May 15, 2013
Heavy Metal in Mozambique
Defying conventional listening habits to bring a barely recognisable descendant back home
Memories of the antipathy towards Heavy Metal To profess an interest in Heavy Metal was once to invite looks of...
May 8, 2013
Nigeria’s greatest lyricist is back!
"The music they’re calling Nigerian now, I don’t have a clue what it is! No arrangement, no breathing..." – Bongos Ikwue
Bongos Ikwue Extensive lip service is paid to the notion of the nineteen seventies as a kind of golden age for...
April 22, 2013
Playing @ Work
Hugh Masekela, the legend, live in New York
Hugh Masekela on Saturday night at the Michael Schimmel Center in NYC It won’t surprise you to learn that...
April 8, 2013
Ethiopian Dubstep
"Music that represents the roots and cultures of my country" - Endeguena Mulu
It gives us great pleasure to bring the work of Endeguena Mulu to the attention of TIA readers. Endeguena, a young...
March 28, 2013
Fruity Loops: Appietus
Ghana's number 1 beatmaker
Appietus in his studio Fruity Loops is a series about Africa's beatmakers. Too often they remain unknown,...
March 20, 2013
Africa Now!
Freshlyground (SA), Lokua Kanza (DRC), Nneka (Nigeria) and Blitz the Ambassador (Ghana) bring their game to New York
The Apollo Theater in Harlem is a legendary venue. The careers of many an African-American artist has been launched...
March 11, 2013
“Kalakuta Diaries”
A new book fleshing out the story of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti
We like neat narratives, stories we can remember and recount easily. But neat narratives sometimes leave us unaware...
March 11, 2013
Eastern Congo: music without NGOs
The fact that Goma has a budding cultural scene has gone largely unnoticed by the rest of the world
Talent competition at SKIFF 2010 (photo by Thomas Gesthuizen) In December last year, the city of Goma in eastern...
March 7, 2013
Full Mzuka!
Long live Sauti za Busara, the friendliest festival on the planet
Woman of the hour: Khaira Arby in full swing (Photo: Peter Bennett). We are halfway through the closing night of...
March 5, 2013
Fruity Loops: Cymtom (Lesotho)
Producer & beatmaker with a firm grounding in traditional boom-bap aesthetics
Cymtom Fruity Loops is a series about Africa's beatmakers. Too often they remain unknown, sometime even...
March 4, 2013
Ruyonga
The Ugandan MC on growth, maturity and on being comfortable with his identity as a Ugandan
Ruyonga When I speak to Edwin Ruyonga – or Ruyonga as he’s simply known – he’s at a...
February 27, 2013
Fruity Loops: Blaka's beats (Ghana)
Playing the part to make you go eyyyyy!
Fruity Loops is a series about Africa's beatmakers. Too often they remain unknown, sometime even uncredited,...