Manu Dibango

Manu Dibango

Born: December 12, 1933
Died: March 24, 2020
in Douala, Cameroon
Emmanuel N'Djoké "Manu" Dibango (12 December 1933 – 24 March 2020) was a Cameroonian musician and songwriter who played saxophone and vibraphone. He developed a musical style fusing jazz, funk, and traditional Cameroonian music. His father was a member of the Yabassi ethnic group, while his mother was a Duala. He was best known for his 1972 single "Soul Makossa". He died from COVID-19 on 24 March 2020.

Emmanuel "Manu" Dibango was born in Douala, Cameroon in 1933. His father, Michel Manfred N'Djoké Dibango, was a civil servant. Son of a farmer, he met his wife travelling by pirogue to her residence, Douala. Emmanuel's mother was a fashion designer, running her own small business. Both her ethnic group, the Douala, and his, the Yabassi, viewed this union of different ethnic groups with some disdain. Dibango had only a stepbrother from his father's previous marriage, who was four years older than him. In Cameroon, one's ethnicity is dictated by one's father, though Dibango wrote in his autobiography, Three Kilos of Coffee, that he had "never been able to identify completely with either of [his] parents".

Dibango's uncle was the leader of his extended family. Upon his death, Dibango's father refused to take over, as he never fully initiated his son into the Yabassi's customs. Throughout his childhood, Dibango slowly forgot the Yabassi language in favour of the Douala. However, his family did live in the Yabassi encampment on the Yabassi plateau, close to the Wouri River in central Douala. While a child, Dibango attended Protestant church every night for religious education, or nkouaida. He enjoyed studying music there, and reportedly was a fast learner.

In 1941, after being educated at his village school, Dibango was accepted into a colonial school, near his home, where he learned French. He admired the teacher, whom he described as "an extraordinary draftsman and painter". In 1944, French president Charles de Gaulle chose this school to perform the welcoming ceremonies upon his arrival in Cameroon.

In 1949, at age 15, Dibango was sent to college in Saint-Calais, France. After that he attended the lycée de Chartres where he learned the piano.

He was a member of the seminal Congolese rumba group African Jazz and has collaborated with many other musicians, including Fania All Stars, Fela Kuti, Herbie Hancock, Bill Laswell, Bernie Worrell, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, King Sunny Adé, Don Cherry, and Sly and Robbie. He achieved a considerable following in the UK with a disco hit called "Big Blow", originally released in 1976 and re-mixed as a 12″ single in 1978 on Island Records. In 1998, he recorded the album CubAfrica with Cuban artist Eliades Ochoa. At the 16th Annual Grammy Awards in 1974, he was nominated in the categories Best R&B Instrumental Performance and Best Instrumental Composition for "Soul Makossa".

The lyrics of the song "Soul Makossa" on the record of the same name contain the word "makossa", which refers to a style of Cameroonian urban music and means "(I) dance" in Dibango's native tongue, the Cameroonian language Duala. The song has influenced popular music hits, including Kool and the Gang's "Jungle Boogie". ...

Source: Article "Manu Dibango" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Movies for Manu Dibango...

Soul Makossa Manu Dibango jazz Open Stuttgart - 1995
Title: Soul Makossa Manu Dibango jazz Open Stuttgart - 1995
Character: sax/vocals
Released: March 22, 2022
Type: Movie
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The Rumba Kings
Title: The Rumba Kings
Character: Self - Musician
Released: May 6, 2021
Type: Movie
In the fifties, when the future Democratic Republic of Congo was still a Belgian colony, an entire generation of musicians fused traditional African tunes with Afro-Cuban music to create the electrifying Congolese rumba, a style that conquered the entire continent thanks to an infectious rhythm, captivating guitar sounds and smooth vocals.
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Africa Rising
Title: Africa Rising
Character: Self - Musician (archive footage)
Released: June 3, 2019
Type: Movie
How African artists have spread African culture all over the world, especially music, since the harsh years of decolonization, trying to offer a nicer portrait of this amazing continent, historically known for tragic subjects, such as slavery, famine, war and political chaos.
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Manu Dibango fête ses 80 ans à l'Olympia de Paris
Title: Manu Dibango fête ses 80 ans à l'Olympia de Paris
Released: March 4, 2014
Type: Movie
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Nos plus belles années 80 :  La Compil !
Title: Nos plus belles années 80 : La Compil !
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: March 5, 2013
Type: Movie
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Soul Power
Title: Soul Power
Character: Self
Released: September 4, 2008
Type: Movie
Soul Power is a 2008 documentary film about the Zaire 74 music festival in Kinshasa which accompanied the Rumble in the Jungle heavyweight boxing championship match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in October 1974. The film was made from archival footage; other footage shot at the time focusing on the fight was edited to form the film When We Were Kings.
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On dirait Nino Ferrer
Title: On dirait Nino Ferrer
Character: Self
Released: December 1, 2004
Type: Movie
Nino Ferrer has had several lives: hits that made him famous; a dark but artistically fruitful period; a hidden life -of his own making- breaking away from showbiz. All these facets are concentrated in a brilliant, complex, skinned character. "It looks like Nino Ferrer" is a film rich in international archives (TSR, RTSI, Rai...), rare documents (Super 8 films of the Ferrer family) and even unpublished films (Nino Ferrer as an actor in an advertisement for Italian cheese). The film is also punctuated by the memories of famous musicians such as Manu Dibango as well as by the singer's successes and his live performances (L'Olympia, L'Arche de Noé).
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Title: Vivement dimanche
Character: Self
Released: September 20, 1998
Type: TV
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Black Dju
Title: Black Dju
Released: November 28, 1997
Type: Movie
This standard slice-of-life drama is about Dju Dibonga (Richard Courcet), a young man who leaves his home on Cabo Verde, an island of Portuguese dependency off the coast of Africa, to go to Luxembourg and search for his father. Far from his home village and unfamiliar with the large city, the young black man forms an unlikely friendship with a down-and-out white policeman whose only consolation in life is found at the bottom of a bottle. Their developing companionship forms the main focus of this movie directed by Pol Cruchten.
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Changa Changa, rythmes en noirs et blancs
Title: Changa Changa, rythmes en noirs et blancs
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1992
Type: Movie
A rare documentary made in Brussels in the early nineties collecting witnesses on how local and Congolese musicians enriched each other including internationally known stars such as Manu Dibango, Toots Tielemans, Vaya Con Dios, Phillippe Catherine, Victor Laszlo, Zap Mama...
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Title: Ambitions
Character: Self
Released: February 28, 1986
Type: TV
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Title: Victoires de la musique
Character: (Variety/Instrumental Album of the Year)
Released: November 23, 1985
Type: TV
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Title: Victoires de la musique
Character: Self
Released: November 23, 1985
Type: TV
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Title: Champs-Elysées
Character: Self
Released: January 16, 1982
Type: TV
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Title: Le Grand Échiquier
Character: Self
Released: January 12, 1972
Type: TV