Page 5 - Nile Explorer Issue 007

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COVID 19 Claims
Music Icon
Manu Dibango

M usician Emmanuel N’Djoké aka

MADU DIBANGO, died in
France March, aged 86 after contracting
Covid-19. He is survived by his daugh-
ters, Georgia and Marva, and son,
Michel. His wife Coco died in 1995.

As a musician, Manu a covered a broad
spectrum of styles in his music , ranging
from traditional African roots music to
jazz, soul, Afrobeat, reggae, gospel,
French chanson, Congolese rumba,
salsa and solo piano. Most importantly,
he was a founding father of funk. Manu
was an icon, a legend and a musical
genius who hugely influenced Afro-jazz
. His distinctive fusion of jazz and funk singer, who lived in Paris but regularly musician.
with traditional music from his native visited his native Cameroon, inspired His fellow students included Francis
Cameroon made him a leading figure of many other artistes and influenced Bebey, who would become a novelist
the world music scene. folkloric music lovers to like jazz. and musicologist, with whom Dibango

“Sax is sexy,” he once said. “I play other Emmanuel Dibango was born in played classical and jazz pieces,
instruments too, but my voice sounds Douala, in French-administered Cam- although for student dances they
best through a saxophone.” eroon. His father was a high-ranking became a blues band. Considered too

In 2015, Michaëlle Jean, then Secre- civil servant, his mother a fashion old to take up the violin, his preferred
instrument, he studied classical piano
tary-General of the Organisation Inter- designer, and both parents were devout for four years.
nationale de la Francophonie, appointed Protestants who disapproved of secular
Dibango as the ambassador to the Rio music. Manu received encouragement While he was on holiday in 1953, a
Olympics and Paralympic Games of from the musical director of his church friend lent him a saxophone and Diban-
2016. Louise Mushikiwabo, the current choir, and helping him to broaden his go took to the instrument, enrolling for
secretary-general of the organisation, musical perspective, initially taking two years of private tuition. After doing
said the Covid-19 pandemic has stolen interest to play music using a bamboo the rounds of French jazz clubs he
“a very valuable man” from La Franco- flute and a home-made guitar. In 1944, moved to Belgium, where his soulful
phonie, the world, the world of music when the then French President Charles style attracted the owner of the Bantou
and Africa. de Gaulle visited Cameroon, he was in a club. He was soon identified and signed

Dibango was a remarkable figure and school choir that entertained guests. up by Joseph Kabasele, the founding
father of modern Congolese music,
brand, and recognizable in look: Bally In 1949, at his parents sent him to whose band, African Jazz, spearheaded a
figure with clean shaved head, shades, France to study, and as an incentive, musical revolution in Africa.
stylish African shirts, a benign grin and promised to pay for music lessons
a deep, reverberating voice. His voice –classical piano and music theory— in His engagement with African Jazz, the
was melodic, invigorating and recogniz- Paris and Brussels. He settled quickly group led by Le Grand Kalle (Joseph
able. Although popularly known as a into the French way of life, but had Kabasele), in the early 1960s was brief,
saxophonist, Dibango also played the difficulty accepting the complete as he returned to France to establish his
keyboard and vibraphone and was a national identity expected by his host own band in the late 1960s, in Paris. In
great arranger, whether working with country. He was happy being consid- Brussels he had met his future wife
an orchestra or with a quartet. The ered as an artist, and an African as Marie-Josee (known as Coco), whom he
acclaimed saxophonist, songwriter and opposed to being classified as an African married in 1957.

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