One Album Two Takes: Mass Country AKA:
The plan was to listen to Mass Country a little later in the year because, as a diehard fan of Kiernan “AKA” Forbes, I was not ready.
Listening to this final body of work would mean accepting his death and moving on, but when your editor says write, you write — ijob yijob sbali.
Released on 24 February, two weeks after AKA was murdered in Durban, Mass Country was a letter of farewell to the country he loved and had represented on major stages worldwide.
“I grew up listening to a lot of Jackson Browne and Cat Stevens, and all these weird guys that my dad played me, and it was kind of cathartic for me after my fiancée passed away. Country music is about heartbreak, pickup trucks and stars and stuff like that.
“So, I wanted to kind of get that feeling in there. But in a South African context, that would mean what? Maskandi; music from the Midlands, Pietermaritzburg,” the rapper told Apple music.
AKA could fuse many South African genres, and sounds from across the world, into his songs but with so much respect. Only some artists respect and deliver samples the way Supa Mega did. We heard how he sampled a house track, Summer Daze by Nick Holder on Energy, a single on his EP Bhovamania, released November 2021. That song was absolute fire.
The influence of South African music is present in hits such as Jika, where AKA samples Thathisgubhu by Bongo Maffin. Sweet Fire is clearly influenced by Ray Phiri and Stimela’s body of work. In Caiphus Song, he pays homage to Caiphus Semenya by sampling Matswale.
I was initially taken aback by the order of the album. It felt a bit off but, after a few listens, I understood the story. The intro track, Last Time, captures that maskandi feel so well. After having it on repeat, I found myself wanting to listen to Shwi no Mtekhala or Izingane Zoma right after that. Absolute genius.
He also mentions Riky Rick, rapping, “Remember what Makhado said, just take care of the kids.” AKA takes heed of this message by featuring Nasty C, Blxckie, and Yanga Chief, among other artists who are young in the industry. He had young producers, such as Zadok, Fdeezus, and Tshepo “Teddy” Moloi, work on Mass Country.
Ease and Diary (Anxiety) are very heavy songs. On Ease, he recounts some toxic moments in his relationship with his fiancée, Anele Tembe.
He says, “Everything was good till you put your paws on me.” He also says, “You were sharp with your tongue, you was crystal clear.” Those lines sent chills down my spine.
Tembe fell off the 10th floor of the Pepperclub Hotel in Cape Town in April 2021.
The album also gives us groovy songs such as Lemons (Lemonade), Company, Paradise, and Dangerous, featuring his girlfriend, Nadia Nakai.
I might get in trouble for not being impressed by Nakai’s bars on Dangerous but that song is super-catchy. I kept singing “pioneer, icon” all weekend long.
Forbes told Apple music, “There’s no way I wasn’t going to do a song with my girlfriend.”
He references All Eyes on You, a song by Meek Mill recorded while dating fellow rapper Nicki Minaj. Dangerous captures that vibe so well. I wish this song had a video.
Mass Country is different to Supa Mega’s other offerings. His ego and flamboyance take a little bit of a backseat on it. It’s still there, but we got much of what was in his heart, and I am not mad at that.
Sometimes our work or our last moments on Earth are specially curated by powers that are way beyond us. Asihambi sodwa.
“In Mega we trust, trust, trust, until the finish.” — Lesego Chepape
I don’t think it’s settled in yet that rapper AKA will never make another album, song or music video. Sometimes we take musicians for granted. We don’t value their artistry until they’re no longer alive.
Listening to Mass Country, I had that kind of moment — realising what a musical gift AKA (real name Kiernan Forbes) had. It’s all over his discography in Mass Country, which dropped just two weeks after his murder in Durban last month.
Initially, I had mixed feelings about the project, mainly because, lyrically, it’s not his best album, but it’s not supposed to be. When Forbes spoke to the publication SlikourOnLife about a month before the album was released, he said it would include South African traditional sounds with pop, kwaito and hip-hop influences. It achieves this very well in songs such as Last Time, Everest and Amapiano.
