Dangerous Minds pal Rod Stanley, the editor of the mighty Dazed and Confused magazine, and photographer Chris Saunders recently made a trip to Nigeria and returned with a short film about the country’s vibrant musical scene:

At the end of last year, Dazed travelled to Lagos, Nigeria, for the third annual MTV Africa Music Awards, an event that had drawn performers from all over the continent, as well as a few international names such as Chuck D, Eve and Rick Ross. The real stars for me on this trip though were all the African performers that we spoke to, photographed and partied with while we were there – people like Uganda’s party boys Radio & Weasel, Nigeria’s first lady of R&B Sasha, Angola’s colourful kuduro crew Cabo Snoop, and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s fashion-mad Fally Ipupa.

Many of them told stories of how a lack of a royalty system and widespread music piracy are hampering the development of their music industry, and how they see themselves as a pioneers laying the groundwork for the generation that will follow them. This short film introduces all of the above and more, with some of their music videos and the insanely hectic atmosphere of the city of Lagos itself.

Photo gallery at Dazed Digital.
 

 
Although it’s a touch more interesting than most awards shows, we tend to treat the Oscars as little more than a gossip source, fashion show, or fun subject for betting pools.

With that said, there are gratifying aspects about the awards themselves, including the fact that French filmmaker Bastien Dubois‘s gorgeous and surreal Madagascar - Carnet de Voyage was nominated for Best Animated Short Film.

It lost, but that takes nothing away from this meditation on mortality on the intriguing African island nation. It’s a dizzying yet coherent display of what seems like a dozen different animation and mixed-media styles. Check it out.
 

 
Dutch sibling filmmakers Thomas Roebers and Floris Leeuwenberg recently released Foli, an extremely well-crafted 11-minute short film that gives us an overview of the role of rhythm in the life of the rural Malinke village of Baro in central Guinea.

World-class djembe masters like Famoudou Konate hail from the area around Baro. Roebers and Leeuwenberg make this come alive through deft editing, killer sound, and their choice to not include any omniscient narration.
 

Demonstration against the privatization of education, New Delhi, December 2, 2010
 

As our UK-based Dangerous Mind Paul Gallagher has noted, London students have taken the issue of educational democracy off the campuses into both the city’s freezing streets and the faces of lines of cops. Of course these have been paralleled by media coverage of a couple of years of anti-tuition hike protests at the University of California. But they’re just the tip of the iceberg.

Turns out the international student movement that’s been brewing is on the way to becoming the primary dynamic popular movement of our time. From Manila to Santiago to Jakarta to Marrakech to Milan to Prishtina, students have been hitting the capitals to protest the privatization, commodification and militarization of education and research. Their fight against the fee hikes, budget cuts and other politricks affecting access to education is already the most effective and wide-reaching youth movement you’ve ever seen. Period.

To state the sweepingly obvious, the global financial industry played a huge part in causing the worldwide educational crisis. And democratized education will be key to defending humanity against the most powerful wave of greed we’ve seen in a while. That makes the global struggle for free, emancipatory education the key struggle of our lifetimes.

You may think I’m overstating it. Hell, maybe I am. But just in case, do yourself a favor: keep an eye on this movement and support it in whatever way you see fit.
 

 
Apocalyptic footage of a sudden and violent dust storm encountered in Mali, West Africa by a National Geographic cameraman who was there to film elephants. This is an epic WIN for Mother Nature. Wow!!!

 
You read right. Jim Chuchu is one-third of the excellent Kenyan beat-pop group Just A Band, and this April he released what became Kenya’s first viral video, for their song “Ha-He.” It features the Shaft-esque character Makmende, named after playground slang for a tough guy, which itself is derived from Clint Eastwood’s “make my day” line as Dirty Harry from Sudden Impact.
 

 
But Chuchu is hardly a one-trick-pony. He’s brought his simple, wry, off-beat style to a bunch of ingenious videos by Just A Band (including the astonishing “Usinibore”) and loads of other Nairobi acts. Plus he’s built his own lighting components, which is DIY as hell.

Check out a few of the videos after the jump and you’ll understand why Chuchu has become the master visual chronicler of the sound of digital East Africa.
 

 
Adventurous music folks have had their ears on electronic music trends in sub-Saharan Africa ever since the amplified likembe group Konono No. 1 emerged to Western attention from Kinshasa, in the Democratic Repbulic of Congo five years ago.

Now blogs like Generation Bass, Ghetto Bassquake, mudd up! and others are surfacing all kinds of DIY techno-fied genres from all over the continent. And the tempos seem to be getting as fast as the trend-spotting. As reported first by The Fader, Wills Glasspiegel of Outside Music has uncovered “Shangaan electro” music, a hectic digital blend of breakneck thump-beats, MIDI keyboards, sped-up alien samples and melodic vocals. It’s named after the population grouping from which the musicians come, the Shangaan of the northern Limpopo province of South Africa. It’s gotten enough attention to merit the anthology Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa on the UK’s Honest Jon’s label

Here’s Richard “Nozinja” Mthetwa, the godfather& top producer of the Shangaan electro genre, breaking it down:
 

 
More after the jump: Just behind Shangaan electro, the Tanzanian sound of Jagwa…
 

Sidewalk wrought iron artisan James Mutahi works his homemade arc welder in Limuru, north of Nairobi, Kenya. Photo: Dominic Wanjihia. From Afrigadget.

Preparation for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa (which starts in a couple of days) has drawn the West’s attention to the continent as a premiere sports and entertainment venue. But let’s also recognize that African countries have been quietly building a new set of infrastructures based on mobile and web connectivity, grassroots-tech ingenuity and turbo-micro-entrepreneurship.

Kenyan-raised Erik Hersman’s White African and Afrigadget are just a couple of the many blogs raising awareness about Africa’s long-running tech revolution, as epitomized by events like Maker Faire Africa. The below, from JustGiving’s YouTube channel and featured in Afrigadget, teases out some of the more everyday implications:

As a side-note: You may have read about the survivalist trend in America that mostly involves stocking up a panic room with guns, gold and Twinkies. Many populations in Africa continue to survive and innovate through the kind of emergency situations—natural disasters, economic devastation, military dictatorships, etc.—that your friendly neighborhood doomsayer can’t comprehend. 

 
Ugh, once again religion and superstition used to justify psychotic violence in Africa. Sad, sad story about children being accused of witchcraft by Christian ministers, who extort their parents for money to perform exorcisms. If they can’t pay up, look what happens… And what makes it even worse is that often the parents buy into it and harm their own children or abandon them.

EKET, Nigeria ?

Some generally good news, for a change.

The United Nations military commander, General Martin Agwai, says that although the area will likely continue to see things like banditry and skirmishes of local violence, the ?