Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

[Just Released] Pop Makossa - The Invasive Dance Beat of Cameroon 1976​-​1984

Originally published on Analog Africa

What had happened to Bill Loko, the teenage super-star whose monster hit ‘Nen Lambo’ caused such a sensation? How did bandleader Eko Roosevelt go from Cameroonian prodigy to chief of an idyllic seaside village? And who exactly was Mystic Djim, the dreadlocked producer and mercurial hit-maker? etc., etc.

The Pop Makossa adventure started in 2009, when Analog Africa founder Samy Ben Redjeb first travelled to Cameroon to make an initial assessment of the country’s musical situation. He returned with enough tracks for an explosive compilation highlighting the period when funk and disco sounds began to infiltrate the Makossa style popular throughout Cameroon.

So why has it taken almost eight years from that first visit to the final compilation? From the very beginning, there were several mysteries hanging over Pop Makossa.

[Music Review] Reflection: The Confident First Steps of a Budding Afro-Soul Star

A review by Dibussi Tande

Artist: Daphne
EP: Reflection
Label: Stevens Music Entertainment
Genres: World, Afro-Soul, Reggae
Released: November 2014
Available on: iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play

In an era where anyone with a catchy hook and access to a voice processor can be promoted as the next big recording artist by a horde of eager promoters and fawning supporters, buying into the social media hype and hysteria surrounding the pre-release of new songs and albums is generally a recipe for disappointment. The budding Cameroonian urban music scene, for example, is replete with a dizzying number of songs and artists who promised more than they delivered and then faded into oblivion - or stubbornly stayed around to the dismay of the listening public. Once in a while, however, an artist comes along who actually lives up to the hype.

"Toase, Tara Toase" - A Musical Tribute to Lapiro de Mbanga

Hip Hop artist Z-Lex releases the first single in honor of Lapiro de Mbanga. Share, download, enjoy!

 

Lapiro de Mbanga - Death Most Foul

"Lapiro de Mbanga Ndinga Man e mandat don bolè today for Etaz! Erreur or no erreur die na ndos! Waka nayo Ndinga man. We go di follow ya 4 chapters di listen ya mutumbu until we own mandat bolè. We go di mimba you tara! All man must go one day ... RIP." Sarli Sardou Nana.

Originally published by Freemuse

Singer and musician Lapiro de Mbanga from Cameroon – the “unceremonial sheriff of the backyards” – has died, 56 years old.

Lapiro de Mbanga was a musical “freedom fighter” who articulated the daily injustices he witnessed in his songs – and was punished hard for his right to express them.


On 16 March 2014, Lapiro de Mbanga died of cancer in USA, the country which gave him asylum in 2012 at a time when he had to leave Cameroon under dramatic circumstances.

“Authorities in Cameroon continued to harass and threaten Lapiro even after he was released. He needed to get out of the country, and we needed to find an urgent solution,” told Freemuse Director Ole Reitov. With the help of Freedom Now, Lapiro was given refugee asylum in the United States.

“Lapiro said that Freemuse ‘saved his life’. He often told us that he ‘was ready to die’, but we never felt we were ready to loose him,” said Ole Reitov. “His songs will never die. He will always be remembered as ‘the people’s voice’ against corruption and power abuse.”

Makossa Original: A Blog Dedicated to Classic Makossa Music

By Dibussi Tande

Who was the founder of Black Styl, the greatest Makossa group of all time; Emil Kangue or Nkotti Francois? How did Makossa maestro Ben Decca look and sound like when he released Nyonga Mulema, his debut 12 inch 45 rpm maxi single, back in 1981?
 
The cover of the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed "Black Styl à Paris" album (1978)

Can you still remember the cover of Mbemba' Iyo, the 1980 album that confirmed Dina Bell as a bona fide Makossa star, and which included classics such as Nginya Mulema and Nyuwe?

