Young warriors of light

What is with the increasing use of sci-fi and horror elements in fairly recent music videos and films by African artists.

A still from "Woklow."

Malinese rapper Amkoullel gets some help from Pap G and Young Keitch in his “battle between good and evil.” The track itself is so-so, but it did remind us we should soon try and properly make sense of the increasing use of sci-fi and horror elements in (fairly) recent music videos and films – which would include Matthew Jankes’s Umkhungo, Niyi Akinmolayan’s Kajola and Jean-Pierre Bekolo’s Les Saignants, amongst others.

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.