Maimouna Jallow

Whether born on the continent or anywhere in the world, many of us have a special vision of Africa. Too often, others think of Africa as one place, but we know the motherland melange is really many places, many cultures, many people, mashed up into a sometimes confusing but, nonetheless, optimistic, one-drop. 

Here is a complex take on a continent that has often been at the geographic epicenter of change over the last five-hundred years. In a racially reductive sense, our motherland is the site where the clash of black and white, both historically as well as on a contemporary tip, has and will continue to play out.

While the tracks included here are relatively new, the interviews were conducted by writer Maimouna Jallow in 2015. Jallow gives us an insightful look at mixed-race women who are making music that represents Africa as a lived experience. 

They do not speak for all of Africa but rather offer a specific slice of contemporary Africa and, hopefully, also an Africa of our future.