Music Break / Bongeziwe Mabandla
Downtown Johannesburg looks remarkably empty in this video for Bongeziwe Mabandla’s first track of his upcoming album. Zuluboy throws in his lines in the second half. And a pop-perfect kids choir finishes it.
Culture
Lesotho’s Independence Day
Even though music in Lesotho is dominated by its South African neighbors, there are local genres and artists which have managed to fare well commercially.
Music Break / Nëggus & Kungobram
Kungobram, an ensemble of French musicians, has teamed up with Togolese slammer Nëggus (here reminiscing about “his land”). Their live act sounds slick. And they’re asking for our help to wrap up their first album:
Another African wins the Nobel?
At least 3 African writers are favorites for the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature. They'd be the 5th African winner.
Moscow Hair
The Ivorian international and CSKA Moscow footballer, Seydou Doumbia about the hardest thing to secure in the Russian capital: It's hard to get a fade.
Independence Day in Guinea
Since we’re back to our Independence Day meme, yesterday was Guinea-Conakry’s day. (Yes, Sean’s fault again.) Looking south from where I live, it’s tempting to think of, say, DJ Oudy as being the big star. But that’s because Paris lies somewhere in between here and Guinea. And the Guinean diaspora does a good job at […]
Nigerian Independence
Okay we’re a day late. (It’s Sean’s fault.) Happy Indpendence Day Nigeria. Your music industry is too large and prolific and dominant across the continent and the globe to sum up in a few videos, but here’s an idea: Neo-Juju [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEkG6EswH2w&w=600&h=369]
Getting soft bellies
Our latest Weekend Special includes a lot of football (soccer) and that the United States is “the most Africanized nation in the Western world.”
Music Break / MED and Talib Kweli
The period video for the recently released “Classic” by MED, featuring Talib Kweli.
Political R&B
“Before they lay your body down / you got to change the world before you six feet under the ground.”
The definition of hip-co
Takun J, the leading proponent of the Liberian music genre, breaks down its essence for a group of visiting journalism students from Syracuse University.
Suing Tintin
It’s been a long time coming. The case that was opened in 2007 by Bienvenu Mbutu Mondono against the publishers of Hergé’s ‘Tintin in the Congo’ (published in some languages as ‘Tintin in Africa’) finally got its hearing at the Brussels court yesterday. “The problem is not Hergé’s,” Mondono’s lawyer told the press. “The problem […]
This is Freedom: The Mandela Reality TV Show
Nelson and Winnie Mandela's descendants fought apartheid for the right to make a reality TV show and South Africans fought for the right see it.
Holland is Kaaps
Afrikaans has its roots as a Dutch Creole, spoken by slaves, slave masters and workers of the Dutch East India Company at the Cape. A South African theater company took the play to The Netherlands.
Music Break / Kommanda Obbs
It was Core Wreckah who first put us on to Lesotho rapper Kommanda Obbs a while ago. Asked for some background about this video, Kommanda tells us that “Ts’epe was shot in the mountainous villages of Bela Bela and Maputsoe in Lesotho. The aim of the song is to instil confidence in youth so that […]
Law and Disorder
"Law and Order," opened its 13th season with a very transparent plot based on the Dominique Strauss Kahn rape case. It is not very good.
Muslim American Slave
Islam first came to North America with slavery, yet no major studio film has centered on the life of a Muslim American slave. Ibn Said's remarkable life could be a start.
Music Break / Kern Koppen
You might remember the Dutch band Kern Koppen from last year’s collaboration with South African artists Zuluboy, Zonke and EJ von Lyrik. (At the occasion of the World Cup, they called it Skop Gat.) Why their subsequent hit ‘Me Eigen’ didn’t travel beyond Holland’s airwaves, I still don’t know. The above music video (‘Geen Zweet’/No […]
Karl Marx Was Right
The mainstream is waking to the prescience of the old man's ideas.