Undermining African Intellectual and Artistic Rights: Shakira, Zangalewa & the World Cup Anthem

By Dibussi Tande

During a tour of Cameroon in 1975, James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, met Tala Andre Marie, a budding Cameroonian blind singer and guitarist who had just released a funk number titled  Hot Koki. Tala gave him a copy of the record "to give him an insight into the kind of music being made in Cameroon". According to the Boston Globe, “Two years later, Brown dropped “Hustle!!!’’ –  with the same melody, beat, and arrangements, only with English lyrics.” Tala and his music label, Fiesta Records, gathered a team of lawyers who filed a law suit in the United States. After a drawn out battle that lasted four years, an American court concluded that James Brown had indeed used Tala’s song without authorization. Tala says there was very little financial fallout from the case, with the bulk of the money going to the lawyers. Tala nonetheless contends that it was a huge moral victory and good PR.

(Music) "Independance Cha Cha" - The African Independence Anthem

Composed in 1960 by Joseph Kabasele Tshamala (Grand Kalle), the father of Congolese music, Independance Cha cha, became the anthem of not only the nationalist movement in the Belgian Congo, but also the newly independent states of Africa. The song was was first played at the Hotel Plaza in Brussels on January 27 1960 during the round table talks that set the date for Congolose independence.

 Today we can opnly look back wistfully and that golden age of buoyant optimism and hope of a better future for Africa...

Indépendance cha cha tozui e
Oh! Kimpuanza cha cha tubakidi
Oh! Table Ronde cha cha ba gagné o
Oh! Dipanda cha cha tozui e

(Independence cha cha, we've won it
Oh! Independence cha cha, we've achieved it
Oh! The round table cha cha, we've pulled it off
Oh! Independence cha cha, we've won it)

Patience Dabany: The Forgotten Chapter in Omar Bongo's Storied Personal Life

For two decades, she was known as Josephine Bongo, the revered First Lady of the Republic of Gabon. Then in 1986, she and President Omar Bongo divorced. Josephine moved to Los Angeles and reinvented herself as a musician under the name Patience Dabany, collaborating along the way with the likes of Quincy Jones and James Brown.

Here is the former First Lady and mother of Ali Bongo, Omar's heir apparent, singing "C'est pour la vie”, one of her most popular songs which is a throwback to the golden era of Zairo-Congolese music of Pongo Love, Mbilia Bell, Abeti Masikini and others.

 

For more on Patience Dabany see her Wikipedia page and this RFI interview.

Charlotte Mbango: The Day the Music Died

Créer une playlist sur AfroMontreal.com >>

 

See also:
Thank you Ms. Charlotte Mbango

CAMEROONIANS MOURN CHARLOTTE MBANGO

Countdown to the Obama Inaugural: The Praise Song Cottage Industry

During the US presidential elections, a cottage industry emerged which specialized in churning out praise songs for Barack Obama – in fact, composing a song for Obama has developed into a new artform.

Here is what was arguably the most popular of the Obama praise songs, Mighty Sparrow's get-out-and-vote Calypse tune, Barack the Magnificent. Links to other less popular praise songs follow below.
 

Barack The Magnificent - The Mighty Sparrow

Text of song here.

Miriam Makeba Dies in Italy

  ROME (AFP) — South African singer Miriam Makeba has died aged 76 after being taken ill near the southern Italian town of Caserta following a concert, ANSA news agency reported Monday.

  
Miriam Makeba on Sunday in Castel Volturno, Italy, during her final concert 

She died overnight after taking part in a concert for Roberto Saviano, a writer threatened with death by the Mafia, the Italian agency said.

Miriam Makeba, known as "Mama Africa", was the legendary voice of the African continent who became a symbol of the fight against apartheid in her home country.

She died just after having sung for half an hour for the young author of "Gomorrah" at Castel Volturno near Naples along with other singers and artistes.

Videos - Miriam Makeba: A Lifetime of Music

Khawuleza (1966)

Pata Pata (2007)

For more on Miriam Makeba, including interviews, visit the NPR website.