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Elijah Madzikatire and Ocean City Band - Very Sorry

Early 80s Zimbabwe Jam.  The absolute best.

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Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou - Gbeti Madjro

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It’s finally here! After blowing up on SA radio the past few months the video has just been released. It’s the start of Mafikizolo’s comeback after 6 long years and it’s called Khona.

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Baby Washington - That's How Heartaches Are Made

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Got this in my email today:

Dear friends, 

We are elders of the Maasai from Tanzania, one of Africa’s oldest tribes. The government has just announced that it plans to kick thousands of our families off our lands so that wealthy tourists can use them to shoot lions and leopards.The evictions are to begin immediately.

Last year, when word first leaked about this plan, almost one million Avaaz members rallied to our aid. Your attention and the storm it created forced the government to deny the plan, and set them back months. But the President has waited for international attention to die down, and now he’s revived his plan to take our land. We need your help again, urgently.

President Kikwete may not care about us, but he has shown he’ll respond to global media and public pressure — to all of you! We may only have hours. Please stand with us to protect our land, our people and our world’s most majestic animals, and tell everyone before it is too late. This is our last hope:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/maasai_fb_dm_3/?bNDofcb&v=23793

Our people have lived off the land in Tanzania and Kenya for centuries. Our communities respect our fellow animals and protect and preserve the delicate ecosystem. But the government has for years sought to profit by giving rich princes and kings from the Middle East access to our land to kill. In 2009, when they tried to clear our land to make way for these hunting sprees, we resisted, and hundreds of us were arrested and beaten. Last year, rich princes shot at birds in trees from helicopters. This killing goes against everything in our culture.

Now the government has announced it will clear a huge swath of our land to make way for what it claims will be a wildlife corridor, but many suspect it’s just a ruse to give a foreign hunting corporation and the rich tourists it caters to easier access to shoot at majestic animals. The government claims this new arrangement is some sort of accommodation, but its effect on our people’s way of life will be disastrous. There are thousands of us who could have our lives uprooted, losing our homes, the land on which our animals graze, or both.

President Kikwete knows this deal would be controversial with Tanzania’s tourists - a critical source of national income - and does not want a big PR disaster. If we can urgently generate even more global outrage than we did before, and get the media writing about it, we know it can make him think twice. Stand with us now to call on Kikwete to stop the sell off:

This land grab could spell the end for the Maasai in this part of Tanzania and many of our community have said they would rather die than be forced from their homes. On behalf of our people and the animals who graze in these lands, please stand with us to change the mind of our President.

With hope and determination, — The Maasai community of Ngorongoro District

Sources: 

The Guardian: Maasai fury as plan to lure Arabian Gulf tourists threatens their ancestral land

allAfrica: Land Grab Could Spell ‘The End of the Maasai’

IPP Media: Maasai villagers frustrate efforts to vacate for Ortelo 

The Guardian: Tanzania denies plan to evict Maasai for royal hunting ground 

The Guardian: “Tourism is a curse to us” 

New Internationalist Magazine: “Hunted down” 

Society for Threatened People: Briefing on the eviction of the Loliondo Maasai 

FEMACT: Report by 16 human rights investigators & media on violence in Loliondo

The Endorois people (also in Kenya) were removed from their sacred land in the 1970s under similar circumstances & for similar motives (the establishment of parks for colonial tourists.)

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Brenton Wood - Baby You Got It

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Act III - To-day I Want To Stay Inside

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Clarence Carter - Slip Away

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Derrick Harriott - The Loser

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Darondo - Didn't I

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Going on tour with Efterklang (selling merch/driving)! Come hang out! I get into Rochester on 15.02 & NYC on 20.02 and leave NYC on 30.03.  North American Tour - with the 6-piece Live Band 26.02 – BOSTON, MA – Middle East Upstairs  27.02 – PHILADELPHIA, PA – Johnny Brenda's 28.02 – WASHINGTON, DC – Rock & Roll Hotel  01.03 – RALEIGH, NC – Kings Barcade 02.03 – ATLANTA, GA – Earl  03.03 – NASHVILLE, TN – The End  05.03 – DENTON, TX – Dan's Silverleaf  06.03 – AUSTIN, TX – Mohawk  09.03 – LOS ANGELES, CA – Echoplex  11.03 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Great American Music Hall 13.03 – PORTLAND, OR – Doug Fir  14.03 – VANCOUVER, BC – Biltmore  15.03 – SEATTLE, WA – Neumo's  18.03 – MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Cedar  19.03 – CHICAGO, IL – Lincoln Hall 21.03 – TORONTO, ON – Canadian Music Week - Mod Club 22.03 – MONTREAL, QC – Il Motore  23.03 – NEW YORK, NY – Bowery Ballroom http://efterklang.net/

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Étienne Daho - Week-End à Rome

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After more than two months in exile following an assassination attempt, gynecological surgeon to many of Congo’s rape victims, Dr. Denis Mukwege has returned home. 

(read more: NYT)

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Janis Joplin - Cry Baby

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Arthur Russell - Soon-To-Be Innocent Fun

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Elvis Presley - (Now and Then There's) A Fool Such As I