For this 34th edition, we welcome the rising artist from Mali Maïmouna Soumbounou, Vladimir Cagnolari and the artistic director Sébastien Lagrave. Maïmouna Soumbounou will take part in the traditional Mandinka Christmas on December 24.
To talk aboutAfricacolorwe leave the floor to Sébastien Lagrave with his editorial: the factory of monsters.
The monster is the other; what nature should not have produced, the exception of the species, the bizarre, the “freaky”. Between Antiquity, when geographers populated Africa with monsters, and the ordeal of the Hottentot Venus in the 19th century, the story of Africa has never ceased to be a factory of monstrosity. Also, in 2022, Africolor is resolutely “monstrous”, bringing to the stage sacred monsters such as the neo-Ghanaian Stevie Wonder revisited by Fabrice Martinez, Moriba Koïta played by his son or the Kabyle resistance fighter Lalla Fadhma N’Soumer, interpreted by Evelyne El Garby Klai. It will close the Wednesdays of Independence, a soap opera around the founding fathers presented at the Marbrerie with the complicity of Vladimir Cagnolari, who also finds Binda Ngazolo for a session of colonial family photos. On the side of customized monsters, we could not forget the megapolistic Kinshasa with the first Ile-de-France Kin’Gongolo Kiniata before Jupiter and Okwess. And it’s a boss-size Fatoumata Diawara who invites the Go de Bamako, in the middle of an edition with monstrous “Large Format” sets: Fanmkika, Évry Femmes d’Espoir, Big in Jazz Collective, Peaux Bleues. And, since monsters also hide in the folds of our literature, Ann O’Aro and Fanny Ménégoz bring back the worrying smile of the Wouivre.
Deliberately out of frame, this Africolor 2022 is made of musical chimeras and sonic gorgons, awakening the part of the vibrating monster that slumbers in each of us.
Who is Maimouna Soumbounou?
After a first remarkable passage in France with Vesco last year at Africolor, Maimouna Soumbounou, the rising star of Mali, returns to warm Montreuil with his virtuoso voice. The one nicknamed “Oumou Sangaré junior” has, in fact, the stuff of the great divas and carries in her voice the ancestral wassoulou traditions by infusing them with a wave of modernity through her own compositions. A breathtaking show made in Bamako, enough to enliven a Christmas Eve.
Who is Vladimir Cagnolari?
Author, radio producer, journalist, Bal de l’Afrique Enchantée… An Ambianceur of our friends! He will animate the Independence Wednesdays.
playlist
Sona Jobarteh Gambia see the clip
Kora
Heiress to one of the largest griot families in West Africa, Sona Jobarteh carries with her musical traditions dating back seven centuries. A true child of the kora, which she learned from her brother at the age of four, it was later, as a teenager, that she decided to devote herself entirely to it. But Sona is also a voice that winds around the 21 strings and rests on the melody of the chords. Without ever flying far away from her traditional musical heritage, she explores all of its dimensions with modernity to offer a moment of grace in which we catch the beautiful energies that blend together.
Maimouna Soumbounou sini see the clip
Samba Puzzi Tama see the clip
Rap
The nugget of Senegalese urban music Samba Peuzzi is a former member of the Posey Gang. It was in the Diacksao district in Dakar that he practiced his first freestyles and concocted his first homemade clips. The one who calls himself Ghetto Boy has always claimed his roots in the neighborhood, but now has more than 25 million views on streaming platforms. Recognized for his texts and his unique style, Samba Peuzzi, at only 25 years old, is making a name for himself among the rappers of the country of Senghor and galvanizing the public with his implacable flow and his tangy clips. On the occasion of the release of his second album Senegal boy deluxe, in December 2021, the Senegalese star 2.0 arrives for his first dates in Europe.
Jocelyn Balu and Borumba Marie Louise, see the clip
Congolese Rumba – Creation
The rumba runs through the veins of Jocelyn Balu like the Primus sprinkles the zinc of the maquis of Kinshasa. At a time when, in 2021, the rumba has just been listed as a UNESCO intangible heritage, Jocelyn Balu and his friends take us on a journey through the fever of Kinshasa from the 1940s to the 1970s, at the age of gold of the Congolese rumba. For the pleasure of our ears -and also to make our pools undulate- Borumba reinterprets the greatest hits, from Basi nionso tapale to the cult chorus of Marie Louiseand pays tribute to these essential pioneers who rocked their childhood.
The Go of Bamako baara
Girlsband 100% female – creation Africolor 22
After its creation at Africolor in 2021, the very first 100% female Malian girl band returns this year: the Go de Bamako. And like any successful music’s band, the Go give their voice just as much as they offer us a total show, between Go de Kotéba and Destiny’s Child, without ever letting go. This perfect recipe is embellished with a pinch of novelty, because for the first time in Mali, the group is accompanied by an electro set rocked on stage live by DJ Majo and DJ Fantastik. So make way for the Go’s that come back to widen our ears while leaving us with a feverish desire to get agitated and sing along to unreleased hits.
Mwezi Wa Q
Comorian music – Creation
Comorian combo, Mwezi WaQ., carried by the voice of Soeuf Elbadawisets off again on the roads with The blues of the deaf mute. Coming from a country where music has long been the place of memory of the people, Mwezi WaQ. has chosen to take up a tradition of raw speech, initiated by the Ancients. A word full of rhythms, anchored in the daily life and in the language of the Comorian people. The six performers (guitars, cello, percussion, choirs and vocals) put themselves at the service of a repertoire of melodies, sometimes revisited, sometimes unpublished and firmly anchored to their modernity. They speak of an archipelago with a shattered destiny, of the pain of the disappeared and of exile, but also of a collective utopia where the forces of power would be reversed to make way for a more humane society. Mwezi Wa Q. delivers poetic music, straight from the Moon Islands (Comoros), where heritage is skilfully revisited to create a bridge between the buried past and the hope of a better world.
Maimouna Soumbounou “Don’t Ba» organic, see above.