The Afro-Anarchist’s Guide to Kendrick Lamar
On "To Pimp a Butterfly," is Kendrick being ironic when he wonders "How Much a Dollar Cost"?
Culture
Africa is a Country teams up with Coffebeans Routes to present a Cape Town concert series.
This month we will be kicking off a special partnership with Coffeebeans Routes to bring you a concert live from Cape Town on the last Thursday of every month. This concert series is a celebration of Coffeebeans Routes 10th year of existence. The organization is a cultural tourism company that just received an award for their […]
Lucky Bastard
Osekre, whose music is a blend of Afrobeat and ska, on the trials and tribulations of being an African musician in New York City
In the time of xenophobia
The writer's discomfort with being South African in Zimbabwe; something he eventually has to come to terms with.
Angolan Cinemas: Past and Present Tense
Cultural spaces and historic patrimony have not fared well during Angola's post-war reconstruction and development.
Kassav, and Jozi’s love for zouk
Kassav are a band formed in Paris in ’79. They were in Johannesburg recently, where they played to a capacity audience at the Bassline in Newtown. I attended the show without having heard their music prior. Neither was I familiar with how they looked, save for the posters which started going up on lamp posts some two […]
The Venice Biennale and the problem of nationalism
Okwui Enwezor’s “All the World's Futures” is a radical attempt at shifting the paradigms of biennale models to create a more democratic society of artists and exhibition spaces.
The Adventures Of Uno July
South African hip hop audiences blatantly ignore Ill Skillz’ craft because they're from Cape Town.
The Chronic Sketches “A New Cartography”
The latest issue of the Chronic, a quarterly gazette offshoot of the “project-based mutable object” that is Chimurenga, states its thesis on its cover, which, in the digital version, looks like a network of chalky cartographical scrawls across a dark expanse. The drawings evoke colonial discourse of “blank spaces” and “the dark continent,” reminding readers […]
The limits of debunking only the pseudoscience of race
What a very white book launch in a very black neighborhood in downtown Johannesburg reveals.
Why rapper Akala is good for TV
When the rapper Akala called out Britain's racism on Frankie Boyle's show.
Weekend Music Break No.75
Here’s your weekend selection for May 23rd, 2015. To kick things off, just stop what you’re doing, watch and listen to this by Wanlov… A message from Sierra Leone to South Africa (to the World) — relevant to many of the posts going up on this site as of late — Kao Denero asks, “Why?”… […]
African poets for Africa
Badilisha is rare: an African project funded by a mix of government and private art donors, facilitating media access to African poets.
New Ways of Seeing The World
An interview with director Tala Hadid and producer Danny Glover of "A Narrow Frame of Midnight," set amidst political turmoil in Morocco.
Letters to Hlompho Letsielo
In May 2015, Lesotho lost one of its most vibrant and creative minds, the photographer Hlompho Letsielo.
Dave Chappelle’s mother worked for Patrice Lumumba
Yvonne Seon, later a college professor, thought Lumumba was a “decisive leader” that “cared deeply about his people."
Black in Israel
The film 'Red Leaves’ is a timely depiction of the Ethiopian-Israeli struggle.
Weekend Music Break No.74
Here is our weekend round up of audio and visuals from around the African Internet… Kicking things off, Spoek Mathambo spearheaded band Fantasma premiered their video for Cat and Mouse this week, featuring a collection of young South African ballet dancers. Alabama neo-trap poster boys Rae Sremmurd saw Fantasma’s video, and decided to head to South […]
Talking China in Africa at the PEN World Voices Festival in New York
Literary festivals are usually a disappointment. Even when a cherished writer is speaking, the chances are you’d be better off spending an hour simply reading their work rather than going along to watch in person as they try to navigate another stilted panel discussion. But sometimes a debate breaks out that is worth tuning in to.
Goodbye B.B. King. Here he is playing live in Kinshasa, then Zaire, 1974
Hamba kahle, B.B. King (1925-2015)