"Soldiers in Maiduguri, the embattled capital of Borno state, which has been under constant siege by Boko Haram, celebrate Nigeria’s election to music by Nigerian recording artist Davido" (via CCTV Africa): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIKH0IlBGdc CCTV Africa sites top African footballers like Emmanuel Adebayor (is he still around?) and Samuel Eto’o for popularizing Skelewu beyond its Nigerian base. Davido's official music video--posted on Youtube--has had more than 10 million views thus far when we checked earlier today). Skelewu "is variously said to refer to money, love or elation." In any case, the video (UPDATE: which may be a few weeks old) is a neat bit of--unintended?--propaganda for Nigeria's army assailed by the people it claims to protect, in Western media media and by its neighbors for its seemingly inept reaction to Boko Haram. UPDATE: We were just informed those can't be Nigerians--the patterns on their uniforms either indicate Cameroon or Niger and in any case, "no Nigerian would dance Skelewu so badly!"

Africa is a Radio Season 2 is here! In our inaugural episode, we have added two hosts, Sean Jacobs and Elliot Ross of this site! In the first episode they have a discussion on the African media sphere, The South African student protest "Rhodes Must Fall", and the upcoming Nigerian elections. There is also of course a selection of music from Chief Boima touching on all corners of the African diaspora.

In 2013 South African alterna-rockers, BLK JKS and The Brother Moves On, met in Paris to represent their country in a show called "Rock in Johannesburg." Although both groups hail from the same place, they found it hard to collaborate there, and found it strange that they were first uniting (and bonding) in a European capital. So to rectify the situation they put together a "dream gig" combining the talents of both bands with some special invited guests that include: Moonchild, Joao Orecchia from Motel Mari, Nosisi Ngakana from Kwani Experience, Neo Hlusku, Makhafula Vilakazi, and the Blk Diamond Butterfly Thandiswa Mazwai. The show will take place this February 28th somewhere in Johannesburg. Want to find out where? Follow the hashtag #FOLLOWTHEBLKRABBIT for details in the lead up to the day!

A bunch of us went to the African Studies Association's annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana. This is the world's largest gathering of Africanists. Much transpired. The problems with conferences this large is you can't cover everything. We made notes and hopefully we've found new contributors. For a general sense of what transpired, the tweets of AIAC's Oumar Ba (graduate student at University of Florida)  is a good barometer for the mood of the conference. (See also the hashtag #ASA2014). Ba, though, missed Canadian historian Martin Klein's bizarre claim as he was introducing veteran Senegalese Boubacar Barry for the association's "Distinguished Africanist Award" that "... when I went to Senegal When I first visited Senegal in 1963 there were no historians of Senegal." Some people moved in their seats. Sitting next to me, an African scholar shouted back: "... in America." Barry acted like he didn't hear it and emphasized that he spent much of his career at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar. You know who that university is named for, right? * AIAC also held its first "conference party." About twenty people turned up at a bar in downtown Indianapolis, including a whole bunch of AIAC writers and/or editors--Jill Kelley, Liz Timbs, Yael Even Or, Daniel Magaziner, Oumar Ba, Neelika Jayawardane, Marissa Moorman--and a whole bunch of supporters and friends. Next year, San Diego. * Enough academia. The big news is that we published our first ebook, "Apartheid Israel: The Politics of an Analogy." It was edited by historian Jon Soske and AIAC Life President Sean Jacobs. The ebook has a stellar cast of contributors--mostly academics (them again) and researchers working on and from South Africa--that include Achille Mbembe, Robin DG Kelley, Marissa Moorman, Bill Freund and Andy Clarno, among others, asking whether the analogy is helpful. Go on, read it. * #BandAid30 rolled on with Bob Geldof now having the number one tune on a number of platforms. It is still unclear whether Africans asked him to do this (some African musicans, stars like Salif Keita and Amadou and Mariam among them, made a song already) or where all this money is going. We leave you with this #BandAid30 simulacrum (HT Angela Subulwa, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-aMV2xXdps And, here's a video of the artist intellectual Cameroonian Goddy Leye (1965-2011), lying in a bed of bananas and watermelons, singing "We are the World": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcP7PVlxIu4 * The white South African artist behind the Mandela Ray Ban sculpture (now remixed by Tokoloshe Stencils) compared the negative reaction to his bollocks to the "mob hysteria," "lynch mobs with burning crosses" (the Klan?) and the Rwandan Genocide. Yes, he did. Cape Talk, the radio station where he made these claims is a subject for another day. * Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a Dutch filmmaker, who made a film about blackface, the side-eye. Here's why. We're not sure who gets the Stuff White People Do Award for last week. The Ray Ban Mandela artist? Zwarte Piet's defenders? Bob Geldof? You decide. * Part of our Football is a Country offshoot, Sean Jacobs and Pablo Medina Uribe, work and study respectively, at The New School. That's where they hosted the writer and broadcaster David Goldblatt last Wednesday. David has been described as the best football historian of our time, so this was a treat. Once The New School posts the video, we'll put it up here. * Finally, there's this: (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));

