Senegal: Mbalax Evolution

Guitarist and songwriter Jimi M’baye got his name from Jimi Hendrix. “I used to play tunes like ‘Hey Joe’ and ‘Crosstown Traffic’ when I first started,” Jimi (born Mamadou) told me [...]

Portrait of Youssou as a Young Man

One interview led to another earlier this week. I met with the assistant director of Youssou N’dour’s citizen movement known as Fekke Ma Ci Boole. In the Wolof language that means “it is because I am a witness that I play a part.” [...]

Tension and Anticipation Ahead of Senegal’s Presidential Elections

The 85-year-old incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade is seeking a third term despite a constitutional two-term limit setting off protests and violence.

Senegal: Fire and Riot Time

The routine at these almost daily rallies goes like this: crowds gather, including local activists like Y’en a marre and the civil society activists in M23. They chat, rail against incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade, and exchange the latest news until one or more of the opposition candidates running against Wade arrives. Youssou N’dour often shows up as well.

Djily Baghdad Raps the Anthem of Y’en a Marre

Djily Baghdad, featured here in video, raps the anthem of the Y’en a marre (we’re fed up) movement. Y’en a marre is a large community of rappers who are demanding President Abdoulaye Wade to leave power.

Get Your Tear-Gas Masks Here

I used to notice the Senegalese strivers on the streets of New York City and how, whenever it rained, they’d be the first ones in the aisles of the job-lot stores, buying a gross of umbrellas, and unloading them in the proverbial New York minute [...]

Marco Werman Heads to Senegal

Anchor Marco Werman heads to Senegal to report on the country’s presidential elections, which are set for February 26.

A St. Valentine’s Day Note

Valentine’s Day gift giving has been growing in popularity in Iran in recent years.

French Band ‘The Two’ Stars Ara Starck and David Jarre

Starck and Jarre are darlings in France, but they are hoping to find the same sort of love in the US.

Massive Lead Poisoning in Nigeria

A gold mining boom driven by high global prices is contaminating local villages with toxic lead dust, leading to a crisis that Human Rights Watch says is the worst lead poisoning epidemic in modern history.

Blue King Brown: Indigenous Activists and a Best-Selling Band

Though Aboriginal communities have felt marginalized for centuries in Australia, their activism doesn’t typically grow as heated as it did in Canberra Thursday. Marco Werman profiles Blue King Brown, an example of indigenous activists in Australia who are a best-selling band.

Below, Blue King Brown

Video: Malian Band SMOD’s Desert-Dry Groove

After the Arab Spring of 2011, many people living in Sub-Saharan Africa began to wonder when they would rise up and have an African spring. It is hard to say when that might happen, but if it does, the uprising already has a house band in Mali, SMOD, with several road-tested anthems.

No, Sir, Google and the CIA Are Not the Same

Wednesday, I interviewed Wael Ghonim (wah-ELL go-NEEM), author of the just published Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People Is Greater Than the People in Power, and the man who steered the Egyptian revolution on Facebook.

Sia Tolno: A Rising Singer From Sierra Leone

Sia Tolno is from Sierra Leone and critics are comparing her sound to that of the late great Miriam Makeba and Tina Turner.

Nigeria: Music in Protest, Protest in Music

Every day this week in Lagos, Seun Kuti, the son of Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo Kuti, has joined in protests against the government’s decision to end fuel subsidies in the country [...]