The 14-track album features artists such as his girlfriend Nadia Nakai, as well as Khuli Chana, Nasty C, Emtee, Sjava, KDDO, Musa Keys, Gyakie, Yanga Chief and Manana.
Mass Country samples a few tracks, including South Africa’s unofficial ratchet anthem Sister Bettina by Mgarimbe (real name Nkosinathi Mfeka), and the melody of Brazilian artist Sergio Mendes’s 1986 hit song Mas Que Nada, on the song Amapiano, where AKA cleverly replaces the hook on Mendes’s song with the word “amapiano”.
An obvious favourite for me is Lemons (Lemonade), the first single from Mass Country which reached platinum status. Teaming up with Nsikayesizwe Ngcobo (Nasty C) to give us lines like, “Nice ting with the lips and the curves in my corner, A ten on my lap, Maradona” and the memorable “Zaba Zaba Zaba Zai Zaba Zai Always out the country, I guess I’m a Zai Zai.” Ah, what a gem that track is. The song’s easygoing melody, catchy hook and flow are unmatched.
Dangerous, with Nakai, has this nostalgic teenage love feeling to it, reminding me of Kelly Rowland and Nelly in Dilemma. I wasn’t too keen on the song initially, but after listening to it a few times, it grew on me.
It would be remiss of me to not mention AKA’s vulnerability on the song Diary (Anxiety), where he talks about being left out of his fiancée Anele Tembe’s funeral programme, where he’d planned to speak. The song sounds so bittersweet now knowing both are dead.
I find myself gravitating towards his older albums, such as Levels and Touch My Blood, rather than to Mass Country. There’s no doubt the project is beautifully crafted, with a track list that has a diverse sound, so you’ll probably find one you like. But it doesn’t compare to his previous body of work, which had quirky rhymes, clever punchlines and catchy hooks. Nevertheless, Mass Country is a strong victory lap to a race well run. — Bongeka Gumede
Most unwanted? How sports treat the Russia problem:
International sports bodies are taking wildly varying stances on allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes and teams to compete while the war in Ukraine continues.
With the Paris Olympics fewer than 500 days away, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) says it wants to continue its ban “on flag, anthem, colours or any other identifications” from the two countries but is seeking a pathway to let their athletes compete.
That strategy will be discussed again this coming week when the IOC executive board meets.
Here, AFP Sport looks at how sports are handling the dilemma.
Athletics
While World Athletics on Thursday lifted the ban on the Russian track and field federation for state-sponsored doping, its athletes remain barred from competition while Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine continues. The body’s president Sebastian Coe said “the unprecedented sanctions” imposed on Russia and Belarus by countries around the world “appear to be the only peaceful way to disrupt and disable Russia’s current intentions and restore peace”.
Tennis
Russian and Belarusian players are allowed to compete on the main ATP and WTA tours but not under their flags or country names. They are banned from the Davis Cup and BJK Cup tournaments. Players from Russia and Belarus were also banned from Wimbledon last year although Moscow-born Elena Rybakina, competing for Kazakhstan, won the women’s singles title.
Football
Russia was thrown out of 2022 World Cup qualifying and are banned from Euro 2024 qualifying which started this week. Instead Russia played a friendly in Iran.
Belarus are not banned from Euro qualifying but they must play home games at neutral venues while their clubs are still allowed to enter European tournaments.
Denis Rogachev, the head of the Russian Football Union, said “negotiations are underway” to play in the Central Asian championship in June and that “a negotiation process is underway with UEFA and FIFA on a phased return”.
Gymnastics
The sport has not yet lifted the ban on Russians and Belarusians, which means none have so far qualified for Paris or this year’s World Championships in October. The next opportunity for teams and individuals to book a place for the worlds, where Olympic places will be up for grabs, are the European Championships in Turkey in April. Russians and Belarusians were not included in the European draw on Tuesday, the cutoff point for competing. Switching to Asia could offer an Olympic pathway to Russians.
