The Afropolitan Network:::

• Music Monday

  Posted: March 31, 2008, 3:00 pm by Beve

  Review By Onerebelgun
  Not by favoritism but Kenna Zemedkun is by far the most underrated artist of our generation, not conforming to any musical standards he wields the musical blade of Excalibur in the realms where he is comfortable with the help of Chad Hugo.  If your a musical explorer you will surely love this musical adventure as he mixes hiphop, rock, pop and r and b into one amazing sonic yet futuristic sound that will reach other generations light years from now.  Make sure they see my face or face for short gives you reason to love Kenna's musical attributes but also disappointing for Kenna die hard fans who aptly play his first album New sacred cow which is phenomenal and beyond anyones musical experience in terms of production and honesty on words. Face is an endless journey from Daylight to wide awake so open your hearts and ears, play it, let it blare and distort your speakers, it will be worth it I promise.

• Zimbabwe's Inflation

  Posted: March 27, 2008, 9:28 pm by Beve

  This is nuts. The picture says it all: this guy is a billionaire and starving. Zimbabwe has the highest inflation in the world, thanks to iron-fisted Mugabe and his fool-hardy economic "policies".

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  (photo by Howard Burditt/Reuters)

• Angola to host landmine pageant

  Posted: March 27, 2008, 8:59 am by Beve

  The beleaguered nation of Angola is still littered with millions of landmines, and tens of thousands of people have been injured by them. Now, the country is hosting a most unusual beauty pageant.
  
  read more | digg story

• Kanye, Lupe, Pharrell ~ Great Amatuer Video!

  Posted: March 25, 2008, 12:25 am by Beve

  Fan made Video created by  youtube girl:

• The Big Story on the Back Streets

  Posted: March 25, 2008, 11:30 pm by Beve

  NAIROBI -- The three-person crew of Slum TV set out under the hot noon sun, slinging a video camera and microphone through the crooked labyrinth of iron-sided shacks, graffitied beer joints, rickety-stick markets and open sewers that is their home, Mathare.
  
  read more | digg story

• Lebron King Kong

  Posted: March 25, 2008, 8:16 pm by Beve

  When I first saw the new cover of Vogue with Lebron James and Gisele Bunndchen, it took me about 1.5 seconds to think it was offensive, then I realized that I thought it was offensive and tried to figure out why. Then when I couldn't put my finger on it (other than theres a big scary looking black man, mouth agape, grabbing a fragile looking bloned white woman reinforcing centuries-old fears of black men) I tried to convince myself that it really wasn't offensive. 

  Then I saw this on the satire page on Huffington Post:

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  And I felt it was offensive again.

  Questions:

  1) Why is his mouth open like he is about to swallow her? That alone would have changed the tone of the pic

  2) Why is she in appearing to be just landing on the ground, perhaps she has just been tossed from over his shoulder. 

  3) Its just bad composition.

  update:  *sigh* here's another one -

• The Gold Slaves of Mozambique

  Posted: March 24, 2008, 9:19 pm by Beve

  Thousands of fortune hunters are digging for gold in the mountains of Mozambique. Scores have come across the border from bitterly poor Zimbabwe. But for most, the dream of fabulous treasure ends up in endless toil, disease and death.
  
  read more | digg story

• links for 2008-03-24

  Posted: March 24, 2008, 1:20 pm by Beve

  • What Politicians Say When They Talk About Race - New York Times

• Thanks! ~The Management

  Posted: March 23, 2008, 1:50 am by Beve

  Just want to take a brief moment to say....THANKS! I've had a nice up tick in readership and subscribers. I appreciate you taking a little time out and visiting my little plot on the World Wide Web.

  to infinity and beyond

  ~Beve

• Afrolution

  Posted: March 20, 2008, 6:20 pm by Beve

  Great, great site called Afrolution. Putting African Hip Hop on the map! Its starting an online tv channel exclusively dedicated to hip hop, all day every day! I like. Check it out:

• links for 2008-03-20

  Posted: March 20, 2008, 1:20 pm by Beve

  • Obama Race Speech | TheRoot.com

• African Hip Hop Conference Recap

  Posted: March 19, 2008, 6:09 pm by Beve

  Harvard University hosted the first African Hip Hop Conference this past weekend, and it looks like it was great..

  Here's a list of the panelists

  And what was discussed

• links for 2008-03-19

  Posted: March 19, 2008, 1:26 pm by Beve

  • clinton, ferraro, and black women | Views | TheRoot.com

• links for 2008-03-18

  Posted: March 18, 2008, 1:21 pm by Beve

  • How Rwanda Topped Africa At the Berlin Tourism Fair //AllAfrica.com
  • Afromusing » Congratulations Neil Turok - Ted Prize Winner 2008.
  • SXSW 2008 - Day Two: Africa Is the New MacGyver : David Thomas :

• Worth the Watch

  Posted: March 18, 2008, 11:30 am by Beve

  Tags:   

  Land Rights for Decedents of Slaves in Brazil

• African-Norwegian Kids Dance

  Posted: March 17, 2008, 12:21 pm by Beve

  
  "Chiku Ali, a storyteller from Tanzania living in Bergen, is impressed by what has been accomplished during the week called African days in Stavanger."

  more here

• links for 2008-03-14

  Posted: March 14, 2008, 1:21 pm by Beve

  • The Black Commentator - Cover Story:The Clinton Monster, Unleashed

• Fabulous! Afro-Chinese Fashion

  Posted: March 14, 2008, 12:03 pm by Beve

  I love this! Hatian/Guyanese/French Sheilla Constance Sidney lives in Shanghai and is embracing the world of Afro-Chic with a new Asian twist. I like.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Ozwald Boateng

