Afropop Worldwide Folgen

Botswana is a large, landlocked country in Southern Africa, a vast stretch of desert and savannah between South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia with a population of only 2.2 million. While widely overlooked internationally for their music, over the past 20 years Batswana has steadily built a diverse and fruitful local scene that includes traditional choirs, hip hop and kwaito, R&B and jazz and even heavy metal. While the biggest star in the country, Franco, packs stadiums with his Congolese-derived Setswana kwassa kwassa, Vee Mampeezy, Charma Gal and a host of aspiring stars champion a distinctly local fusion called house kwassa: a mix of rumba guitars, house beats and kwaito vocals. In this program we hear from Kabelo Mogwe of the popular cultural troupe Culture Spears; hip hop star Jujuboy; the metal band Skinflint; Afro soul singer Mpho Sebina and reformed house kwassa badboy Mingo Touch. We also head to a midnight recording session with young producer Zolasko and singer Naisi Boy and learn the insides of the Botswana music video industry with videographer Jack Bohloko. Produced by Lollise Mbi and Morgan Greenstreet APWW #813

Our reporter from Texas, Akshaj Turebylu, triangulates the influences responsible for the irresistible, intercontinental, genre-bending, collaborative album called History of House. Our guides include Shimmy Jiyane, a founding member of the Soweto Gospel Choir, the pre-eminent African gospel performers in the world. We're also joined by Latroit, a Grammy-winning producer who got his start with the legendary techno wizards, Inner City. Akshaj speaks to Shimmy and Dennis to learn how Australian DJ Groove Terminator put the pieces together for this revelatory release blending Afro house, Amapiano, techno, gospel, and more into, as it were, a tapestry of "the (global) history of house." As we find out, Detroit and Johannesburg have been speaking to each other for much longer than you might imagine. In this episode we also preview Afrobeat artist Amayo’s 2025 album, Lion Awakes.

Our Hip Deep edition “A Tale of Two Rebellions" recounts the stories of two remarkable military campaigns in early Islamic history. Both uprisings take place in the late 9th century, both involve Africans as key players, and both set the scene for the crystallization of the Sunni-Shi’ite divide in Islam, which of course continues to this day. By Joseph Browdy and Banning Eyre. APWW #535