Somehow, Afrobeat never loses its attraction. Its blend of American funk and jazz with African rhythms made it an instant success all over Africa in the 1970s. This was surely helped by its rebellious lyrics which were mostly sung in Broken English, thus overcoming language barriers as nearly everybody was able to grasp its meaning.
 
Now, more than ten years after the death of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, who was the undisputed king of Afrobeat, this musical style is as fresh and provocative as ever and even finds new audiences in the African Diasporas in Europe and the US. And the following two CDs will surely boost its popularity some steps further.

Traditional African art is often unusual and abstract. Sculptures of human figures may have out of proportion elements such as an over-sized head coupled with a tiny body form. To understand the art, it must be remembered that the majority was made for religious purposes. The artist was not interested in the beauty of the subject in a Western European sense but instead the work would have a deeper meaning that was based on a religious belief.

While survivors of the January earthquakes in Haiti were still searching the rubble for the bodies of loved ones, Buffalo Bill Historical Center conservator Beverly Perkins was picking through the ruins for the treasures of Haitian culture.

Like many small-budget, education-intensive institutions, the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum here depends on the kindness of friends and strangers for certain kinds of support.

Musicians don't often end up on FBI watch lists, but the Last Poets did, thanks to their links with the Black Panthers. Dorian Lynskey looks back at a time when pop and politics collided as never before

One day last December, Umar Bin Hassan of the Last Poets attended a gathering in Chicago to commemorate local Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton, who was shot dead by the police 40 years earlier. There were about 30 people, including the widows of Hampton and fellow Panther Eldridge Cleaver, and former members of radical groups such as Weatherman. "We laughed and drank wine and talked about what we all had been through," Hassan says. "I'm glad I made it. It was good to see a lot of those people still living, you know?"