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Music

Music. Tiken Jah Fakoly. The star of African reggae.

With his latest work the Ivorian artist, who has lived in Mali for years also for political reasons, gives new voice to 13 flagships of his career. A path that took him to the top of the continental reggae scene. Emerging in the 1960s, reggae was welcomed promptly and with great enthusiasm throughout Africa. But…

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Musica. Indonesia. Ngartini and her guzheng.

A dreamy and very sweet sound which immediately evokes Asian panoramas and tranquillity. Music that fascinates and excites. All this emerges from the performances and recordings of a great artist, Ngartini Huang. Indonesia is a land about which very little is known here in the West, despite having more than 275 million inhabitants spread across…

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Mali. Ten years of the Amazons of music.

The music of the Amazones d’Afrique, a collective of female musicians started in Mali in 2014, is powerful, blending wide-ranging melodies, pan-African styles, gritty pop and an exuberant stage presence. It is impossible to stop listening to them, not to be overwhelmed by the pop rhythms, by the electro-futuristic sounds combined with the traditional. But…

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Music. The soul of Madagascar.

Malagasy music is a rainbow of vivid colours, cheerful and full of rhythm. A mix of traditional folk and modern sounds, it is all there to be heard and experienced. Madagascar is a land both complicated and wonderful. Inhabited since 2000 BC. by a people coming from Indonesia, it was discovered by the Portuguese in…

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Music. The Tinariwen. Beyond fear.

The music of the Malian group has the traits of blues, rock, world and traditional Tuareg music. Amatssou sings about exile, suffering and the pride of a people. Inspired by Amatssou, Tinariwen’s latest album, the video by Swiss photographer Benoît Peverelli (viewable from the end of October on YouTube) shows Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Abdallah Ag…

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Music. Palestine. Sounds of a wounded land.

A mix of traditional music with the modern musical styles of pop rock and hip-hop. The theme always remains the life of a people who have been suffering for too many years. The Holy Land has always been a difficult country, overflowing with political tensions and conflicting religiosities. It is difficult to say – even…

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Music. Morocco. A Rainbow of Sounds.

In a mix of ancient traditions and echoes of cosmopolis, Moroccan music fascinates with its sonority and elegance. Morocco is increasingly looking towards Europe, above all thanks to its emigrants who have populated the metropolises of the West for centuries in a diaspora basin of at least five million people. The parents of Loreen, winner…

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Music. King Ayisoba.

Kolongo is a musical genre that takes its name from a two-stringed lute of the Frafra ethnic group, between Burkina Faso and Ghana. Among its main performers is King Ayisoba, a Ghanaian musician. The artist has just released Work Hard, one of the best African albums of recent years. In Africa there is one great…

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Music. The Boom of the Afrobeats.

The music industry is experiencing the fastest global growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (+34.7%). The Spotify platform recorded 13.5 billion streams last year. The musical trend of the moment comes from Africa and is called Afrobeats. One of the genres most in vogue globally. And not just today, but for many years already. Such is the…

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Music. Tems, the Rebel.

Before long, Temilade Openiyi known professionally as Tems quickly made her way into the R&B scene. Until international recognition last February. A journey that began with the song Mr Rebel. Last February, the young Nigerian singer Tems won a Grammy (the Oscars of music) for the ‘Best Melodic Rap Performance’ category, awarded to her for…

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Music. Mdou Moctar. The Sounds of the Desert.

From the golden sands of the Sahara Desert to the renowned world of music festivals. Songs of love for his land and his people. One of the most beautiful and intense albums of last year has a title that is already a whole program: Afrique Victime. It bears the signature of Mdou Moctar, aka Mahamadou…

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Ali Birra, Icon of Oromo Music.

For over fifty years he has been the voice of this ethnic group of Ethiopia and has garnered considerable popularity. He had disagreements with Haile Selassie and with Mengistu. He died last November in Dire Dawa. Although he left Ethiopia in the 1980s and stayed away for about twenty years, Ali Birra continued to be…

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Advocacy

Angie Torres. A refugee among refugees.

Forced to flee Colombia, she has managed to rebuild her life in Ecuador. Now she defends the human rights of migrants and in particular of…

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Baobab

Brazil. The violin's sound.

There was a man who had an only son. When the man died, the son was left all alone in the world. There were not many…

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Youth & Mission

What do Africa's youth have to say about the future…

The latest African Youth Survey from the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, a leading African foundation promoting active citizenship across the continent, provides a comprehensive look at the…

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