Obituary for Didier Kabobo Mwenda

Friday, 04 December 2009 12:35 Rosemarie Jughard
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Array Didier Mwenda playing his guitar

I was shocked when I received the terrible news of the sudden death of Didier Mwenda through an e-mail on June 3, 2009. Didier Kabobo Mwenda, the son of the famous Congolese musician, Mwenda Jean Bosco, also known as Mwenda wa Bayeke, was born in 1974 in Lubumbashi, Katanga, a province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was married and had three children. Didier died suddenly on Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 23.40hr at the local hospital in Lubumbashi. He was buried on Thursday, June 4, 2009 at the cemetery of Gécamines (the large mining company) in Lubumbashi.

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Interview avec Lamine Konté

Monday, 28 September 2009 17:00 Kuessi Marius Sohoudé
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«Je ne peux pas fermer ni les yeux, ni les oreilles, pour me cantonner dans un ghetto de musique africaine.»

Array Lamine Konté et Kuessi Marius Sohoudé. Photo: Andrés Felipe Carvajal Gomez Lamine Konté, né en 1942 en Casamance au Sénégal, est très connu en tant que virtuose de la kora, l'un des pionniers de la musique du monde et celui qui a le plus chanté les textes des grands écrivains d'Afrique et de la diaspora africaine tels Léopold Sédar Senghor, Birago Diop, Aimé Césaire, Léon Gontran Damas. Malheureusement, le Casamançais de naissance fut arraché de la vie terrestre dans la nuit du 28 au 29 septembre 2007 à Paris, la ville dans laquelle il a immigré en 1971 et qui est restée le centre de sa vie jusqu'à sa mort des suites d'un cancer. Ainsi, «le griot intello» n'a pas eu l'occasion de vivre aussi longtemps que Léopold Sédar Senghor qu'il a accompagné pendant des années et dont il a célébré le centenaire à titre posthume en 2006.

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Luanda está a mexer! Hip Hop Underground em Angola

Thursday, 28 August 2008 00:55 Marta Lança
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Ecos da Banda Ecos da Banda

Hip Hop brought conscience for social topics that have been disregarded by mainstream Angolan artists. The underground rappers diagnose the contradictions of the Angolan society with their poetic-politic desire to grow up in a country, where freedom and justice is possible. It is the popular culture of a youth correcting and questioning the destiny of the Angolan nation. In this article we can read about some MC'S who gave a name to this movement.
(Abstract in English, article in Portuguese)

First published in Público, 06.07.2007

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Thoughts on (the late) Ghanaba

Thursday, 26 March 2009 15:10 Markus Coester
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Ghanaba Ghanaba wil be buried on the 27th of March 2009 in Accra and his family has posted this “Home Call”-poster.

Arguably one of Ghana’s greatest, most genius, and without doubt most idiosyncratic musical artists, Ghanaba, formerly known as Guy Warren and Kofi Ghanaba, born on the 4th of May 1923, and baptised as Gamaliel Kpakpo Akwei, died on the 22nd of December 2008, aged 85 years, at the 37 Military Hospital, Accra/Ghana.

Ghanaba’s musical legacy does neither start nor end with his first album recorded in 1956 in Chicago with the Red Saunders Orchestra, “Africa Speaks, America Answers”, but this record started his international recognition. The album is said to have sold over one million copies and contains his probably best known composition Eyi Wala Dong (Ga for “Thanks to Him” (God)), renamed shortly after its first release to “That Happy Feeling”, a beautiful song that was covered by the German bandleader Bert Kaempfert, whose version sold even more than the original one (released on Kaempfert’s album Swingin’ Safari in 1963). It became one of the best known melodies worldwide.

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