Fed up with what a group of young Senegalese describe as the state of mind of their society being one of 'defeat', they decided to start a collective called Y'en a Marre, meaning ‘we are fed up’. Although they came from all walks of life - a mishmash of musicians, activists and journalists - they had one thing in common: to bring about change in Senegal. One way to do so was through music. So the hiphop component of the collective decided to write the song 'Dox ak sa gox', meaning ‘To work with your community’.

The Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) series "My Song " interviews musicians about their music. (Previous episodes are archived here). In the latest episode of the series My Song, Senegalese rappers Djily Bagdad and Thiat reflect on their song and the work of Y’en a Marre. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjvKVLqIXow For a French interview with Y'en a Marre member Fou Malade, click here * My Song, the series, is produced by Africa is a Country's own Serginho Roosblad. It is filmed by Sandesh Bhugaloo and edited by Serginho. Sophie van Leeuwen helped out on this episode.

The Norwegian Students' and Academics' International Assistance Fund (SAIH), the organization responsible for the brilliant Africa for Norway campaign, is back with their annual awards for the worst and best fundraising videos by international development organizations: ...and, like last year, Africa is a Country is on the jury! Judging for the Rusty and Golden Radiator Awards will commence soon, however we need your help dear Africa is a Country readers. The committee is still looking for nominations, so if you have any ideas please share it in the comments on this post, or if you prefer, submit directly via email here: saih@saih.no. For inspiration, check out last year's winners on the Rusty Radiator Awards website.

Africa is a Radio episode 6 opens up with a transnational blend, combining remixes of Dotorado Pro's "African Scream" with its sample source: DJ Sbu & Zahara's "Lengoma." From there we travel around the world -from Ferguson to Havana to Monrovia- touching on the sonic imprints of the contemporary news cycle. We end on a lighter, danceable note. (photo via NBC news)

The essayist T.O. Molefe (he is a contributor here too) has a new op-ed column up at nytimes.com. He writes about "South Africa's War on Women." The oped opens with a discussion of why South Africans appear so blase about gender violence. Molefe writes, "... crimes against black lesbians don’t register on the public’s radar amid the general landscape of violence. The police reported that there were over 17,000 homicides and 62,000 sexual assaults in South Africa between April 2013 and the end of March 2014." Molefe argues that this disregard are related to the disorder and structural violence in the country’s poor townships. Then he gets to paralympian Oscar Pistorius, who will know in two weeks whether he will go to prison:

There is also the case of Oscar Pistorius, the world-famous athlete who this month was found guilty of culpable homicide for fatally shooting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. He now faces a potential maximum prison sentence of 15 years on that charge and up to five years on a lesser charge of negligently firing a gun in public. His case has nonetheless forced South Africans to confront two dangerous dissociative myths.

Mr. Pistorius is wealthy, dashing, famous and white. He has challenged South Africans’ quietly whispered belief that domestic violence and femicide are the preserve of poor, black men prone to alcohol and substance abuse.

This belief allowed middle class and wealthy whites to tut disbelievingly as they leafed through the Sunday papers reading about the latest incidents of violence against women. In their minds, this violence was something happening far away and the people involved were part of a society divorced from their own.

The public spectacle of the Pistorius trial, which centered on a predominantly white gated community in Pretoria changed all that; it’s no longer so easy to tune out to the shouting, breaking glass and sounds of fists on flesh coming from the house next door.

Regardless of whether there’s any truth to Mr. Pistorius’s defense against the charges — that he feared someone had broken into his home and fired shots in self-defense — his argument exposed the violent masculinity that cost Ms. Steenkamp her life. The person from whom he was supposedly protecting himself and Ms. Steenkamp was a figment of the white middle-class imagination: a member of the dreaded hordes of poor, black men who each night ostensibly scale the electrified fences of gated communities to rape and pillage.

Source.

New video for 'Hope,' by Ghanaian rapper Abladzo Kwame, off his EP 'This Ewe Boy.' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEO2zhHys2I&feature=youtu.be

Africa is a Radio went on break last month along with Africa is a Country, so I'm just now able to get to posting July's show here. This episode focuses on South African Hip Hop, both commercial and underground with a special report from Pretoria by Ts'eliso Mohaneng. Enjoy, and look out for September's Episode on Groovalizacion soon!