RC 261011SAfm
Sunday, 11 October 2026
Equatorial Guinea dominated this Music of Africa episode, with the Mvet storytelling tradition, the country's post-independence history, and a Legend of the Week interview with a Grammy-nominated saxophonist.
- 04:48
Teodoro Obiang led a 1979 coup against his uncle Francisco Macías Nguema and is still in power, one of the world's longest-serving leaders. Oil wealth from the 1990s has changed little for most people.
- 03:21
Equatorial Guinea won independence from Spain on 12 October 1968, closing Spain's colonial rule in Africa. Spanish remains official there, the only African country where it is.
- 03:38
Mvet is both an instrument and a storytelling tradition of the Fang people. Performers sing long narrations about heroes, ancestors and battles, keeping cultural memory alive without written records.
- 04:30
Stevie Wonder arrived at the studio around 11:30pm to play a harmonica solo on the Grammy-nominated saxophonist's Christmas record, then sang a vocal on his version of All You Need Is Love.
- 05:16
Princessa Demetria's 2025 song Duma draws on Psalm 118:17, declaring faith and survival in the face of critics and a purpose that no one can cancel.