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The Stoop · Hana Baba and Leila Day

This ain't Texas, it's Africa

November 21, 2024·34 min·3 clips
The banjo is the umbilical cord to Africa—no Africans, no American country music.
Country suddenly sounds less white. Hanal and Leela open with Shaboosie at number one, then sit with the surprise around a country star with Nigerian roots. Leela is honest about the distance. Country had felt too white, too far from her language, and not like any tribe she knew. Hanal grew up with a stranger mix: in her Sudanese home, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Donny Cash, and the Oak Ridge Boys played beside Sudanese tapes. So why did American country music slip so easily into African homes when other genres had their own strong claims? Catherine starts with storytelling. Country songs move slowly enough for morals, wisdom, and a good line to land in the room. The hosts do not stop there. Jazz has deep ties to Africa too, so why did country hit differently? Catherine points to colonial history. For Kenyans coming out of English colonial rule, the American cowboy could look like freedom. Hanal follows that thread back to colonial times in Kenya and a 1948 recording by Kikuyu singer Sami Ngaku from central Kenya. The sound is yodeling, which makes the whole story messier and more interesting. Country was not simply borrowed, imported, or loved by accident. By the end, Leela is laughing her way into chaps and a ten-gallon hat, claiming the music as something tied to roots, not just somebody else's turf.

As heard by us

Country music, Black memory, and African history come together in a thoughtful, easy listen.

The episode starts with a familiar country-music question and opens it into something wider: why Black listeners and African families have long found a place in a genre many still treat as white.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If Shaboozey, Black country's moment, and African roots connect for you, press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
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