Elder’s Corner is musical journey through pivotal moments in the colorful history of Nigeria as told through the lives and careers of the nations foremost music legends. It is a story about the eroding effects of colonialism, bitter ethnic clashes, politics, oil, power, money and their combined effects on a nation that recently celebrated its 50th year of self rule.

The Literary Conference followed, after the panel had to be moved to wbai radio station due to technical difficulties. The panel’s theme: Root Words: A Celebration & Discussion of African Literature. Our panelists are Catherine E. McKinley, author of Indigo: In Search of the Color That Seduced the World; Tanya Wright, author of Butterfly Rising, actress (HBO series True Blood) and director; Ngozi Achebe author of Onaedo – The Blacksmith’s Daughter; FitzGerald Chinemerem Ajoku author of “Continental Drift” The African, African American Experience and Marva Allen partner and CEO of Hue-Man Bookstore and Cafe in Harlem.

The music is exhilarating. The banter between band members, the improvisation with Anthony Sloan and the play on words and songs, the restaurant bell chiming in at inordinately appropriate moments, the foot traffic and street conversations, even MTA buses and vehicular traffic contributed to this unique Brooklyn experience. Tuelo le Badimo led by Tuelo Minah truly brought down the blessings of the Ancestors to NY Afro Fest 2011.

Afrobeat band, Asiko led by Folorunso Kolade, AKA Bros Foly, opened the NY Afro Fest 2011 with a great performance at BUKA Restaurant in Brooklyn. Look for Asiko on AfrobeatRadio on WBAI soon.

On Saturday September 3rd, 2011, Michelle Materre, Curator of the film series “Creatively Speaking” joins AfrobeatRadio’s Wuyi Jacobs at WBAI radio studios live to talk about The film series opening at the BAMcinématek in Brooklyn on September 17 to 18, 2011.

On Saturday September 3rd, 2011, we were honored to have with us via telephone two African American writers, activists, and radio hosts to speak with us about the controversy surrounding the new Martin Luther King Memorial Monument now in place between the Lincoln and Washington Monuments in Washington D.C..
Our guests are Kevin Alexander Gray and Dr. Jared Ball.

The New York Times congratulated movie actor George Clooney, an ardent campaigner for Southern Sudanese independence, on his victory, though many African people thought that the Sudanese people might have more rightly been at the center of the South’s Independence Day story.
Others emphasized the U.S. and allies’ interest in managing Sudan’s vast oil reserves. AfrobeatRadio’s Ann Garrison has more.

Just a few years old, Africa Fashion Week is a phenomena occurring in London and elsewhere, is part of an on-going effort to improve African trade and encourage sustainabilty, fair trade and green marketing. Enjoy Dowoti Desir’s images from the event.

The struggle for Academic freedom in Malawi began when the Inspector General of Malawi Police, Peter Mukhito, summoned Associate Professor Blessings Chinsinga for interrogation “over the contents of one of his lectures in which he gave reasons for popular protests in Egypt and Tunisia.”

In the first of our Land Grab Series, we examine Ethiopia’s “Land Grab”, and the dispossession of tens of thousands (if not millions eventually) of Ethiopian citizens, under the 20-year old authoritarian and brutal regime of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, which is leasing Ethiopian land for up to 99 years to foreign businesses and governments without any significant consultation with the people most affected.

We explore why a “beggar nation” like Ethiopia which cannot feed many of its people, that is suffering from famine, perennial food shortages, endemic hunger, and chronic dependency on foreign aid, is selling off its fertile lands and natural resources to foreign agro-businesses to grow food that will be exported to their own countries.