Africa Is a Country

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Sean Jacobs

Sean Jacobs, Founder-Editor of Africa is a Country, is on the faculty of The New School.

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Sacha Baron Cohen’s Gaddafi spoof

http://youtu.be/cYplvwBvGA4 The trailer for Sacha Baron Cohen's latest comedy, "The Dictator," where he plays a thinly veiled cut-and-paste Muammar Gaddafi complete with Bollywood remix, Hamid Karzai lookalike rival, camels and 9/11 themed jokes. Tons of teenage boys will go see this.

Necessary doses of pan-Africanism: Esperanza Spalding’s “Black Gold”

http://youtu.be/Nppb01xhfe0 It's not too late to take your vitamins. And this. Jazz bass player and bandleader Esperanza Spalding, who defeated Bieber nation last year, takes on school curriculum and Black History Month with the song "Black Gold," the single from her album "Radio Music Society." She gets some help from vocalist Algebra Blessett. We'll forgive the little boy for going on about Africa has "86 countries." A more pressing issue: Where can I get that book the dad is flipping through? And that's your #MusicBreak.

Financial Times blues

I read The Financial Times because they cover the news that is essential to capital and those who rule us. But most of time I just don't get their op-ed page.

When Rick Ross went to South Africa and Gabon

For some odd reason the latest issue of The New Yorker ran a profile of rapper Rick Ross. Lots of good, clever writing by Sasha Frere Jones on familiar controversies about Ross (for example, Frere Jones calls Ross out for lying about his real life drug dealer exploits; show me the rapper who doesn't make things up) and gratuitous breakdown of Ross' mostly misogynistic lyrics. The oddest part was where the magazine encourages its readers to go and listen to Ross's music on the New Yorker website. (Just imagine the reader.) Anyway, it reminded me of the two-part "vlog" (video blog) that Ross's people produced of trips he took in 2011 to perform in South Africa and Gabon. This is part 1: http://youtu.be/lRwLBTLuN84 It's a full 9 minutes of product placement, driving cars, scenes from a casino, screaming fans and Ross occasionally reminding people of his surroundings ("Johannesburg ... one of the most beautiful places I've ever been"). Here's part 2, still titled with reference to South Africa, but which is really about his trip to Gabon and talking about the chicken pasta Kenya Airways served him ("that was love") and how he thought Kilamanjaro was the name for weed. http://youtu.be/7iEW4f0AuZU

Surfer dude

http://youtu.be/kmv4o3XHPM0 Surfing as leisure and a sport has historically been associated with whites in South Africa, though that's not necessarily true in practice. In fact a few documentary films (for example, "Taking back the waves"), the new feature film "Otelo Burning" and the work of photographer Richard Johnson (scroll to the right) have pointed to a long tradition of surfing among young black people in South Africa's coastal cities.*  So, I always wondered when some creative director would pounce on the idea to commodify that history and struggle for recognition. Well, Cell C, a mobile/cell operator has done so now as part of its "Be Now" campaign targeted at young people with an ad focusing on"budding" semi-pro surfer Avuyile Ndamase from the Eastern Cape province. * The recent documentary, "Whitewash," interrogated similar themes in surfing in the United States.

Tech Apartheid

Our tech posts never stray from tweeting new data on Twitter and Facebook usage on the continent--but now and then--as occasional readers of Gizmodo and Kotaku--we pause.

50 Cent goes to Somalia

So rapper 50 Cent (accompanied by American journalists) was in Somalia and Kenya this week to visit people living in refugee camps displaced by the civil war with Islamic militants. Expect lots of '50 in Somalia' reports on US television. 50 Cent, who joins a long line of celebrities helping Africans (he is being touted as the 21st century celebrity humanitarian already) handed out food and danced with the children. He also had enough time to pose for what looks like a movie poster shot with children (above) and a soldier (below), and to promote his energy drink Street King. If his Facebook page receives 1 million "likes" by Sunday, 50 will donate an additional one million meals. And he'll sell more Street King in the process. We've also learned something about Somalia in the process.

Pharoahe Monch is ‘Still Standing’

http://youtu.be/tBfMuf_JjI0 One of the best rappers alive, featuring the lady who sang the original hook on "You Got Me." Off Monch's 'W.A.R. (We Are Renegades)' -- the album has been out for more than 6 months already, but the music video is new. The subtext is Monch's battle with asthma. Director Terence Nance has done work for Blitz The Ambassador before. Is that Jean Grae hanging around in the studio? This is your music break.

“Can you think of a country that starts with the letter U?”

You've seen those "Are you smarter than a 5 year old" videos on Youtube (it's an actual TV show) or marveled at the intelligence of Miss Teen South Carolina, now here's the kids from a suburban high school in Washington State. We learn that "Somebody Bin Laden" is the Vice-President of the United States, that the US gained its independence in the Civil War, that Canada is actually a state in the US, that "South America is a country that borders the US." Oh, and one student suggested Europe and Utopia are countries that start with a U. http://youtu.be/M2fHQ9eULzk