- Manu was a Cameroonian musician and songwriter who played saxophone and vibraphone
- He developed a musical style fusing jazz, funk, and traditional Cameroonian music
- He was the first African musician ever to record a top 40s hit
- Manu was also a composer, producer, performer, film score writer and humanitarian for the poor
| Real name: | Emmanuel N'Djoké Dibango |
Manu Dibango Height
| | How tall was Manu Dibango? | 190 cm / 6 ft 3 in | | Weight | 96 kg / 212 lbs Comment
| | Born: | 12 December 1933 Comment | | When did Manu Dibango die? / Died | 24 March 2020 | | How many years did Manu Dibango live? / Lived | 86 years | | Where was Manu Dibango born? | Douala, French Cameroon | | Where did Manu Dibango die? / Deathplace | Paris, France | | Nicknames: | Papy Groove | | Zodiac sign: | Sagittarius |
Manu Dibango Net worth 2024 (estimated)
| | How much is Manu Dibango worth? | $50,000,000
| | Nationality: | Cameroonian | | Hair color: | Bald | | Eyes color: | Black |
Who was Manu Dibango? / Facts
- Early life - Manu was born in Douala, Cameroon.
His father, Michel Manfred N'Djoké Dibango, was a civil servant.
Son of a farmer, he met his wife travelling by pirogue to her residence, Douala.
A literate woman, she was a fashion designer, running her own small business.
Both her ethnic group, the Duala, and his, the Yabassi, viewed this union of different ethnic groups with some disdain.
Manu had no siblings, although he had a stepbrother from his father's previous marriage, who was four years older than he was.
In Cameroon, one's ethnicity is dictated by one's father, though Manu, always being aware of the ambiguities of his identity, said he had never been able to identify completely with either of his parents.
Throughout his childhood, Manu slowly forgot the Yabassi language in favour of the Duala.
However, his family did live in the Yabassi encampment on the Yabassi plateau, close to the Wouri River in central Douala.
While a child, Manu attended Protestant church every night for religious education, or nkouaida.
He enjoyed studying music there, and reportedly was a fast learner.
- Education - In 1941, after being educated at his village school, Manu was accepted into a colonial school, near his home, where he learned French.
He admired the teacher, whom he described as "an extraordinary draftsman and painter".
In 1944, French president Charles de Gaulle chose this school to perform the welcoming ceremonies upon his arrival in Cameroon.
In 1949 his parents sent him to France to study and, as an incentive, promised to pay for music lessons.
Manu arrived on a steamer to take up his education at Saint-Calais in the region of Sarthe.
The only black child in this small country town, he got on well with his schoolmates, who remembered him bringing the first bananas they had ever seen.
For his part, Manu found snow exotic and tried to post some home in an envelope.
He was adopted by the community and settled quickly into the French way of life, but his individuality, his cultural roots and, possibly, memories of the “volunteers”, prevented him from accepting the complete national identity expected by his host country.
Due to his parents having different ethnic backgrounds, Manu was never satisfied with an imposed identity.
He was unhappy to be classified as an African musician, preferring to be considered as an artist, and an African.
Considered too old to take up the violin, his preferred instrument, he studied classical piano for four years.
His fellow students included Francis Bebey, who would become a novelist and musicologist, with whom Manu played classical and jazz pieces, although for student dances they became a blues band.
While he was on holiday in 1953, a friend lent him a saxophone and Manu took to the instrument, enrolling for two years of private tuition.
- Career in music - After doing the rounds of French jazz clubs he moved to Belgium, where his soulful style attracted the owner of the Bantou club.
Within months Dibango had been signed up by Joseph Kabasele, the founding father of modern Congolese music, whose band, African Jazz, spearheaded a musical revolution in Africa.
Manu wrote his own compositions, and has collaborated with many other musicians.
In 1959 Kabasele recorded the pan-African anthem Indépendence Cha Cha and invited Manu to the Congolese capital, Léopoldville (now Kinshasa), to work with him. They made many hit records for the Ngoma label in the prevailing rumba style.
Manu also ran a recording band called African Soul in which he played the organ on his own interpretations of American music.
He managed a nightclub, the Tam Tam, but despite financial success he and Coco experienced racism, so they moved to Abidjan in Ivory Coast.
After a period as leader of the Ivoirian national broadcast orchestra, Manu realised that the creative “miracle” he thought he was observing in Africa had turned into a mirage, and he returned to France.
- Film soundtracks - In the late 1960s and early 70s he recorded film soundtracks – including that of Ousmane Sembène’s celebrated feature, Ceddo (1976), incidental background music and commercials, and singles for the African market.
- Touring - In 1972 he joined the Congo rumba combo Ry-Co Jazz for a tour of Algeria, along with the guitarist Jerry Malekani, who thereafter became his permanent accompanist.
- Other hits - Following the death of the US tenor sax supremo King Curtis in 1971, Manu released a tribute single which identified the American as a major influence on his technique.
He achieved a considerable following in the UK with a disco hit called "Big Blow", originally released in 1976, and re-mixed as a 12" single in 1978 on Island Records.
- Soul Makossa - At the 16th Annual Grammy Awards in 1974, he was nominated in the categories Best R&B Instrumental Performance and Best Instrumental Composition for "Soul Makossa".
