Singing Our Unsung Heroes

Yaya Fonye Odette

Description

This book collates thematic reflections on Cameroon music exalting Manu Dibango, one of the first-generation Cameroonian musicians, who bowed to Covid-19 on 24 March 2020. Granted his enormous contribution to Cameroon, African and world music, one would have expected that scholarly books and encyclopaedia of recognition would be written in his honour prior to his demise. However, that was not the case. Like many other musicians in Cameroon, seemingly nothing substantial has been written about Manu Dibango and his music, with the exception, paradoxically, of his autobiography, Three Kilos of Coffee. What exists on this towering and humble giant of Cameroonian and African superstardom is scanty and mostly in the form of grey literature. We must learn to immortalise our artists and popular intellectuals beyond their entertainment value and the photo opportunities that we have with them in their lifetime. The inspiration for this book was drawn from the conviction that one of the best ways of honouring and valorising Manu Dibango would be by taking the cue from his music and then collecting essays generally on music, its role and impact in Cameroon, Africa and beyond.

Informations

• Publié par: Langaa RPCIG
• Date de parution: 16 mars 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 3
• EAN13: 9789956551828
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Singing Our Unsung Heroes
Edited by Walter Gam Nkwi
(Re)Membering Manu Dibango, Celebrating Cameroon Music
“Manu Dibangoʼs sad death is a great loss to the world in general and to Cameroon
in particular. As a prototype of an Afropolitan – a notion he helped to forge Singing
himself – he was for my Cameroonian friends a towering fi gure of hope showing
that despite all adversity their country could produce such creative genius. This rich
collection highlighting the vital role of music for society and as a counter-voice under Our Unsung
a seemingly never-ending dictatorship as in Cameroon, is a tribute to his greatness.”
- Peter Geschiere, Emeritus Professor, Leiden University/University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Heroes
“Manu Dibangoʼs 1983 Makossa Man album is a prize item in my vinyl LP collection.
(Re)Membering Manu Dibango, I heard his music during the 1990s in both the boîte de nuit circuit downhill
from Yaoundeʼs Le Capitol and a more urgent setting, alongside Petit-Paysʼ and Celebrating Cameroon Music
Lapiroʼs, from insurrectionary Bamendaʼs boom boxes. Iʼm now thrilled to read
this posthumous tribute to (as the book puts it) a major
“Afropolitan…musicianEdited by Walter Gam Nkwiphilosopher,” and grateful to this circle of University of Buea-inspired tribunes for a
ground-breaking volume about Cameroonʼs and Africaʼs protest culture and politics
writ large.”
- Milton Krieger, Emeritus Professor of Liberal Studies, Western Washington University, USA
“The death of Manu Dibango in 2020 was felt all over the world. Sadly, at the
time of his passing, there was hardly any major study of his vast body of work in
Cameroon and hence the necessity for this volume. But beyond this major event, the
volume focuses on other signifi cant issues; music and historical memory, music in the
age of social media, music and female power and music and sociopolitical resistance.
In this way, we will come to understand that music not only uplifts the spirits but also
serves as an important spur and reminder when we need to re-build society from the
bottom up.”
- Sanya Osha, Senior Research Fellow, HUMA, University of Cape Town, and author of Postethnophilosophy
This book collates thematic refl ections on Cameroon music exalting Manu Dibango, one of the fi rst-generation
Cameroonian musicians, who bowed to Covid-19 on 24 March 2020. Granted his enormous contribution
to Cameroon, African and world music, one would have expected that scholarly books and encyclopaedia of
recognition would be written in his honour prior to his demise. However, that was not the case. Like many other
musicians in Cameroon, seemingly nothing substantial has been written about Manu Dibango and his music, with
the exception, paradoxically, of his autobiography, Three Kilos of Coffee. What exists on this towering and humble
giant of Cameroonian and African superstardom is scanty and mostly in the form of grey literature. We must learn
to immortalise our artists and popular intellectuals beyond their entertainment value and the photo opportunities
that we have with them in their lifetime. The inspiration for this book was drawn from the conviction that one of
the best ways of honouring and valorising Manu Dibango would be by taking the cue from his music and then
collecting essays generally on music, its role and impact in Cameroon, Africa and beyond.
Walter Gam Nkwi is an Associate Professor of History, University of Buea, Cameroon. His research interests include: Migration,
Social History and relationship between Technology and Society.
Langaa Research & Publishing
Common Initiative Group
P.O. Box 902 Mankon
Bamenda
North West Region
Cameroon

