Don’t kill yourself because of suffering

Weekend Music Break, No.104 is just a playlist of ten great songs accompanied by predictably striking visuals from across Africa and its diaspora.

Malian singing legend Oumou Sangare performing in Essaouira, Morocco in June 2012.

Weekend Music Break is back to our regularly scheduled programming.  This week we start out with Malian legend Oumou Sangaré’s first release in seven years – and to top it off, she appears with Tony Allen in tow. The main message is about staying alive: “Don’t kill yourself because of suffering /  No-one should commit suicide because of pain / My brothers and sisters, we should not take our own lives /
because of suffering …”

Life on earth is not easy, but-no one should kill themselves

Then we head to Kenya where Muthoni channels a bit of (UK singer) MIA to call out corrupt politicians in her home country.

Up next, MHD and crew head from Paris to Manchester, and showing the Brits the French-African flavor their gonna miss out on as they start the EU exit process this week.

But London-based Mazi Chukz shows that the British-Africans can hold their own when it comes to stews.

Let’s head back to our continent now, alongside Wizkid who takes on a journey as he plays another packed live show somewhere on the continent.

Back home in Nigeria Lil’ Kesh makes an appeal for no fake love.

Cassper Nyovest does his best “I’m from Atlanta” impression with”Tito Mboweni.”

Let’s calm down from that a bit and head to Tidiane Thiam’s and Amadou Binta Konte in Senegal, and enjoy a more stripped down sound: one guitar, a hoddu and a microphone.

And let’s close out this week’s playlist with my current home of Brazil, and a who’s who of Afro-Brazilian rappers of many different stripes. Here they’re making an appeal for better and more and equal representation in their own country.

Further Reading

Not exactly at arm’s length

Despite South Africa’s ban on arms exports to Israel and its condemnation of Israel’s actions in Palestine, local arms companies continue to send weapons to Israel’s allies and its major arms suppliers.

Ruto’s Kenya

Since June’s anti-finance bill protests, dozens of people remain unaccounted for—a stark reminder of the Kenyan state’s long history of abductions and assassinations.

Between Harlem and home

African postcolonial cinema serves as a mirror, revealing the limits of escape—whether through migration or personal defiance—and exposing the tensions between dreams and reality.

The real Rwanda

The world is slowly opening its eyes to how Paul Kagame’s regime abuses human rights, suppresses dissent, and exploits neighboring countries.

In the shadow of Mondlane

After a historic election and on the eve of celebrating fifty years of independence, Mozambicans need to ask whether the values, symbols, and institutions created to give shape to “national unity” are still legitimate today.

À sombra de Mondlane

Depois de uma eleição histórica e em vésperas de celebrar os 50 anos de independência, os moçambicanos precisam de perguntar se os valores, símbolos e instituições criados para dar forma à “unidade nacional” ainda são legítimos hoje.