Boxing
Russian fighters were allowed to compete at the recent women’s world boxing championships in India, a move which prompted a boycott by countries including United States, Ukraine, Canada, Sweden and Britain.
Formula One
Theoretically, drivers from Russia and Belarus can compete as “neutral” drivers in Formula One. But the only Russian driver, Nikita Mazepin, was dropped shortly before the start of the 2022 season by the Haas team. F1 also dropped the Sochi Grand Prix from its 2022 schedule, and cancelled plans for annual races to be held in St. Petersburg starting this season.
Ice Hockey
Russia and the Soviet Union have won the annual ice hockey world championship seven times but on Thursday the International Ice Hockey Federation banned them for a second straight year saying that “it is not yet safe to reincorporate the Russian and Belarusian teams”.
Fencing
With its Olympic qualifying process about to start, the International Fencing Federation decided on March 10 to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part, although it said it was up to the IOC whether they could compete in Paris. The German, Finnish and Swedish fencing bodies responded by cancelling events they were due to host.
Swimming
Russians and Belarusians were banned from the world championships in Budapest last June and July. For now, aquatic sports are among those playing a waiting game. Governing body FINA told AFP in February: “At this time, there are no further updates regarding the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in World Aquatics competitions.” That means they are still banned from the world championships in Fukuoka in July, but the sport’s Olympic rules means swimmers have until late next June to match the qualifying times.
© Agence France-Presse
Gender equality in Africa is really ‘300 years away’:
During a UN General Assembly speech to commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day and launch the Commission on the Status of Women, secretary general Antonio Guterres outlined that, “Gender equality is growing more distant. On the current track, UN Women puts it 300 years away.”
He further outlined that, “Women’s rights are being abused, threatened and violated around the world,” noting key issues like caregivers denied work, child marriage, maternal mortality and girls being denied access to education.
Although there is concern regarding the “300 years away” remark made by the secretary general, there is sufficient indication on the African continent that this could be a reality. Africa has a long way to go in addressing gender inequality — from the household to higher positions of power. The progression of fighting against gender inequality is stagnant due to a lack of resourcing and investing in gender equality, patriarchal norms in leadership and decision-making and increased exclusion of gender mainstreaming in addressing environmental, social and economic issues.
Women and girls carry the majority of the care and domestic burden in Africa and are less likely to be employed in the formal sector (and where they are employed, earn lower wages), are less likely to be able to influence government policy and they continue to experience high levels of violence. Differentiated treatment according to gender is particularly acute during adolescence, when many girls are faced with the prospect of marriage (often before reaching the age of 18), adolescent pregnancy and gender-based violence, as well as a heightened risk of HIV transmission.
The risk of dropping out of school is high for girls at this age in Africa. This compromises education and training opportunities for women and girls.
Women experience different forms of violence because of their gender, especially in the social sphere. They are often subjected to domination by their spouses, which leads to unfair discrimination.
According to Unicef, approximately two out of three married girls aged 20 to 24 were married to a partner at least 10 years older in Gambia, Guinea and Senegal. The majority of underage marriages globally occur in West Africa, with a prevalence of 77% and 61% in Niger and Mali, respectively.
This can be explained by the importance of social norms and traditions, which influence the choice to marry one’s daughter. Having a child out of wedlock is perceived as a disgrace and the earlier a girl is married, the lower the risk of pregnancy outside marriage. These child marriages then create inequalities in schooling and training, for example, out of 916 women married at an early age in Mali, 366 had to leave school and 294 never went to school. This lack of access to education for girls has consequences for the country’s development.
Economically, women also face discrimination and are still far from empowerment. There are many obstacles to their participation in economic activities, mainly due to the disparities between women and men, both in terms of access to economic resources and in the various sectors of activity.
