There’s still time left to recognize Chad’s Independence Day today, and keeping with our regular feature, we’re posting popular music from the country. First up is a short clip of Mounira Mitchala, handling a live show in Paris: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gM-LNwHo2w&w=600&h=373]

French-Cameroonian rapper Lalcko released a strong record earlier this year: ‘L’eau lave mais l’argent rend propre.’ Ever seen this video he recorded ‘between Yaoundé and Douala’ for his 2007 track ‘Lumumba’? It’s dedicated “to all my Lumumbas born of aggression and cemented by the fight.”

German-Ghanian singer Y’akoto’s biography on her website made me look up the meaning of the word “hegira” — a beautiful word, but maybe not the best translation of the original German ‘Suche’, as in: “search” (for herself). Great track, and a nice video. Live recordings show her playing with the Mighty Embassy Ensemble, Blitz The […]

An interview in a (South African) Sunday paper with a ‘hopping mad’ Caiphus Semenya (the South African musician* was surprised to hear his music was being sampled in the ‘Murder to Excellence’ track on the Jay-Z & Kanye West’s Watch The Throne album — without him being consulted) got us curious about the song used. […]

Excerpt from Sharifa Rhodes Pitts‘ memoir of the black metropolis, “Harlem is Nowhere,” which came out this week in the UK: The Langston Hughes Atrium [of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture] is available as a rental facility, so that Hughes’s resting place is also the location for receptions, conferences, and cocktail parties. […]

“Wooye” by Ugandan crooner Maurice Kirya.  

From May this year: “… an unrehearsed, first-take cut” of Nicolas Jaar‘s remix (recorded in London) of Abdullah Ibrahim’s jazz track “Ishmael”.

Côte d’Ivoire celebrated their 51st year of independence from France yesterday. Music has played a role in national political identity throughout the country’s conflict. I’m sure that it will continue to play a role as the country tries to move on from its recent turmoil. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqsCKlC0xW4 The Ivory Coast in the 70’s and 80’s had […]

The famine in the Horn of Africa has revived the debate about “starvation photography.” The blog of the Irish NGO, Dóchas, has compiled the different viewpoints in one place. * Related: What groundbreaking images of ‘Africa’ can we expect this year from The International Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan, France?, asks Duck Rabbit. Sadly, more of the […]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZriKcTa2YUk&w=600&h=373] Back in the states, I’m going to be able to fulfill my promise to post on Liberian music, and the vibrant growing scene there. I’m publishing another couple of articles for Cluster Mag about it, and am really excited about a compilation Akwaaba Music and I have decided to put together. So keep […]

This year’s edition of The Durban International Film Festival in South Africa was a pure cinematic treat. I attended master classes with Burkina Faso film legend Gaston Kabore and surf film legend Jack McCoy, hung out with some of my favourite filmmakers, and saw some truly great films from around the world. Of these, one […]

He’s not just a blogger. This Sunday, August 7, at Lincoln Center DJ Chief Boima, who has been traveling in Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone this summer,  will warm up the crowd–along with Ahficionados–between sets by Iyadede, Spoek Mathambo and Blitz the Ambassador. It’s free. If you’re in New York City (I’m in Massachusetts till August […]

Let’s celebrate Niger’s independence day with a recording of Omara “Bombino” Moctar, whose story of exile — and return — speaks to many youth in the country. Along with Rap music:

Photo Credit: Doreen R [soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/19741147″]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywfyv5fdgM4 Your Music Break: from Nairobi. Via Kate Bomz

Not sure whether Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa’s new novel, El Sueño del Celta (The Dream of the Celt), has been published in English yet — so I might be spoiling it for some future interested readers if it hasn’t — but halfway through the story about the Irish diplomat-turned-nationalist Roger Casement, I already regretted […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjyibxWzWkA&w=600&h=373] Your Music Break: Simphiwe Dana, live, singing in Xhosa, accompanied by another South African singer, Mthwakazi, in Johannesburg. H/T: Nerina Penzhorn (again).

Maybe not the most popular artist in Benin today, but the country’s independence day is a good day to listen to Benin-born jazz guitarist Lionel ‘Gilles’ Loueke. This performance was recorded in Boston earlier this year: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nls0wvH1TTI&w=600&h=373]