Africa Is a Country

Friday Bonus Music Break, N°17

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Friday Bonus Music Break, N°17

By
Tom Devriendt

Rounding up some music videos we’ve been tweeting over the past weeks, this is your Friday Music Break. Produced by the hardest working rapper in Kinshasa, Lexxus (that’s him in the video, scouting for new talent in Kinshasa’s streets), ‘Bo tia K’ is the first outtake from Bawuta Kin’s upcoming album Ba Wu. Great video too:

Next, smooth Kenyan rap from Muthoni The Drummer Queen in ‘Feelin’ it’

London duo The Busy Twist recorded this music video in Accra:

‘Bravo Papa’ (now with English subtitles) makes us look forward to South African artist Jaak’s Galant album:

Aline Frazão plays an accoustic version of ‘Cacimbo’ (that’s Angola’s dry season):

After a long hiatus, South African TKZee artist Tokollo Tshabalala “Magesh” has recorded new kwaito tunes:

Gorgeous Sudanese a capella by Alsarah and her sister Nahid:

I haven’t counted the times ‘Africa’ gets mentioned in this mishmash video for Madlib’s ‘Hunting Theme’ and ‘Yafeu’ (both taken off his 3rd Medicine Show), but it’s a lot.

Maryland’s Kendall Elijah belatedly got a video out for his track ‘The Wild’ (from last year):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBQUzdQN51

And finally, Donal Scannell created this music video for Sahrawi singer Aziza Brahim’s ‘The Earth Sheds Tears’ in which she remembers those who fought to liberate those parts of the Western Sahara which remain outside of Moroccan control. Aziza Brahim resides in Spain these days:

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.