Hailu Mergia and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in Stockholm!

Very soon two famous people from the African continent will attend events in Stockholm. The Ethiopian musician Hailu Mergia will have a concert at Fasching on November 25 and the world famous Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will speak at Kulturhuset on Novermber 26.

African contributions to the Swedish champions

Today the football championship in my home country Sweden was decided. Stockholm team AIK finished first in the table and there were a few African contributions to this league victory.

Ghanaian Enoch Kofi Adu was an integral part of the team´s performance and played nearly every game as a midfielder.
Congolese-born Swedish winger Heradi Rashidi scored one goal during the season.
Swedish player Henok Goitom, who is of Eritrean descent and has played for the Eritrea national team, contributed a lot by scoring twelve goals.

Fatoumata Diawara in Stockholm

The Malian star Fatoumata Diawara will perform a concert in Stockholm on November 4th. Buy tickets here too see her show. https://www.konserthuset.se/en.

Great music from Somalia

When I have worked as a local news reporter in Stockholm, I have sometimes written about the annual Somali football tournament SEUKI in Stockholm that gathers Somali communities from all over the world. One thing I have always noticed is the great music either coming from the speakers or performed by singers at the event. If you are interrested in Somali music you can read more about it´s history here.

One great example of Somali music is Dur-Dur Band´ song "Yabaal".

The Somali language can also be heard in Swedish rapper Imenella´s song "Moves". She raps in Swedish but is of Somali descent and has included the Somali language in the refrain.

See the artefacts of Egypt in Stockholm

If you happen to like both my hometown Stockholm and ancient Egypt, then you can go to The Mediterranean Museum (Medelhavsmuseet) in Stockholm. Here you can find remainings from different civilizations around the sea, including ancient Egypt.

The best thing about the Egyptian part of the museum is that, with a little help from modern 3D technology you can watch how the inside of an Egyptian coffin looks like, with the mummified body and everything. It´s free to enter the museum.

Address: Fredsgatan 2, Stockholm.

Ebo Taylor the entertainer

In this blog I will occasionally give some names of African musicians and bands that I think is worth listening to. I am a big musiv fan, so this will probabl be one of my favurite parts about running this blog.

So let´s kick start with one of my absolute favourites. Ebo Taylor from Ghana (born in 1936) has had a long career in music and mixes afrobeat, highlife and other genres. I watched him myself in a concert in Stockholm in the club Fasching a couple of years ago. And I have to tell you, it´s impossible not to fell the rhytms in his music and just dance. Watching Ebo Taylor live is probably one of my all time greatest music experiences. The energy level Ebo Taylor and his band created that night is very hard to reach for any musician - in the world.

The role of cassava in African cuisine

Today i took a trip with my car to Upplands Väsby outside Stockholm. There, a Swedish-Congolese association had prepared African food for everyone to try (pictured). Most of the dishes were different ways to prepare cassava, which is no surprise as cassava is a staple food in some parts of the continent. It was the first time I tried cassava and it tasted good.

Cassava was brought to Africa from South America in the 16th century and today there are many different ways of preparing cassava in Africa.