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Album review
Dobet Gnahoré
Na Afriki
Paris
13/02/2007 -
Dobet Gnahoré emerged on the African music scene with all the buzz surrounding a new voice tinged with its own unique musical colour. Dobet, the daughter of Boni Gnahoré, grew up in a local Ivory Coast village, but her talent was soon spotted by Werewere Liking, the renowned Cameroonian playwright and novelist best known as the woman who founded Ki Yi Mbock Centre for Cultural Exchange. The school, built next door to the Riviera 2 university campus in Abidjan, offers courses in drama, dance and music. Dobet enrolled at Ki Yi Mbock at the age of twelve and honed her vocal and dance skills there, discovering the full cultural diversity of the African continent.
After releasing Ano Neko - an acclaimed debut album shot through with pan-African influences and her own distinctive vocal timbre - in 2004, Dobet continues to mine the same rich musical vein on her follow-up, Na Afriki. On this second album, Dobet gives free rein to her impressive vocal range and asserts her desire to make her music part of a multifaceted, many-countried Africa. Putting her philosophy into action, the Ivorian singer uses instruments and rhythms from all four corners of the continent on Na Afriki and bases her songs on lyrics which were originally penned in French then translated into more than seven languages including Arabic, Wolof (from Senegal), Lingala (from Kinshasa), Fon (from Benin) and Malinké (spoken in much of West Africa) – idioms all chosen for their specific musicality.
This declares Dobet is her way of "running after tradition". The singer admits that she is not fluent in any of the African languages featured on her album, explaining that she lost her native Dida (just one of the many languages spoken in Ivory Coast) when she arrived in Abidjan and began studying French. Dobet is about to embark upon a major tour of Africa accompanied by a backing group that reflects her commitment to the pan-African cause. The five-strong group is made up of musicians from South Africa, France and Tunisia as well as two of her compatriots from Ivory Coast.
In concert at Le Divan du Monde, in Paris, on 25 & 26 January.
Eglantine Chabasseur
Translation : Julie Street
15/04/2010 -
