André-Marie Tala and the whole history of Cameroon Music

Many see him as the Cameroonian Stevie Wonder. Like the African American composer and performer, André-Marie Tala is a genius multi-instrumentalist.

Both were born in 1950 and lost their sight in their childhood. Both artistes have had a prolific career, with twenty studio albums for half a century and a success that has strongly influenced modern music. To them soul and blues are the ferment of artistic production. But the similarities end there.

André-Marie Tala, who was on the prestigious stage of the Olympia on Sunday, May 17, as part of the celebrations of his 45-year career, was simply André-Marie Tala (amazing).

This was nothing to him as a superstar of African music who produced a small bamboo guitar with nylon fibers in the mid-1960s.

The young man then could not regulate more than three chords. But he strived to produce rhythms he listened to during his childhood in Cameroon shortly after independence from the French and British colonial rule. He listened to Ottis Redding, Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Wilson Pickett, Fela Kuti, Johnny Hallyday and Claude François.

Very young virtuoso



When he formed his first group, les Black Tigers in 1967, the young guitarist was already a virtuoso. Their first songs were recorded in Radio Cameroon studio. Their major shows in Douala and the first single was in 1972 entitled Po tak Si Nan (literally mean Let alone God in his Bandjoun language West of Cameroon). The 45 Tours arranged by Manu Dibango, had sold 80,000 copies.

Po tak Si nan is a mixture of Soul, Jazz and RnB fused with traditional sounds such as Cameroonian Makossa and bikutsi. It was an eclectic genre that the artiste called ‘Tchamassi’ and it was appreciated in the continent and the international scene.



André-Marie Tala is an icon who have inspired many generations of African singers. The prodigious Sam Fan Thomas, another living legend of Cameroonian music, was unearthed by Tala and was part of Les Black Tigres group. He accompanied him on stage at the Olympia, that May 17. Others were the Ivorian group, Magic System and the West Indian group Kassav. The legendary guitarist Jacob Desvarieux who always says: “There is a bit of Makossa in zouk”.

By choosing the Olympia for his musical jubilee, André-Marie Tala had a goal. "I want a new beginning and work out the Cameroonian ghetto music which has been mired for several years" the singer said in a determined a voice.

Plagiarized by James Brown

The artiste refuses to dwell on past successes. Je vais à Yaoundé, in 1972, a song in which he depicted in beautiful poetry dramas of rural exodus in Anyemfor, Sikati, or Bend Skin. This allowed for Cameroon in the early 1990s to reclaim the musical genre which has remained with the people of the high grassy mountains of Western Cameroon.

"My goal with Bend Skin was to create harmony and strengthen national unity which was a bit battered at the time" says André-Marie Tala. He stressed that "an artiste also has a political responsibility".

André-Marie Tala came back on the history of Hot Koki: title plagiarized by James Brown in October 1978, after a journey of the king of soul in Cameroon. James Brown released the song under the title Hustle. A four-year trial was started which the prince and Tchamassi inventor won.

"In addition to financial compensation, it was mostly a moral victory. And recognition of the richness and heritage of the people of Cameroon, "recalled the singer.



After that plagiarism story, André-Marie Tala (came out with Manu Dibango and who was later bootlegged by Michael Jackson) became a symbol of Cameroonian music creation and was referred to ‘World Music’ in the early 1980s.



For the artiste, his Trajectoire album, released in 2014, is a return on a dense career of over four decades. But it also addressed topical issues that were of major concern; immigration, youth unemployment in Africa, governance, weak health systems.

But the artiste denied including a chain of misery. Trajectoire is primarily what he calls “an Afro -optimist song, a way of proving that despite the ills that plague the continent, there is hope, and there are great things".