year, takes on school curriculum and Black History Month with the song “Black Gold,” the single from her album “Radio Music Society.” She gets some help from vocalist Algebra Blessett. We’ll forgive the little […]

Short recent video profile by VOA’s Nico Colombant of the Zimbabwean artist, illustrator and designer R!OT (also known as Sindiso Nyoni).

So drawn into the video (a plethora of faces, personalities and historic moments) Atlanta trio Algiers made for ‘Blood’, I forgot to pay attention to the lyrics the first time seeing it: http://vimeo.com/35896162

Rumours are circulating on various Hollywood gossip and film blogs that Stringer Bell also known as Idris Elba — the East London boy made good in Hollywood — is next in line to play Nelson Mandela. Surfing on the mammoth success of his character in The Wire, his relatively popular series Luther on the BBC […]

Om Kalthoum, the late great Egyptian singer, stands in the studio of Khaled Hafez. Her eyes are closed, her mouth open in song or lament. There is not one of her, but six (including a shadow), laser-printed repetitively across a wide canvas. She has her trademark hair, evening dress, large earrings. One hand raised in emphasis. […]