Culture

Two index fingers

Our weekly update post of things we did not blog about includes a derby goal, a film about the Williams sisters and the passing of a major 20th century South African intellectual.

Weekend Music Break, N°39

This year’s turning into a good year for quality music videos. Here’s another selection of 10. First one below is a single from Durban’s Nandi Mngoma’s new album (she has a fancy blog though there’s more chance of catching updates via her Twitter account): South African dance as you know it.

5 New Films to Watch, N°24

The Revolution Won’t Be Televised is Rama Thiaw’s (born in Mauritania, grew up between Senegal and France) second long-feature film. She documents one year in the life of Thiat and Kilifeu, members of the Senegalese Keur Gui band who went on to organize the ‘Y’en a Marre’ movement. This will probably not be the last […]

Cinderella is Pissed

A prominent South African, his name is unimportant, has yet again lit up the local blogosphere by trivializing sexual violence. He did so by describing gang rape as a free-for-all picnic and then by claiming to have had sexual relations with minors, and this when he was a teacher. The comments would be ‘unfortunate’ anywhere, […]

Roger Ebert was the business

There are other film critics who are intellectual–like Stuart Klawans at The Nation, Armond White (he was good once) and Stanley Kaufmann at The New Republic–but they lacked Ebert’s accessibility and heart. (Ebert, by the way, had an acute sense of the racial political economy in US cinema, as Richard Prince blogged at The Root). Ebert, who traveled to Apartheid South Africa as a young man, also reviewed a lot of African films.

Rapping Against Impunity

A campaign in Senegal wants to put public pressure on the government to follow-though on criminal investigations in order to get justice for victims of violence and torture.

Weekend Music Break, N°38

Here’s ten new videos to get your weekend started. Some pop, some rap, some indie, but first, some dance (what’s in a name). Above’s Black Coffee latest, feat. Nomsa Mazwai and Black Motion on “Traveller”. Next: Owiny Sigoma Band (that’s Joseph Nyamungo, Charles Okoko and friends in London) put out this festival-vibes video for “Nyiduonge […]

5 New Films to Watch, N°23

British filmmaker Roy Agyemang’s documentary on Robert Mugabe, “Villain on Hero?”, intended to be a three-month mission but turned into a three-year mission. “Roy and his UK based Zimbabwean fixer, Garikayi, worked their way through the corridors of power, probing the cultural, economical and historical factors at the heart of the “Zimbabwean crisis”. In their […]

Madonna vs President Joyce Banda

Madonna's attempt to save face after her scolding by Malawi's president to rehash the stereotype of the corrupt African leader rings hollow, and a bit desperate. Malawi's President wasn't having it.

Wogdog Blues for Burkina Faso: An Interview with Art Melody

Art Melody, the Burkina Faso-based gruff-voiced emcee who also completes the high-octane duo Waga3000, came to my attention through the group’s 2012 song entitled “Dal fo yikin bao”, which translates to “remain strong and feisty”. Their furious spit-fire flow, reminiscent of what had attracted me to Senegalese emcees, invited me into their world. Then a bit over a […]