Global Voices Online

Nina, blogging from Luanda, discusses the problem of access to clean water in Angola.

LabCult provides a torrent link of a documentary about Luso-Afro-Brazilian music and sounds: “Lusophony - The (R)Evolution“. From hiphop to rock, visiting the Portuguese fado and Angolan and Caboverdian rhythms like the kuduro and the morna, the doc compiles Lusophone music from the colony days till today.

In the last post of the year at Koluki blog [pt], we find a description of a national ritual of Swaziland, a country the Angolan blogger considers one of the most beautiful, friendly and warm in southern Africa. “The sacred Ncwala, or “first fruits ceremony” that is now underway in that country, takes place every year in late December/early January and aims to renew the strength for the King and the Swazi Nation for the following year.”

Saharan Vibe writes about the San, a term that refers to a diverse group of hunter-gatherers living in Southern Africa who share historical and linguistic connections, including several photos.

JotaCê Carranca has created a blog compilation for blogs that talk about Angola aiming to collect all blogs about the country, at the moment organized in three categories: from Angola, from abroad and mixed blogs (written by people in country and abroad).

Luanda born musician Paulo Flores has won the Angolan National Prize for Arts and Culture. Koluki [pt] takes the opportunity to “dedicate a post to some of his music, focusing on some duets I consider particularly well done.” Hear the selected songs on her blog.

Admário Costa Lindo [pt] publishes one of his poems as his contribution for the Blog Action Day. It is a concrete poem about hunger written in 1974, and there is also an English version.

“Today, we are informed about every loss suffered by the American army in Iraq but I remember the secrecy about the number of Cuban soldiers who fell during the Angolan War”: Generation Y reflects on the loss of life as a film about the Cuban war in Angola is released across the island.

Emerson Santiago [pt] writes at Patafurdia Magazine about akonting, the musical instrument found in Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. “The Portuguese colonizers and the North American slaves owners began to call the instrument “Banjo”, coming from the Quimbundo word “m'banza” (language of the second largest ethnic group in Angola), which means “home”, “city”, likely a reference to the “banzo” that black slaves felt when supporting their lament on the instrument's strings.