DAVID MORGAN recommends a refreshingly inspiring novel that features encounters with some tremendous women
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African and Cuban music head in new directions
Reviews of Fatoumata Diawara, London Ko and Eliades Ochoas, Guajiro
UNCLASSIFIABLE: Fatoumata Diawara
[Shelby Duncan] 
BOB NEWLAND recommends a political thriller from former anti-apartheid activist Peter Hain
JAMES WALSH speaks to Chris Thorpe-Tracey - among many things, a one-time Morning Star columnist — about songs, cities, politics and prophecy
New releases from Max Richter, Julius Asal, and Jean-Michel Jarre
RON JACOBS applauds a reading of black history in the US that plots the path from autonomy to self-governance and then liberation
TOM KING relishes an enlightening history of the checkered progress of the war that humanity has waged on bacteria
ANDY HEDGECOCK is intrigued by a scholarly account of how systemic disinformation can exacerbate the perception of threat and foster hatred
HAILED as one of the standard-bearers of new African music, Malian singer, guitarist and actor Fatoumata Diawara’s radical new set London K (Wagram Records) is co-produced by Diawara, Daniel Florestano and Blur/Gorillaz frontman and global music champion Damon Albarn, who also performs on six of the 14 tracks here.
Fatoumata says Albarn is “her protector.” She appeared on Albarn’s cross-cultural Africa Express collective in London’s King Cross in 2012 after Albarn and other musicians were angered by the 2005 London Live 8 charity concert’s inclusion of just one African artist in its line-up.
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TONY BURKE revels in the publication of previously unreleased tracks by the great US folksinger
