This Is Nigeria

That Nigeria vid is a stark departure from the utopian Afrofuturist visions we’ve been seeing elsewhere (see: Janelle Monáe, Black Panther, etc). Please balance your intake today with a look at @the.afrofuturist on instagram, which “reimagin[es] the black experience via science fiction, history and fantasy,” especially via the works of contemporary black artists, but also through things architecture and pieces of forward-thinking African infrastructure.

Now that you’ve balanced, let’s re-balance and talk Pierre Kwenders. Born in the Congo and relocated to Quebec as a teenager, he makes electro-infused pan-African music that people are calling ‘Afrofuturist’ because of its combination of traditional sounds with modern sound engineering. He wishes folks would drop the ‘Afrofuturism’ label– to him, it’s a regressive notion; if Africans simply participating in global trends is somehow a part of the fiction-future, that assumes, structurally, that Africa is less-than. Why can Africanness not be contemporary without being labeled ‘other’? Something to ponder as you dig into his album, MAKANDA.

Raise your hand if you tried to see Wizkid at Coachella when he twice didn’t show. He’s been known to blow off performances, but Coachella was a big one. People are worried that his flaking is doing a disservice to Afrobeats and artists from the continent at large, both because his no-shows withold access to the genre at big venues like Coachella, and because, in flaking, he’s suggesting to bookers that they can’t count on acts from Africa (classic problem: becuase there are so few African artists at venues like this, he comes to represent them all). So let’s all do a service to ourselves put more African artists in our ears, curated by Wizkid’s sidekick DJ Tunez. Playlist here.