While on a tour of West Africa and set to include unspecified bilateral deals, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been defending his country’s controversial nuclear program. Ahmadinejad said Tehran has no use for an atomic bomb. He was speaking during a visit to Benin on Monday, the first stop on a three-nation West Africa tour. [...]
Benin Native, Jazz Guitarist Lionel Loueke Celebrates His ‘Heritage’
August 31, 2012 | Posted by
Lionel Loueke’s album Heritage, his dynamic third Blue Note album, which was co-produced by label mate Robert Glasper. Heritage finds Loueke, who was hailed by The New York Times as a gentle virtuoso exploring a more electric sound, with a new trio featuring Derrick Hodge on electric bass and Mark Guiliana on drums. The album [...]
Lionel Loueke: Benin’s Jazz Virtuoso – Video
August 14, 2012 | Posted by
Once in a while, a musician comes on the scene and changes everyone’s perceptions of a particular style of music. Lionel Loueke, whom Jon Pareles from the New York Times described as a gentle virtuoso, has done that with jazz. I recently sat down with him for an interview that I can only describe as [...]
Brazil Paying Back Its Debt To Africa
May 4, 2012 | Posted by
Africa – Brazil pledged major investment and technology transfer to Africa to repay a “solidarity debt” from a country with a huge black population to the poorest but resource-rich continent. “Brazil must begin to repay the solidarity debt we have with Africa,” former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday, in his first [...]
