The chant starts and dancers rush to the floor. “African Typic Collection”, released in 1984 by the Cameroonian musician Sam Fan Thomas, became one of the defining African party songs of the 1980s, played from Douala to Abidjan to Accra and in African clubs in Paris and London.
Sam Fan Thomas
Sam Fan Thomas was born Samuel Thomas Ndonfeng in 1952 in Bafoussam, in western Cameroon. He began as a guitarist with Les Tigres Noirs, the band led by André-Marie Tala, one of Cameroon’s leading musicians, and went solo in 1976 with the album Funky New Bell, recorded in Benin.
Makossa
Makossa is the urban dance music of Douala, Cameroon’s port city. It became internationally known through Manu Dibango’s “Soul Makossa” in 1972. Its bass-heavy grooves and danceable rhythms influenced disco and African pop.
Makassi
Sam Fan Thomas developed a style he called makassi, an uptempo form of makossa that drew on Tala’s tchamassi rhythm and Bamileke influences from his home region. It was lighter and more playful.
African Typic Collection
The song, from the album Makassi, recorded in Paris, mixed makossa with soukous, highlife and a cheerful chant. Its title and structure seemed designed for pan-African dancefloors.
Success
The track was a hit across Africa and in Europe’s African communities and earned him a gold disc. It remains a staple of retro African playlists and wedding parties.
Later work
Sam Fan Thomas continued recording and performing, and has been honoured in Cameroon as one of the country’s music pioneers.
Cameroon’s music scene
Cameroon in the 1970s and 1980s produced many influential musicians, including Manu Dibango, Moni Bilé and Ekambi Brillant. Makossa competed with Congolese rumba as one of Africa’s most popular dance styles.
Sampling and revival
The song has been revisited by DJs and producers in the Afrobeats era, introducing it to younger audiences.
The 1980s sound
The song’s synthesisers and drum programming reflect the 1980s shift towards electronic production in African popular music.
Rikiatou
Before “African Typic Collection”, Sam Fan Thomas had already scored a hit in Cameroon with “Rikiatou”. That success gave him the standing to record in Paris, where many Cameroonian and Congolese musicians worked with the studio players who shaped the African pop sound of the 1980s.
Some African hits stay within one country. African Typic Collection was built to travel, and four decades later it is still crossing borders at parties.
