In Case You Missed It: 4/25/16 – 5/1/16

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Papa Wem­ba

The most impor­tant in this week’s head­lines out of and about Africa, for those who need help catch­ing up.

Papa Wem­ba’s Lega­cy Cel­e­brat­ed Worldwide 

The musi­cal lega­cy of Papa Wem­ba, the Con­golese musi­cian who died on April 24, is being cel­e­brat­ed not just through­out the Africa con­ti­nent but around the world. Wem­ba col­lapsed on stage and died min­utes lat­er dur­ing a per­for­mance in Abid­jan, the Ivory Coast.

Many are ask­ing ques­tions about what may have caused his col­lapse, cap­tured on video.

“Last week­end, when news of the real Papa Wem­ba’s death began to cir­cu­late on the inter­net, many of his fans were in denial, “writes Chine­du Uka­ban with The Fad­er.

Uka­ban states that to under­stand the impact of Wemba’s music you have to fol­low the twists and turns of the music of the coun­try where he comes from, the Con­go, espe­cial­ly dur­ing the 50’s and 60’s.

“Besides his musi­cal influ­ence, he pop­u­lar­ized Sapeur fash­ion, an eccen­tric look with three-piece suits, shiny black leather shoes and flashy acces­sories,” accord­ing to CNN’s Andreas Preuss. He was “The king of the rum­ba,” says The Econ­o­mist.

Wemba’s remains have been trans­port­ed back to his native Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of Con­go (DRC), with bur­ial set for Wednesday.

Ger­many Seek­ing To Extend Rela­tions with African Countries 

The bench­marks for coop­er­a­tion between Ger­many and African nations point in the direc­tion of more polit­i­cal and busi­ness meet­ings in the com­ing months.

That’s accord­ing to the Ger­man broad­cast­er, Deutsche Welle, in this report.

Marked by exchange vis­its between Ger­many and African nations, includ­ing Niger, Mali, Kenya and Mozam­bique, Ger­man Chan­cel­lor, Angela Merkel, as well as For­eign Min­is­ter, Franz-Wal­ter Stein­meier, have led the part­ner­ship meetings

In addi­tion a devel­op­ment agen­da, the rela­tion­ships is being extend­ed to include secu­ri­ty mat­ters as well because of  increased ter­ror­ist activ­i­ties in some African coun­tries, the reports states.

Oth­er Top Africa Sto­ries for the Week

US pri­ma­ry ‘sur­ro­gates’ share Africa pol­i­cy visions

Michael Iglo / Devex