Holiday Interlude

I fully intended to do a post about Afrissippi this week and one about the Gnawa next week, but it's lookin' dicey, so Ima do this instead.

In 2001, the beeb came out with a 24(!) part radio series on the history of Africa . Each episode is around 30 minutes long. You can stream it here, but if you're looking for something a little more portable...

The Story of Africa, Part One: Origins

The Story of Africa, Part Two: Africa and the Nile Valley

The Story of Africa, Part Three: The Berbers

The Story of Africa, Part Four: Bantu Migration

The Story of Africa, Part Five: Traditional Religion

The Story of Africa, Part Six: The Coming of Christianity

The Story of Africa, Part Seven: The Spread of Islam

The Story of Africa, Part Eight: The Ancient Kingdom of Ghana

The Story of Africa, Part Nine: Empires of Mali and Songhai

The Story of Africa, Part Ten: The Swahili Coast

The Story of Africa, Part Eleven: Kongo and the Great Zimbabwe

The Story of Africa, Part Twelve: The Art of Ife and Benin

The Story of Africa, Part Thirteen: Hausa City States

The Story of Africa, Part Fourteen: The Roots of Slavery

The Story of Africa, Part Fifteen: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

The Story of Africa, Part Sixteen: East Africa Slavery

The Story of Africa, Part Seventeen: Africa On The Eve of Colonialism

The Story of Africa, Part Eighteen: The Mfecane

The Story of Africa, Part Nineteen: Partition and Resistance

The Story of Africa, Part Twenty: Life Under Colonialism

The Story of Africa, Part Twenty-One: Challenges to Colonialism

The Story of Africa, Part Twenty-Two: Independence

The Story of Africa, Part Twenty-Three: Apartheid

The Story of Africa, Part Twenty-Four: The Nation State pt.s 1-3 pt.s 4-6 pt.s 7-9 pt.s 10-12 pt.s 13-15 pt.s 16-18 pt.s 19-21 pt.s 22-24 If anyone knows of a place to buy this, holla atcha boy. This is an Audacity rip off RealPlayer streams, and episode 6 is from gully site in the depths of the Internet -- sounds like it's coming off a boombox -- but I can't figure out any other way to hear this stuff without sitting at my computer for 12 hours straight.

Also, on an unrelated-but-still-necessary note, R.I.P. to Pimp C of UGK. Don't know if there are any other southerners out there, but when UGK turned up on "Big Pimpin'" behind Jay-Z but in front of a Timbaland beat, accents in full affect, you knew the South had arrived. Pimp didn't have Bun B's flow, but he had mad charisma and he was never afraid to let his mouth mush in the way southerners do when they wink at each other with their voices. Ridin' Dirty has cast a shadow in Houston for 11 years going, and (along with ATLiens, Soul Food, Chapter 2: World Domination) it'll keep southern hip hop in the shade for another 20. Pimp C, big up! You're free now.