Women’s economic empowerment remains at the bottom of the ladder and they work in difficult conditions, with low incomes. The wage gap difference can be explained by parameters such as age, type of job and level of education. These results then demonstrate that Africa is missing out on its full growth potential because a considerable portion of its growth pool, namely women, is not being fully harnessed for state development.
In addition, African women are more likely than men to be in vulnerable employment and work primarily in the informal sector. In 2010, 65.4% of non-agricultural jobs in the informal sector were held by women in Liberia and 62.2% in Uganda. Women working in the informal sector lack social protection, reinforcing their precariousness.
According to Louise Jousse, women are largely underrepresented in ministries and other legislative and executive bodies. Nevertheless, despite this low percentage, some countries stand out, such as Rwanda, the first country in which women make up more than half of parliamentarians, making up 61.3% of them in 2018. African women are slowly taking ownership of the political sphere and are gaining greater visibility, allowing them to push the political agenda in their countries. However, progress is measured in micro-advances and several African countries have less than 10% of women in mid-level positions, such as Morocco with 5.6%, Nigeria with 8% and Sudan with 9%.
Africa does not contribute significantly to climate change but, despite this, the continent is heavily negatively affected by it because of multiple factors that include underdevelopment, low adaptive capacity, heavy dependence on climate-sensitive sectors and limited access to finance and technology. It goes without saying that women are highly impacted by climate change due to gender inequalities and gender roles and responsibilities. Climate change exacerbates vulnerabilities and exposes underlying discrimination. Women rely more on natural resources and climate-sensitive sectors for their livelihoods than men.
Climate Change adds to household burdens, threatens economic opportunities and increases health risks for women. Gender inequality causes women to be poorer, have less education and face more health risks than men. Labour markets are heavily gender-segregated and women are employed primarily in low-paying and insecure occupations. They carry a disproportionate unpaid work burden and rely more on natural resources and climate-sensitive sectors for their livelihoods than men. Making it more challenging is the fact that women often don’t own land and they have declining water access.
Despite all of this, women remain underrepresented and excluded from decision-making processes on climate change responses. Further, Aimee-Noel Mbiyozo, from the Institute for Security Studies, outlines that over three-quarters of climate development finance in Africa has failed to consider gender dynamics. Women on the continent are often at the forefront of developing effective mitigation and adaptation strategies because they suffer the most from climate change. There is a lack of understanding on the continent that giving women land rights would significantly reduce the risk of displacement, increase crop productivity and lead to improved investing and access to credit for women.
Although the overall picture is one of stagnation, or even reversals, in the journey towards parity, some countries have shown remarkable improvement. For instance, Rwanda and South Africa have increased women’s representation in middle-management roles by 27% and 15%, respectively. Algeria has cut maternal mortality rates by around 9%. Egypt has tripled its score and Guinea and Liberia doubled their scores on legal protection of women. These examples of rapid progress should inspire others to forge ahead with actions to advance gender equality.
According to McKinsey’s Power of Parity Report: Advancing Women’s Equality in Africa, to reduce this 300 year gap, African countries should invest in human capital by driving sustained economic growth and boosting productivity by investing sufficient resources to improve the skills, experience, resilience and knowledge of women and girls.
Further, they need to unlock opportunities for women-owned businesses, develop public and household infrastructure and improve the quality of jobs in the informal sector. In addition, African countries should leverage technology to close the gender gap and enforce laws, policies and regulations.
Arguably, any drive toward gender parity in Africa starts with efforts to change entrenched and widespread attitudes about women’s role in society, an extremely difficult and complex challenge that will require all stakeholders to play a part that is sustained over the long term. Fighting against social, economic and political inequalities demands a change of mentality. For this to happen, society as a whole must become aware of the importance of valuing the status of women and therefore question its practices, both for men and for women who have internalised and accepted the norms to which they are subjected.
Karabo Mokgonyana is an award-winning legal and development practitioner and programme director for the Sesi Fellowship and Skill Hub, a womxn- and youth-led organisation that provides young womxn with mentorship and skills development.
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