They painted their bodies with dots and bars, and shaved patterns into their hair. Les Têtes Brûlées looked like no other African band of the 1980s, and they sounded different too. From Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, they took bikutsi, a local dance rhythm, to stages across Europe.
Bikutsi
Bikutsi is a music and dance style of the Beti people of central Cameroon. Its name is often explained as “beating the earth”, from the stamping of dancers’ feet. Traditional bikutsi was played on balafons, wooden xylophones, with drums and singing, often by women at social events.
Jean-Marie Ahanda
The band was founded by Jean-Marie Ahanda, a journalist, artist and trumpeter. He wanted to modernise bikutsi and give it a rock energy. He chose the name Les Têtes Brûlées, usually translated as “burnt heads”, though Ahanda preferred “burnt minds” or hotheads.
Zanzibar’s guitar
The band’s guitarist, Théodore Epémé, known as Zanzibar, created the band’s signature sound by stuffing foam rubber under his guitar strings to imitate the wooden balafon. The result was a dry, percussive sound that became central to modern bikutsi.
The look
The band’s body paint drew on Beti scarification traditions. Their image, colourful and rebellious, attracted attention from European audiences and the press.
Man No Run
The French director Claire Denis, fresh from her first feature, Chocolat, filmed the band on tour in France for the documentary Man No Run, released in 1989.
Zanzibar’s death
In 1988, Zanzibar died suddenly. The circumstances were never clearly explained, and his loss was a heavy blow to the band and to Cameroonian music.
Bikutsi after them
Bikutsi became one of Cameroon’s most popular genres, and later artists, including K-Tino and Lady Ponce, took it in new directions, often with very suggestive lyrics and dancing.
Bikutsi and politics
Bikutsi became closely associated with Yaoundé and the Beti region, the home area of President Paul Biya, who came to power in 1982. Some critics argued that the genre benefited from official favour on state radio and television. Others pointed out that bikutsi had deep roots long before Biya and that its popularity came from the dance floor. Les Têtes Brûlées’ rise in the 1980s took place against that backdrop, as bikutsi began to rival makossa, the Douala-based style that had dominated Cameroonian pop for years.
Touring Europe
The band’s European tours in the late 1980s introduced bikutsi to world music audiences in France and beyond. Their wild stage show made them festival favourites.
Cameroon is often remembered abroad for makossa and Manu Dibango. Les Têtes Brûlées showed that the country had another sound, rooted in the balafon and carried by a guitarist with a piece of foam.
