Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Post-independence, the philosophy of 'negritude' - or cultural rediscovery - arose
among some 1960s-era West African governments. P opular Latin sounds were discour-
aged in favour of folkloric material. Electric Afropop began to incorporate traditional
rhythms and instruments, such as the
kora
(a harp-like musical instrument with over 20
strings),
balafon
(xylophone) and
ngoni
(a stringed instrument). State-sponsored dance
bands won big audiences and spawned even bigger stars. The first president of Senegal
(poet Leopold Senghor) fostered the young Orchestra Baobab band, which made a phe-
nomenal 21st-century comeback. Mali's Le Rail Band du Bamako (sponsored by the
Malian Railway Company) became an African institution that launched the careers of two
of Africa's greatest singers: Salif Keita and Mory Kanté.
When the young Salif Keita defected to the band's foreign-style rivals, Les Am-
bassedeurs du Motel, there was uproar. Fierce competition ensued throughout the 1970s,
making Bamako the dance-music capital of West Africa. Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the
poppy highlife sound of the 1940s, '50s and '60s gave way to genres with a strong per-
cussive element, such as
juju
and
fuji
. The West's popular music genres - rock, soul, jazz,
funk, pop - made their mark, each spawning its own 'Afro' equivalent. Today the likes of
1960s Sierra-Leonean Afro-soul king Geraldo Pino and Beninoise voodoo heroes
Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou are being rediscovered by a new generation of
Western hipsters.
The recording studios of Lagos offered commercial opportunities for Nigerian per-
formers, as did those of 1980s Abidjan in Cotê d'Ivoire - a musical Mecca for artists from
across the continent. But by the mid-1980s all eyes were on Paris, the city where Mory
Kanté recorded his seminal club-floor anthem 'Yeke Yeke' (check out Kanté's excellent
2012 album
La Guinnéenne
) and where innumerable West African musicians lived.
Big names moved back and forth between Paris, London and West Africa, recording
cassettes for the local market and albums for the international one, as remains the case
today. With the 1990s world-music boom, many stars - Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita,
Cesária Evora, King Sunny Ade - established their own record companies and signed up
local talent.
Some savvy Western record labels pre-empted mainstream interest in West African mu-
sic. London-based World Circuit signed the likes of Oumou Sangaré, Orchestra Baobab
and the late Ali Farka Touré - and more recently, Malian songbird Fatoumata Diawara -
arguably doing for West Africa what it did for Cuba with the Buena Vista Social Club.
West African artists are now staples of international festivals including Womad and Gla-
stonbury. Club producers have remixed Femi Kuti and Rokia Traoré. West African albums
make it into mainstream charts, West African musicians sell out Western venues and
Western musicians look to West Africa for inspiration.