The song "Soul Makossa" contains the lyrics "makossa", which means "dance" in his native Cameroonian language Duala, has influenced many popular music hits of that time.
- Later albums and collaborations - In 1978 he recorded two albums for Chris Blackwell’s Island label in Jamaica, Afrovision and Gone Clear.
In 1982 Dibango worked on a masterful triple album, Fleurs Musicales du Cameroun, which gathered contemporary and traditional musicians from the various ethnic groups of Cameroon.
In the same year he toured France with the American jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, exploring everything from soul to Malian folk music and Thelonious Monk.
Soon after, he was blowing ice-cold funk on his album Electric Africa (1985), which featured Herbie Hancock, and the hit single Abele Dance.
He collaborated with a long list of top class performers: Hugh Masekela, Fela Kuti, Tony Allen, Fania All-Stars, Ray Lema, Bill Laswell, Sly and Robbie, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and many up and coming Cameroonians.
In 1984 he joined more than a dozen artists on the fundraising single Tam Tam Pour l’Ethiopie, released indignantly in response to Band Aid, which many Africans considered condescending.
Manu’s 1994 album Wakafrika featured King Sunny Adé, Peter Gabriel, Salif Keïta, Papa Wemba and Youssou N’Dour.
In 1998, he recorded the album CubAfrica with Cuban artist Eliades Ochoa.
He has also worked with and influenced such artists as Art Blakey, Don Cherry, Herbie Hancock, Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, and Johnny Clegg.
- Television - Back in 1967 Manu had been bandleader on Pulsations, the first black music programme on French TV, and in the early 1990s he hosted his own prime-time French TV show, Salut Manu.
- Genre - Manu covered a vast spectrum of styles, from traditional African roots music to jazz, soul, Afrobeat, reggae, gospel, French chanson, Congolese rumba, salsa and solo piano. Most importantly, he was a founding father of funk.
Although best known as a saxophonist, he was also a consummate keyboard and vibraphone player and a great arranger, who could get the best from a quartet or a 28-piece orchestra.
- Trivia - His song, "Reggae Makossa", is featured on the soundtrack to the 2006 video game Scarface: The World Is Yours.
Manu owned his own vodka brand called “Pure Wonderdibango”.
- Lawsuits - In 2009 Manu filed a lawsuit claiming that Rihanna's and Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop the Music" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" used the "Mama-say, mama-sa, ma-ma-ko-ssa" hook without his permission.
Jackson admitted that he borrowed the line for "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" and settled out of court.
When Rihanna asked Jackson in 2007 for permission to sample the line, he allegedly approved the request without contacting Manu beforehand. Manu 's attorneys brought the case before a court in Paris, demanding €500,000 in damages.
The judge ruled that Manu 's claim was inadmissible: a year earlier, a different Paris-area judge had required Universal Music to include Manu 's name in the liner notes of future French releases of "Don't Stop the Music", and, at the time of this earlier court appearance, Manu had withdrawn legal action, thereby waiving his right to seek further damages.
- Honors - In 1998 his achievements were celebrated by the rural community where he grew up, with the naming of a cultural centre after him. He reciprocated by donating the saxophone he had used on Soul Makossa.
Manu served as the first chairman of the Cameroon Music Corporation, with a high profile in disputes about artists' royalties.
He was appointed a UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2004, received several honours from African countries and, in 2010, was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur.
- Awards - Manu received the Africa Festival Award from the Africa Festival Würzburg for his musical life’s work in 2006.
On 8 September 2015, Michaëlle Jean, Secretary General of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, honoured Manu with the title of Grand Témoin de la Francophonie aux Jeux Olympiques et Paralympiques de Rio 2016 (Special Representative of Francophonia to the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games).
- Last years performances - In the UK his frequent concert appearances included a 2008 Africa Day show in Trafalgar Square, but the most satisfying for him were the regular bookings at Ronnie Scott’s club, where he enjoyed being recognised as a “jazz man”.
In August 2009, he played the closing concert at the revived Brecon Jazz Festival.
He was still working in 2019, on tour with Symphonic Safari, blending jazz with classical music.
- Anniversary concert - In July 2014, Manu made an 80th anniversary concert at Olympia, France which was broadcast by TV5Monde.
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Writing - Manu wrote in his autobiography, Three Kilos of Coffee (1989), and A Stroll with My Sax: Through the Corridors of My Life (2015).
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Personal life - Manu married a white Frenchwoman Marie-Josee (known as Coco) in 1957, whom he previously med in Brussels. They had two daughters, Georgia and Marva, and son, Michel. Coco died in 1995.
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Death - On 24 March 2020, Dibango died aged 86 in Paris, France, from complications of COVID-19.
Bio / wiki sources: Wikipedia, accounts on social media, content from our users.
Quotes
I play different kinds of music before playing my own. I think that that's very important, to play other people's music. As you are African they expect you always to play African. Forget that. You're not a musician because you're African. You're a musician because you are musician. Coming from Africa, but first, musician.
What is special is that Africa has a long historical relationship with sound, and a communion between sound and the visual stronger than in any other culture. The sound carries the rhythm and the movement creates the images. The way an African moves compared with the environment is different from the western conception.
Manu Dibango Social Media Accounts
Wiki & wealth sources: Wikipedia, TMDb, social media accounts, users content, wealth specialized websites
Last update: 31 March 2020
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Net worth: $50,000,000
