Africa Is a Country

Weekend Music Break 44

Weekend Music Break 44

By
Tom Devriendt

Here’s your weekly round-up of new videos and tunes to get the weekend started. First up, Gaël Faye giving us another video off his “Pili Pili sur un Croissant au Beurre” record, and reminding us of everything that’s good in Bujumbura. Pick your dish:

‘Burning’ is the lead single off Silver Bullet’s “Afrikans in Denmark” EP, featuring Afrikan Boy:

From earlier this year: Ghanaians Gemini and EL (and Wanlov):

Art Melody and the band he toured with in France recorded this “live” footage:

‘Kioo’ is a new X Plastaz song and video by Tanzanian rapper Ziggy, shot in Stockholm (Sweden):

Zimbabwean rapper Synik–remember Amkelwa’s interview–released a video for an older track of his:

‘The Sun’ is the dreamy lead single off Malawian (London-residing) artist Dziko’s “Afro Electricity” EP:

Dirtmusic (that’s Hugo Race and Chris Eckman) wrote a song for peace together with Malian singer Aminata Wassidje Traore:

South African Simphiwe Dana held off from releasing the ‘Mayine’ video for an older song, blaming “perfectionist me”— we don’t see why she should have:

And to end, a song by Ghanaian Jojo Abot (who lists Simphiwe as her inspiration):

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.