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Fela Kuti Live in England 1984 … WATCH>>
King Sunny Ade Live in Japan 1984… WATCH>>
Art Ensemble of Chicago Live in Warsaw early 1980s … WATCH>>
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Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate – Caution: Fast acting, may lead to addiction….WATCH>>
Posted in Africa, Audio, Music, Video
Tagged Ali Farka Touré, Mali, Toumani Diabaté, West Africa
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Whether a proxy for the government or not, the primary objective of the Janjaweed is to drive the African tribesmen from their homes and force them to abandon ownership of valuable water and pastures. The nomadic Arabs have been hard hit by desertification, which has greatly diminished water resources and pasture in Darfur. This to me is the key point to understanding the current crisis… More>>
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Military crackdowns and amnesty offers had reduced Algeria‘s jihadists to a fading organization of fighters holed up in rural hideouts. Many of the remaining holdouts retreated to the mountainous Kabylia region east of Algiers to regroup, thus repeating a pattern seen in Algeria throughout the ages… More>>
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Hmm…a 200 year old Islamic dynasty in Africa with 70 million devotees, that is worth a closer look…More>>
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Kabylia is a formidable mountainous region just east of Algiers. Its isolated mountains have provided safe haven for the local Berbers for centuries making it a difficult place for foreign occupiers to fully penetrate. Its cave rich landscape provides ideal cover from which to launch a guerrilla insurgency or to hold off an advancing army… More>>
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The famous Battle of Three Kings (aka Battle of Alcazar) was a hard fought affair won by the Moroccans due in large part to the military exploits of Ahmad al-Mansur. Three Kings were killed; Portugal’s Dom Sebastian, Morocco’s current ruler Abd al-Malik (al-Mansur’s brother) and deposed former ruler al-Mutawakkil (al-Mansur’s nephew who fought alongside Dom Sebastian). Ahmad al-Mansur was suddenly a national hero, the living representation of Morocco’s strength and pride. He is also believed to have been the model for Shakespeare’s prince of Morocco character in The Merchant of Venice–the work that gave us the famous line: “All that glitters is not gold.” … More>>
Posted in Africa, Essays, History, War
Tagged Africa, Ahmad al-Mansur, al-Mutawakkil, Libya, Moroccan people, Morocco, Portugal, Rabat
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Today’s Times has a story about the relative calm in Algeria during the recent political contagion sweeping North Africa and the Middle East. It’s a bit surprising considering Algeria’s violent history since the end of WWII…More>>
Posted in Africa, Algeria, History, Politics, War
Tagged Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria, Algiers, Islamic terrorism, Middle East
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