Africa Is a Country

The Delasi Edition

The Delasi Edition

By
Delasi

This selection of smooth Afropop illustrates Delasi's transnational vision for contemporary African art and music.

The art for Delasi's 2015 release, #ThoughtJourney

Highly recommended for your weekend mornings: It’s the second Weekend Music Break of the year (enter confetti and dancehall sirens) and I’m super delighted to present you this playlist.

(1) We kick off with the Afro bass duo Gato Preto’s “Take a Stand”, which features Kenyan singer Janice Iche. Sounds like an anthem for African pride everywhere in the world.

(2) On “Brujas,” the Bronx-based artist Princess Nokia explores her roots and origins acknowledging the Yoruba deity Orisha. Try not to get possessed as you enjoy the visuals.

(3) Senegalese producer Ibaaku takes you to his abstract world on the hypnotic tune “Monkey Boy” off his Alien Cartoon album.

(4) Next stop, practice your dance moves to Branko’s “Let Me Go” track feat. Nonku Phiri & Mr. Carmack. Shot in Joburg, enjoy nice Pantsula dance moves infused with zouk bass and Nonku’s chilled R&B flavor.

(5) Sudanese and Nubian inspired collective Alsarah & The Nubatones share melodic vocals in Arabic backed by oud drums on their quest to find home.

(6) Sampha’s “Blood On Me” is bordering around dark and desperately forebodes the demons that are out to get him. For the sake of delicious music, let’s hope they don’t find him.

(7) Jamaican singer-songwriter Chronixx pays tribute to all the queens, if you are not teary eyed at the beauty of black love celebration then you may probably have ideas of starting your own family.

(8) “How Far” by Red Red is a socially conscious and politically unapologetic tune that sees M3nsa playing different faces of the average Ghanaian, and asking the most pertinent questions on all of Ghanaians’ minds.

(9) UK based Ghanaian producer DJ Juls has steadily been releasing hits for a while now. Enjoy this video for “Give you Love” ft. L.A.X.

(10) What would the world do without the black woman? Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 celebrates and glorifies the strength and power of black women in the diaspora.

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.