Global Voices Online

To mark its first birthday, the blog African Music Treasures about African music rarities of the Voice of America music archive, features some of the more famous recordings in their collection of Guinean music.

Awesome Tapes from Africa posted the whole first album by Guinean diva Fatou Barry, titled Linsan.

Africa Flak discusses politics in Guinea comparing it to Zimbabwe: “There’s a part of me that has to hand it to Lansana Conte and his henchmen in Guinea Conakry. Like Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, he’s used his country’s wealth – in his case minerals like bauxite and uranium – to tell Western governments, international community, various NGOs and their finger-waving ways to bugger off.”

A blog focusing on the African Cup of Nations 2008: “I welcome you all to Ghana 2008 - the 26th African cup of Nations. Today, 20th of January, 2008(today) the city of Accra in Ghana came alive with the opening ceremony in preparedness for the opening game between Ghana and Guinea.”

Jorge Rosmaninho [pt] describes the carnival atmosphere that has invaded the streets in Conakry, Guinea, because of the Cup of African Nations, which started today. Football is the order of the day. “These days, football makes us forget that there is a dispute between the President and the Prime Minister which may again damage the precarious stability of the country”.

The nonrequired writes about the success story that is continuing education in some African nations and how it can prevent the brain drain. Continuing education is paid for by companies and provided by local universities at an affordable cost. It has been succesfully implemented so far in countries such as South-Africa, Senegal, Ghana and Tanzania (Fr).

News From Guinea and Friends of Guinea reports, “Mamadou Sylla, Guinea's richest business patron, was named as the new honorary president of the ruling PUP party.
Sylla is a close ally of the head of state Gen. Lansana Conté and is often referred to as ‘the ruling party's banker.' Last year, he was subject to a serious corruption investigation and was engaged in open warfare with Conté's then-right hand man Fodé Bangoura. Sylla was arrested during the course of the investigation until Conté went in person to jail to free him.”

Roots and Culture posts a Guinean proverb: “When ants work together they carry lift elephants.” (Fr)

Roots and Culture has an interview with Seyni Kouyate (Fr), a Yakandi reggae musician from a griot family in Guinea-Conakry.  Kouyate says Yakandi reggae is not a Western-African fusion; it's a fundamentally African music form.  “It's the meeting of traditional African rhythms, specifically from West Africa, with Jamaican skunk…the beating of the heart [Jamaican skunk] took from nyahbinghi is the influence of the homeland on Jamaicans, which they call the promised land in Africa.  And nyahbinghi's origin is in Yankadi which is really West Africa.”