Malawi: Saving the Malawi Tapes Feature

There was a goldmine inside a building in Malawi, but it lay covered in dust and neglected. Not many seemed aware of the riches that lay in disarray inside MBC, the Malawi… Read more »

Malawi: Keturah - a New Voice From Malawi

This week's Afropop program focuses on Malawi, a country currently reeling from the wrath of tropical cyclone Freddy. Malawi has been scarce on the international music scene. The… Read more »

Guinea: Sylvain Leroux Visits L'ecole Fula Flute in Guinea

Sylvain Leroux is a New York-based musician and bandleader who plays multiple instruments but specializes in the Fula flute of Guinea. He's been traveling to that West African… Read more »

Togo: Dogo Du Togo Puts Togolese Music On the Map

Massama Dogo--A.K.A. Dogo du Togo--is a Togolese singer/songwriter/bandleader who has lived between the Washington D.C. area and his birthplace in Lomé, Togo since 2000. His… Read more »

Africa: Afropop Top Videos - Requiem for David Lindley, Ayra Starr and More!

It's been awhile since we added new videos to our Afropop Top Videos playlist. Three weeks in Tanzania was rather distracting! But we're back with six new entries. Of particular… Read more »

Nigeria: Ado Gwanja Stirs the Pot in Kano With 'Warr'

When we visited Kano in northern Nigeria, in 2017, we interviewed scholar and culture aficionado Abdalla Uba Adamu,officially professor of Science Education and Mass Communication… Read more »

Africa: Moonlight Benjamin Rolls Out New Album Wayo

Moonlight Benjamin is a Haitian-born singer/songwriter/bandleader living in France since 2002. Her music is unique on the Haitian diaspora scene. She fuses the gut-level passion of… Read more »

Congo-Kinshasa: Nkumu Katalay Previews March 1 Show At NYC's Mercury Lounge

Nkumu Katalay is a Kinshasa-born multi-instrumentalist and bandleader based in New York City. He leads one of the only working Congolese-oriented bands in the eastern U.S., and… Read more »

Mauritius: Discography - Rock 'N' Roll Pioneer Maurice Rocco On Film

Every month is Black History Month at Afropop and in celebration of February we are taking a deep dive into rock 'n' roll´s DNA in the form of Maurice Rocco. Black music is a… Read more »

Tanzania: Afropop in Tanzania Blog - Third Dispatch: 2/15/2023

We arrived in Stone Town, Zanzibar the night before the opening on our tour focus, the 20th edition of the Sauti za Busara Swahili Sounds of Wisdom Festival. We covered the first… Read more »

Mali: Ali Farka Touré´s "Cherie" Featuring Oumou Sangaré Debuts

Voyageur, the new album from the legendary African guitarist and singer Ali Farka Touré, is out March 10 on World Circuit Records. In anticipation of the forthcoming record… Read more »

Tanzania: Afropop in Tanzania Blog - Second Dispatch (2/8/23)

From Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this is dispatch number two, and the beat goes on! We have enjoyed and recorded several more bands including the awesome Msondo Music Band, founded in… Read more »

Tanzania: Afropop in Tanzania Blog - First Dispatch: 2/3/2023

Gambia: Ears of the People - Ekonting Songs From Senegal and Gambia

By now, it's widely recognized that the original model for the American banjo, and really all banjos, lies in West Africa. The essential idea of this percussive, plucked-string… Read more »

Tanzania: Afropop Worldwide Heads for Tanzania!

Afropop's Banning Eyre and I are very excited to return this Monday to Tanzania and Zanzibar for a reporting trip. The centerpiece of our work will be covering the pan-African… Read more »

Zimbabwe: Passings - Tshala Muana and Stella Chiweshe

The past month has seen a string of significant losses in our musical world. It began with Tshala Muana, the Congolese Queen of Mutuashi, who died in late December, 2022. In her 64… Read more »

Africa: January in New York City - Globalfest 2023 and More!

January in New York City: globalFEST 2023 and more! Read more »

South Africa: Amapiano DJ Mixers

Amapiano is undisputedly the most trending club music on the planet in 2023. It is dance music not needing a playlist as the genre is a playlist. The music and the mix are created… Read more »

Gambia: Sona Jobarteh, With Feet in Two Worlds

Sona Jobarteh stands alone among contemporary kora players. The daughter of a Gambian griot father and an English visual artist mother, she grew up with feet in two worlds.… Read more »

Africa: African Cinema - No Cinderella Ending For These Black Women

It's an arithmetic fact that the immigrant workforce who travel from developing countries into developed countries power their economies. What a shame, then, that populist… Read more »

Africa: La Brigida Orquestra - Playing for "The Big Minority"

Perhaps the best thing about the annual WOMEX conference is that it's like going to a delicious buffet where you can fill your ears with samples of musical cuisines from around the… Read more »

Africa: New Africa 2022 - Video Playlist

Afropop Worldwide spent last fall asking artists and colleagues what was new for them in African music in 2022. The answers we got ranged from emerging artists, to changes in the… Read more »

Africa: Creative Industries Flourish At U.S. Africa Leaders Summit

Afropop Worldwide's executive producer Sean Barlow received hard to get Secret Service vetted media credentials to cover the historic, just concluded U.S. Africa Leaders Summit in… Read more »

Africa: Cumbe Center for African and Diaspora Dance in Brooklyn Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary

Afropop Wordwide's executive producer, Sean Barlow, recently participated in Fet Iajwa, the 10thanniversary celebration of the Cumbe Center for African and Diaspora Dance in the… Read more »

South Africa: Pilani Bubu - Reclaiming and Reinventing Folklore

If you wanted one word to describe South Africa's Pilani Bubu, the word might be "vibrant." Bubu has a vibrancy when you see her, when you hear her sing, or even just talk. At the… Read more »