Manu Dibango

Widely recognized as Cameroon's foremost jazz saxophonist and perhaps the most prominent across the African continent, Manu Dibango also excelled as a pianist and vibraphonist. His distinctive blend of funk, jazz, and multiple African traditions supported an extensive series of partnerships throughout a long career, spanning Fela Kuti to Sly & Robbie and Herbie Hancock. Already well established in a productive output, he achieved genuine global success in 1972 with "Soul Makossa," a track whose influence echoed through popular music for years afterward and prompted later recordings by Kool & the Gang, Michael Jackson, and Rihanna. A musician who traveled widely and maintained residences and professional activities in locations such as France, Belgium, Jamaica, and Zaire, Dibango additionally operated nightclubs, conducted orchestras, and founded one of the earliest African musical journals. His notable body of work extended into the early 2010s through continued composition, recording, touring, and creative experimentation almost until his passing in 2020.

Emmanuel Dibango entered the world in 1933 in Douala, Cameroon, born to parents from the rival Douala and Yabassi ethnic groups. Displaying musical aptitude early on, he encountered jazz during his teenage studies in France. Starting with piano and later taking up saxophone, Dibango gained recognition within the Parisian jazz community of the early '50s, after which he relocated to Brussels and acquired proficiency on vibraphone. Toward the close of the decade he began pursuing a fusion of jazz with local African forms such as the Makossa, a dance tradition of the Douala people. As a founding member of the Congolese rhumba group African Jazz, he performed across Europe with the ensemble in the early '60s, subsequently returning to Cameroon to direct his own fusion outfit and further investigate the continent's diverse musical heritage. In the late '60s he secured studio work in Paris, accompanying various African American soul, jazz, and R&B performers while issuing several albums under his own name. The funky 1972 B-side "Soul Makossa" combined jazz and soul with the Makossa style to attain international prominence, particularly in the U.S., where it directly shaped both Kool & the Gang's "Jungle Boogie" and Michael Jackson's 1982 hit "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," the latter drawing on Dibango's signature "Ma ma-se, ma ma-sa, ma ma-kossa" hook. Jackson incorporated the phrase without authorization, though the matter was resolved privately. Capitalizing on his sudden recognition to pursue additional projects, Dibango devoted much of the '70s to expanding his artistic boundaries, joining American salsa group the Fania All-Stars on tour, cutting albums in Jamaica alongside the renowned rhythm section Sly & Robbie and other leading reggae figures of the period, and producing Africa-focused recordings with musicians from Nigeria and Ghana. His releases remained abundant and varied, a pattern sustained into the '80s via partnerships with jazz figures such as Herbie Hancock and Hugh Masekela, and through the '90s as rap, gospel, and R&B elements appeared in selected projects. During the '90s he also collaborated with prominent African artists including Angelique Kidjo, King Sunny Adé, and Youssou N'Dour.

Upon attaining stature as one of African music's senior figures in the 2000s, he received recognition through the anthology Africadelic (2003) and the live recording Lion of Africa (2007). The United Nations designated him a UNESCO Artist for Peace. Although his recording pace and performance schedule gradually diminished as he entered the 2010s, Dibango marked his 80th birthday with a televised anniversary concert at the Olympia in Paris. He died on March 24, 2020 from COVID-19, his career leaving a lasting testament to cross-cultural invention and musical camaraderie.