TWAILR Mixtape: A playlist for rethinking the spirit and purpose of international law

Music and its arts of song, dance and ritual – as Fanon put it – precede and shape any political struggle: we ‘sense and feel in these arts the pulse of a free stimulus and the coming combat’. Since the advent of electrical recording in the early 20th century, music-playing machines around the world have been, as Adorno recognised they would be, a ‘proletarian loudspeaker’. With that in mind, we are happy to use the ‘TWAILR: Extra’ space on our website to share playlists compiled by our readers and contributors – of any music broadly, explicitly or obliquely related to the politics and sensibilities of anti-imperialism, to third world approaches to international law, to global or local struggles for economic, ecological, racial and gender justice (and which of course does not promote abuse or bigotry). Obviously any collection of songs will reflect to a greater or lesser degree the geographic and linguistic horizons of the collector, and since we’d aim to limit each playlist to 15-20 tracks, the idea is for it to simply be a sample of tastes and inspirations, rather than any comprehensive curation. But we would love to hear and share what our friends and readers around the world are listening to (or drawing on in your teaching or writing), and we are delighted to start the tape running with a selection from Babatunde Fagbayibo.

TWAILR Mixtape: A playlist for rethinking the spirit and purpose of international law
(compiled by Babatunde Fagbayibo)


1. Seun Kuti – IMF (ft. M1 from Dead Prez)

2. Fela Kuti – Beast of No Nation

3. Bob Marley – War

4. Peter Tosh – 400 years

5. Asa – Fire on the Mountain

6. Miriam Makeba – A Luta Continua

7. Kanye West – Diamonds From Sierra Leone

8. Hugh Masekela – Vasco da Gama

9. Youssou N’Dour – 7 Seconds (ft. Neneh Cherry)

10. Tony Allen – Boat Journey

11. Fela Kuti – International Thief Thief

12. John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band – Imagine

13. GDO & Xception – Followers

14. Orlando Julius – From Selma to Soweto

15. Sonny Okosun – Third World

16. Fela Kuti – Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense

17. Bob Marley – Redemption Song


Version of this playlist (though not all songs available there) also on spotify.