Everybody take out your bicycles

An eclectic playlist of music that features musicians as diverse as Horace Silver, Obour, Black Dillinger and Mzungu Kichaa.

A still of Black Dillinger, via Richvibes Records.

We like music so much, we have an oversupply of suggestions for our “Music Break” post. So why not offer you all that other music – well at least seven of them at a time – that did not make the cut?

Black Dillinger, “From a Place”
Let’s admit it, we all have at least once – willing suspension of disbelief – considered how much different Cape Town could look like if everybody took out their bicycles rather than their cars, as Black Dillinger reminds us in his new video. Or maybe not.

Mzungu Kichaa, “Jitolee”
Mzungu Kichaa (literally: the crazy white man) has a Danish father and an English mother, but grew up in East Africa and has been doing East African Bongo Flava since its early days in 1999/2000. He was in Bongo Records with Juma Nature, Professor Jay, Solo Thang and all the artists who invented the genre. Today he represents East African abroad as well as back home in East Africa. He speaks Kiswahili fluently and writes his songs himself. This song Jitolee is from his first album Tujo Pumoja.

Streets to the Hill, “El Shaddai”
We like this circa 2007 cover by Oakland R&B due Streets to the Hill consisting of guitarist Ryan Daisley and vocalist Nasambu (her family is Kenyan). Not sure if they still exist.

Teba, “Food of Life”
Looks like rooftop concerts are trending in Cape Town. Connected: the new music video for “original social worker” Teba’s song “Food of Life.”

Obour, “Obour.”
Some consciousness from Ghanaian hiplife musician, Obour where he “… goes back to his Atenteben days.” We are assuming this is about him going back to his ‘traditions’ or his childhood. Anyway, we can dance to this.

BD Banx, “Jump”
Now for something totally out of left field. We need more of Brussels-based rapper BD Banx (born to Congolese parents).

Horace Silver, “I Had A Little Talk”
Finally, slowing it down. Taking you back to 1971. Jazz pionist Horace Silver (and his quintet) with ‘I Had A Little Talk …’ off his album, “The United States of Mind.”

Further Reading

On Safari

On our year-end publishing break, we reflect on how 2024’s contradictions reveal a fractured world grappling with inequality, digital activism, and the blurred lines between action and spectacle.

Rebuilding Algeria’s oceans

Grassroots activists and marine scientists in Algeria are building artificial reefs to restore biodiversity and sustain fishing communities, but scaling up requires more than passion—it needs institutional support and political will.

Ibaaku’s space race

Through Afro-futurist soundscapes blending tradition and innovation, Ibaaku’s new album, ‘Joola Jazz,’ reshapes Dakar’s cultural rhythm and challenges the legacy of Négritude.

An allegiance to abusers

This weekend, Chris Brown will perform two sold-out concerts in South Africa. His relationship to the country reveals the twisted dynamic between a black American artist with a track record of violence and a country happy to receive him.

Shell’s exit scam

Shell’s so-called divestment from Nigeria’s Niger Delta is a calculated move to evade accountability, leaving behind both environmental and economic devastation.

Africa’s sibling rivalry

Nigeria and South Africa have a fraught relationship marked by xenophobia, economic competition, and cultural exchange. The Nigerian Scam are joined by Khanya Mtshali to discuss the dynamics shaping these tensions on the AIAC podcast.

The price of power

Ghana’s election has brought another handover between the country’s two main parties. Yet behind the scenes lies a flawed system where wealth can buy political office.

Beats of defiance

From the streets of Khartoum to exile abroad, Sudanese hip-hop artists have turned music into a powerful tool for protest, resilience, and the preservation of collective memory.