Arts + Culture
Staff Benda Bilili: the Kinshasa street band on tricycles that conquered Cannes
Staff Benda Bilili was a Kinshasa band whose core members were disabled by polio. Their 2009 album Très…
Arts + Culture
Dive into a world of boundless creativity and diverse perspectives with our Arts + Culture corner. Explore the latest in visual arts, literature, and cultural trends
Arts + Culture
Students in Abidjan turned their frustrations into dance music: the story of zouglou
Zouglou was born in the early 1990s among university students in Abidjan, who sang humorous and critical songs…
Arts + Culture
The records Ethiopia almost lost: how the Éthiopiques series brought “Swinging Addis” to the world
In 1997, the Paris label Buda Musique, with producer Francis Falceto, began the Éthiopiques series, reissuing Ethiopian popular…
Arts + Culture
From Luanda’s parties to dance schools in Lisbon and London: how kizomba grew out of semba
Kizomba emerged in Angola in the late 1970s and 1980s as an evolution of semba, softened by the…
Arts + Culture
His songs got him exiled from Côte d’Ivoire: Tiken Jah Fakoly, Françafrique and a concert for every school
Ivorian reggae singer Tiken Jah Fakoly, born Doumbia Moussa in Odienné, released his internationally successful album Françafrique in…
Arts + Culture
Still singing on stage past 100: Bi Kidude, the queen of Zanzibar’s taarab
Bi Kidude, born Fatuma binti Baraka in Zanzibar around 1910, was called the queen of taarab and unyago…
Arts + Culture
Three strings, iron castanets and a trance that lasts all night: Gnawa music of Morocco
Gnawa is a Moroccan musical and spiritual tradition with roots in sub-Saharan Africa, brought north by enslaved people.…
Arts + Culture
Born in a Paris nightclub, raised in wartime Abidjan: how coupé-décalé began with Douk Saga and La Jet Set
Coupé-décalé began among Ivorians in Paris around La Jet Set, a group founded in 2001 whose leader Douk…
Arts + Culture
“Premier Gaou” means “first fool”: how four friends from Anoumabo took zouglou to Paris
Magic System, formed in Abidjan in the 1990s by friends from the working-class neighbourhood of Anoumabo, recorded "1er…
Arts + Culture
An Ivorian reggae star recorded with Bob Marley’s band at Tuff Gong: Alpha Blondy and Jérusalem
In 1986, Ivorian reggae singer Alpha Blondy released Jérusalem, recorded at Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, with…