Each Wednesday, The World Africa presents three new musical releases – or even four, exceptionally – from or inspired by the continent. This week, to celebrate the 100e issue of this weekly meeting, we asked artists from various backgrounds to give you the scoop on their new clips, excerpts from albums already released or to come.
“Humble Lion” by Takana Zion
We already told you about Takana Zion when his album was released Human Supremacy, in June 2021. The Guinean artist, who can be proud of having collaborated with many big names in reggae, such as the Jamaicans Sizzla, Capleton or the late Bunny Wailer, nevertheless wishes to remain modest. Thus, in Humble Lion, he sings “the simplicity of our daily life and the humility that characterizes the life of Rastas”, he explains to us. If the song was recorded in Kingston, the clip was shot in Senegal – “in Saly and Mbour”, he says – and directs Takana Zion among the fishermen, with an Ethiopian cross in his hand and in front of walls covered with a portrait of Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood of the Moors.
« Boom Che », de Pilani Bubu
The South African Pilani Bubu has also chosen to take a step aside for the filming of the music video for Boom Che, in which we find her in the market of Makola, in Ghana. In this piece, the artist pays homage to women “for their ability to work hard while raising children.” This track is from his album Folklore : Chapter 1, published in 2019 in South Africa and scheduled for release in France on May 6. Born in 1984 in Mthatha, in the Eastern Cape province, the singer offers a folk fusion born from the traditional heritage of her country and her travels around the world. “Folklore are tales wrongly taken for granted, she told the World in January. My goal is to pass on this heritage to future generations. »
«Ntiaro», by BKO
The BKO group combines – and electrifies – two traditions: that of the griots with the djeli ngoni and that of the Bambara hunters with the donso ngoni, two string instruments typical of Mali. After a first EP in 2012, followed by two albums, more than 450 concerts in 25 countries then two years of silence – and, for the singer Fassaro Sacko, of blindness linked to glaucoma –, the ex-BKO Quintet, which named after the Bamako airport code, will release a new opus in July, entitled Djine Bora, on the Swiss label Bongo Joe. Exclusively for The World Africa, he unveils the first single from the album, Ntiaro before starting a mini-French tour which will take him from Lyon, from this Wednesday evening at the Périscope, to Montpellier on April 12.
«Diligent Drawing», de Kunta
Hip-hop and ethiojazz often go hand in hand. Just listen to the collaboration between American rapper Akua Naru and Ethiopian master Mulatu Astatke on the track The Offering (2018) or those of the French groups Ethioda and Arat Kilo with rappers MacSinge, Mike Ladd or Rocé. We will now have to reckon with Kunta, a sextet from Lyon who will release their first album on April 22, Diligent Drawing, where the flow of Yovan – who raps in English – rubs shoulders with drums, keyboards, guitar, bass and brass for a sound journey that takes us from 1970s Ethiopia to 1990s rap, passing through soul, jazz and psychedelic rock. A mystical and abundant universe to discover in preview in a medley of four excerpts.
Find all the editorial staff’s musical favorites in the YouTube playlist of the World Africa.