Africa Is a Country

Fathers, men and brothers

Fathers, men and brothers

By
Hinda Talhaoui

The third in my series of musical breaks from Paris, France, features L'Algerino, Nessbeal, Corneille and La Fouine.

Still from "Des peres, des hommes et des frères."

This is number three in this series where I mine my friends back in Paris’s playlists. I live in Brooklyn, NY, these days and Sean asked me to do a regular post about the music back home.

One of my favorites Corneille with “Des peres, des hommes et des frères” (fathers, men and brothers), featuring who else but La Fouine. (You’ll remember La Fouine also from last week. He just won best French artist at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2011 held in Belfast. (He was up against David Guetta, Martin Solveig, Soprano and Ben l’oncle Soul.) La Fouine has finally been crowned French artist of the year.

Last week I featured “force et honneur,” the first single of rapper Nessbeal’s new album “Sélection Naturelle” (out tomorrow). This week, I highlight the song “Soldat,” which includes the lyric:  “Capitalism in the suburbs killed us it’s getting worse and worse.”

Mister You and Colonel Reyel continue the black-Arab musical alliance (this time specifically Guadeloupe and Morocco) over playstation and an apartment filled with beautiful people.

Finally, L’Algerino, who is as his name suggests of Algerian descent. On “Avec le sourire,” off his new album C’est Correct” – it debuted November 14th.  Over a sweet rhythm, he calls out far right French politician Marine le Pen. Her party, the Front National, is obsessed with immigration, especially by people of African and Arab descent. The moment was started by her father, Jean-Marie, who started the party, fought in France’s very violent colonial war in Algeria.  Marine is running for president. In the song, L’Algerino sings “Oh Marine, we’ll have your skin” followed by a line appealing for French unity: “We will form one heart, one body, one flag / Message from France from below for France from above.” Now, the youth movement of the Front National is not amused of course.

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.

The complexities of solidarity

Assassinated in 1978, Henri Curiel was a Jewish Egyptian Marxist whose likely killers include fascist French-Algerian colons, the apartheid South African Bureau of State Security, and the Abu Nidal Organization.