Singing Our Unsung Heroes:
(Re)Membering Manu Dibango,
Celebrating Cameroon Music







Edited by

Walter Gam Nkwi















Langaa Research & Publishing CIG
Mankon, Bamenda Publisher:
Langaa RPCIG
Langaa Research & Publishing Common Initiative Group
P.O. Box 902 Mankon
Bamenda
North West Region
Cameroon
[e-mail]
www.langaa-rpcig.net



Distributed in and outside N. America by African Books Collective
[e-mail]
www.africanbookscollective.com





ISBN-10: 9956-551-09-0
ISBN-13: 978-9956-551-09-5

© Walter Gam Nkwi 2021




All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or be
stored in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission
from the publisher

About the Authors


Chapter 2
Henry Kam Kah is Associate Professor and Acting Head of the
Department of History at the University of Buea in the South West
Region of Cameroon. His research interest is in the area of gender,
conflict, and culture. He has several published scholarly papers to his
credit, a book and co-edited book with Professor Bea Lundt of
Flensburg University Germany. Dr. Kah has presented papers at
several international symposia, workshops, seminars, and
conferences. He is a member of several learned societies including
the American Political Science Association (APSA), the Council for
the Development of Social Science Research in Africa
(CODESRIA), the West African Research Association (WARA), the
Pan African Anthropologists Association (PAAA), the African
Politics Contact Group (APCG) and the Association of Friends of
the Archives and Antiquities Cameroon (AFAAC). Dr Kah is also
associate research fellow of the Institute of African Studies,
University of Ibadan, Ibadan Nigeria since 2008 and was DAAD
Guest Professor at the Department of History at the Heinrich Heine
University Dusseldorf between October 2015 and March 2016. He
is currently involved in a team research on grassroots voices with
regards to the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon. Email:
[e-mail]; [e-mail]

Chapter 3
Peter Wuteh Vakunta hails from Cameroon Grassfields. He holds a
Ph.D. in French Literature and Francophone Studies. Vakunta is
author of several books in French, English, Pidgin English and
Camfranglais. He has taught at a number of Universities in Africa
and the United States. At present, he is Professor of French
Language and Cultural Studies at the Unites States Defense Language
Institute located in Fayetteville, North Carolina. During his leisure
time, Vakunta loves to play soccer and the Xylophone. He has
published many books amongst which are the following: Tragedy of
the Commons; Ntarikon: Poetry For the Downtrodden;Grassfields Stories from
Cameroon; Straddling the Mungo: A Book of Poems in English and French (English and French Edition); A Nation at Risk: A Personal Narrative of
the Cameroonian Crisis; Cam Tok and Other Poems from the Cradle; From
Pidgin to Camfranglais: The Making of a New Language in Cameroon;
Carton Rouge à Paul Biya, Président de la République du Cameroun:
Lapiro’s Songs of Protest (Vol. 1). His other works are available on
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=vakunta&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb
_noss_1. His email:[e-mail]

Chapter 4
Primus M. Tazanu teaches at the Department of Sociology and
Anthropology, University of Buea, Cameroon and is affiliated, as
senior guest research, to the Centre of African Studies, University of
Copenhagen, Denmark. Primus holds a PhD in Social Anthropology
from the University of Freiburg, Germany. His research focuses on
social practices and the production of meanings through media
technologies: new/social media/smartphones and sociality, media,
and Pentecostalism as well as media and racism. Primus is interested
on the ways in which the liveness of media influences sociality and
users’ sensory experiences, expectations and distanciations that arise
in mediated communication, smartphones/social media and
connectivity, smartphones/social media and electronic identities,
media, and self-presentation. His research on Pentecostalism
revolves around the mediatization of Christian beliefs and practices
in Cameroon. As concerns racism online, Primus looks at racist
discourse and representations, philosophical anthropology, questions
of freedom, decoloniality and social justice. Dr Tazanu has been a
postdoctoral fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand in South
Africa as well as a guest lecturer at the universities of Basel
(Switzerland) and Freiburg. Aside from his book Being Available and
Reachable: New Media and Cameroonian Transnational Society (2012),
Primus has published in many peer-reviewed journals including New
Media and Society, Africa, Mobile Media and Communication, Journal of
African Media Studies, Journal of Religion in Africa, Journal of Asian and
African Studies and the International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies. Dr
Tazanu is an Editorial board member of Spears Books, an African
Committee member on Social Science One and a Senior Researcher
at Langaa Research and Publishing Common