  Posted: March 13, 2008, 8:17 pm by Beve

  Ghanaian Brit, Ozwald Boateng is one of the first black male star designers to trully make ti big. He makes really sharp men's wear. He also had an entertaining reality show on The Sundance Channel called House of Boateng. Check out a proflie on Jamati Online

• links for 2008-03-10

  Posted: March 10, 2008, 1:21 pm by Beve

  • The true cost of living in Zimbabwe - no food, no job and no hope  The Guardian

• Haiti

  Posted: March 7, 2008, 11:38 am by Beve

  Its stories like these that make me seriously seriously question our collective humanity. Like my other post, the poorest in Haiti eat dirt, while there is tons of food sitting en route, rotting and being devoured by beetles and cockroaches.  They should rush the airport and take the food. I mean what else is there to do? Haiti is a tiny island. It does not have the same logistical nightmare as trying to feed America, Russia or China, its an island.  Yet, the government is still red taped?

  "Jean-Paul Michaud, a Canadian, said he sailed to the capital of Port-au-Prince late last year carrying 60 pounds of donated clothing and medicine — and that port authorities demanded $10,000 in "customs fees" — code for a bribe to make the fees disappear.

  "I'd have rather thrown the aid in the water," said Michaud. The Canadian Embassy intervened and the fee was later waived."

  
  

  *sigh*

• Nneka

  Posted: March 6, 2008, 2:35 pm by Beve

  Check out singer Nneka. On her myspace, she describes her location as "WARRI/NIGERIA, Germany". Cool. I especially like the song "Lost Souls Live"

• links for 2008-03-06

  Posted: March 6, 2008, 1:23 pm by Beve

  • From Kenya to New York | Brian Lehrer Live

• Sellout

  Posted: March 5, 2008, 11:31 am by Beve

  I watched this fascinating conversation on Bloggingheads between Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy and John McWhorter of the Manhattan Institute.  They go back and forth about various backlash they've had on stuff they've written such as Kennedy's controversial "Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word" which I really want to read now and McWhorter's piece on The Root about what constitutes "Black Culture"

  I find all this fascinating because it fits squarely in the realm of the Afropolitan. What makes a black person go from being African to Afropolitan or African American to Afropolitan. I had an interesting email discussion with a friend about this who rejects the term Afropolitan. She sees it as another label that is more divisive than transformative.  I must say, I saw her point, but  I disagreed in that I don't see it as a label but more so an identity that develops.

  I think there are black people who try  and transcend what it conventionally means to be black; but then there are others who just kind of ended up doing it because they were pushed out of one group and pulled in another or as the Afropolitan article says are "mutt" and gives the example of an "American accent, European affect, African ethos."thus creating a new cultural identity.

  What does this have to do with selling out? Well is this the African community's version of a sellout? Someone who got to live/study abroad, picked up a European language or two, married/dates white people? Its just fascinating to me and I think its healthy for us as a community to be having these discussions.   

• One of the Most Talented Musicians Ever

  Posted: March 5, 2008, 10:13 am by Beve

• links for 2008-03-04

  Posted: March 4, 2008, 1:29 pm by Beve

  • Blackness Primer Revisited: Writer John McWhorter defends fried chicken, dancing and Ebonics. | Views | TheRoot.com This is dead on.

  

• M.anifest

  Posted: March 4, 2008, 7:49 am by Beve

  Check out emcee M.anifest from [ghana].

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  

• Stoned Cherrie and Fred Eboka

  Posted: March 3, 2008, 7:47 pm by Beve

  I like these two designers. Once again, exquiste work being done in Afro-Chic design. There's South African Nkhensani's Stoned Cherrie brand. Here's a piece on it by Mimi Magazine

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  And Nigerian Fred Eboka's line:
  

• Music Monday

  Posted: March 3, 2008, 1:22 pm by Beve

  New edition to the Afropolitan Network: Music Monday. I've got my buddy Ado to help on this front, he is a bona fide music lover and expert on Afropolitan Music, in my opinion. Every Monday we will have some cool albums/musicians to check out.  So to kickstart this important part of black culture we're having a Music Week. Don't sleep!

  

• Wakilisha Mag

  Posted: March 2, 2008, 6:17 pm by Beve

  Sleek mag called Wakilisha online. I like. Check out this awesome article on African Haute Couture

  

• Black Britain

  Posted: March 1, 2008, 6:16 pm by Beve

  Just ran across this on NPR. Paul Gilroy, who I think was the African American Studies Professor at Yale when I was there, has a new book out called Black Britain: A Photographic History. You can listen to his interview on NPR here.   

  

• Let's Rock and Blogroll: Elections Edition

  Posted: March 1, 2008, 7:31 am by Beve

  Ok, as many at home and abroad may already know its an election year in the US and even though the mainstream media (MSM) is operating under the rules of osmosis, I thought I'd present some of my favorite Political blogs for checking (and rechecking every 3 mins!) political news in the States and abroad:

  • Huffington Post - Created by Arianna Huffington, its probably one of the most powerful political blogs on the net.
  • Talking Points Memo by Josh Marshal - Excellent commentary on the days campaign events
  • Comment is Free - Good in general, for international current affairs, but they also have a US Elections 2008 section thats pretty sweet
  • My Direct Democracy - This is a new discovery for me through the current campaign season, I like their focus on State politics as well.
  • AlterNet - Pretty liberal news site/online community that always teaches me something new.
  • Raw Story - Like its name, is headlines that matter, no frills.
  • Ezra Klein - 23 year old Ezra Klein at The American Prospect has amassed quite a bit of knowledge in his brain and eloquently shares it.

  Lastly,

  Award for Best International Comments Section goes to:

  • The Times - The tried and true Times newspaper's online edition has such an interesting mix of international commenters on its articles as evidenced here.

  

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes