The Ship of Oblivion
Weekend Break Number 52 feature, among others, Buika, TV On The Radio, Alex Lomani, Ill Skillz, Tamikrest and Stromae.
Culture
5 New Films to Watch Out For, N°30
From the director and singer-actors of the 2005 film U-Carmen eKhayelitsha comes a new “opera” film. Unogumbe/Noye’s Fludde follows the plot of Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Fludde work but moves the action from medieval England to present-day South Africa. Nomads is a musical documentary by Mohamad Hanafi, produced by the Goethe‐Institut’s Sudan Film Factory (also check […]
Like a showbiz Muammar Gaddafi
The contradictions and tensions in pop legend Michael Jackson's relationship with the African continent.
South Africa’s new youth underground?
"We've got Ferraris in Africa. What they gon' say now?", says one of the young people in a new video. Is that the ethics of South Africa's young?
Controversy and the National Arts Theatre in Lagos
The theater, built by the military and finished in time for FESTAC in 1977, has always been a site of public disagreement.
Zambian skull (plus Zambian guide) in a London art gallery
The Thai-born artist, Pratchaya Phinthong, mines Zambia's colonial history to explore how historical narratives are performed through objects.
Sathima’s swansong
There is a time for everything: Between Afropunk and the passing of a musical legend, Sathima Bea Benjamin, is our Weekend Music Break.
Who no know go know
The words and images found in the Chronic have a tendency to defy simple consumption.
South African Low-Fi Freedom
A group of artists attempt to democratized the image of the country's past through ripping clips off Youtube to re-author what South Africans once knew.
Chief Boima Interviews … Kae Sun
In our current #hashtag fueled media landscape, it is fairly hard for an up-and-coming artist to emerge outside of predetermined genre, social, or sonic signifiers. However, as an artist develops, sometimes they manage to chip away at the walls the media traps them in. With each project they are able to reinvent their aesthetic, while […]
Chief Boima interviews … Alec Lomami
This summer I’ve been hired as a freelancer for Iggy, MTV’s global music website. The site is aimed at young people to introduce them to the idea that pop music is a global phenomenon (if today’s tech savvy youth already didn’t know.) I get paid by Viacom every time I put something up there, but it’s a pretty quick moving stream of content, and posts tend to disappear rather quickly. I thought it would be good to run each one of my posts as a series over here on Africa is a Country.
The discourse about a film
What are the politics of the briefly banned film "Of Good Report"?
Michael Caine on the Cape Flats
The film "Zulu" - starring Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom - are getting lukewarm reviews. Is the novel, it's based on, any good?
Not stitched together
This week's Weekend Music Break, no. 50, includes a homage to the 34 striking miners murdered by South African police in August 2012.
The image of the modern Arab man
The photographer Scarlett Coten wants to look beyond accepted stereotypes of Arab men, exposing a more diverse, and perhaps softer image.
5 New Films to Watch Out For, N°29
Nègre Blanc (“White Negro”), director Cheikh N’diaye’s new film about albinism, in which he tackles rumors, stereotypes and misconceptions through the eyes of Cameroonian storyteller Léonard de Semnjock, is one of the five films on our list this week.
What is wrong with Italian Reality TV?
The question is whether a reality TV show -- focusing on visiting Italians -- filmed in refugee camps in 3 African countries is useful.
Writing Windhoek
Literature in Windhoek takes many forms. Tucked at the intersections of Independence Avenue and Sam Nujoma Drive in the city centre, Wordweaver Publishing accomplishes perhaps its most challenging format: books. Outside the publication house’s yellow-painted bungalow-sized offices are posters advertising recent titles: Mama Namibia and This is not a Flowerpot.
The noises of Lagos
Emeka Ogboh's experimental videos and soundscapes of Lagos, Nigeria.
When Basquiat went to Africa
In 1988, Basquiat traveled to Cote d'Ivoire, anticipating "very unsophisticated" Africans would see his art. That's not what happened.