Africa Is a Country

Music Break. Friday Bonus Edition, N°1

Music Break. Friday Bonus Edition, N°1

By
Sean Jacobs

Girl Power is big among female West African pop singers.  Or so recent music videos suggest. We’ve featured Goldie Harvey and Lousika (Ghana) here before. Now here’s two more. First up is Ghanaian Efya with “Sexy Sassy Wahala,” from the soundtrack of 10-part Ghanaian movie “Adams Apple“:

Next up is Nigerian singer Zara Gretti:

Related: Jogyo, one half of whom is from Gabon:

Unrelated: The Congolese-American (is there a meme here?) Hugo Million is building a following back in the DRC, while mixing party and political music (not unusual to Congolese artistes, of course). Here, from a few months ago, is “Benga Nzambe,” which takes a political tone and which is appropriate given the volatile climate around elections in the DRC now:

Finally, some French rap “made in Normandy!” HVJ du Coeff & Jeune Karn with “Les égouts de l’underground’:

H/T: Okayafrica, What’s Up Africa, Tom Devriendt

Further Reading

Fuel’s errand

When Africa’s richest man announced the construction of the continent’s largest crude oil refinery, many were hopeful. But Aliko Dangote has not saved Nigeria. The Nigerian Scam returns to the Africa Is a Country Podcast to explain why.

Fragile state

Without an immediate change in approach, Somalia will remain a fragmented country populated by self-serving elites seeking foreign patrons.

Coming home

In 1991, acclaimed South African artist Helen Sebidi’s artworks were presumed stolen in Sweden. Three decades later, a caretaker at the residential college where they disappeared found them in a ceiling cupboard, still in their original packaging.

Imaginary homelands

A new biography of former apartheid homeland leader Lucas Mangope struggles to do more than arrange the actions of its subject into a neat chronology.

Business as usual?

This month, Algeria quietly held its second election since Abdelaziz Bouteflika was ousted in 2019. On the podcast, we ask what Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s second term means for the country.