Africa Is a Country

Friday Bonus Music Break, N°6

Friday Bonus Music Break, N°6

By
Tom Devriendt

Mali’s on our mind. Mostly because of the confusion. Reports from Bamako abound, while there’s still very little information available from the north. Malian artists in the diaspora, it seems, are as confused. (Check Mokobe’s site for example.) Earlier this week, Tuareg band Tamikrest gave a shoutout to “our friend” Ben Zabo. (Is it true what his European label says? Is this “the first album ever to be released by a Malian of Bo descent”?) His hommage to Dounaké Koïta:

While we’re waiting for their new album to be released (later this year, if all goes well), South African Driemanskap made time to record another video, this time for ‘Ivamna’, still off their debut album:

Nomadic Wax keeps working hard to push hip hop from Zimbabwe. They’ll even shoot a video in Washington DC for it. (And, for the record, in Harare.) Dumi RIGHT, Outspoken and MC Pep:

A week after first seeing this video (on This is Africa’s page), I still think this is one of the wildest songs I’ve heard in a long time. I also believe we’ll get to hear many more ‘Facebook’-titled tracks in the future. Not just from Senegal. Eumeudi Badiane, Wally Seck and Abou Thioubalo:

And to slow things down, Guinean Ba Cissoko live in Paris. ‘Politiki’:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHrQi-fBWxk

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.