Manu Dibango - Percussion, Arranger, Keyboards, Saxophone, Vocals
Georges Arvanitas - Piano
Malekani Gerry - Guitar
Joby Jobs - Drums
Long Manfred - Bass
Freddy Mars - Percussion
Manu Rodanet - Percussion
Pierre Zogo - Guitar
The story of the first ever hit by a Paris-based African is
enlightening. In 1971 Cameroon's Minister for Sport financed the
recording of an anthem composed by Manu Dibango in honour of the
national football team, for the 8th Coupe des Tropiques due to take
place in Yaoundé. The single was released in 1972, with "Soul
Makossa" as its B-side. The Cameroonians were then knocked out and the
record was duly forgotten. But the song reappeared on a Dibango album
released at the end of 1972 by French Decca's Africa division. On the
other side of the Atlantic, meanwhile, African-American radio
programmers were scoring heavily with "Soul Makossa". The French label
paid no attention to this phenomenon and ignored the African artist,
but New York's prestigious Atlantic label signed him up. The result was
two years of sell-out live performances in the US and a cool two
million records sold. There was a further development in 1982, when
Michael Jackson revived the famous "Ma ma ma, Ma ma sa, Ma ma Makossa"
chorus on the opening track of his multimillion-selling Thriller album.
Dibango's lawyers obtained compensation in an out-of-court settlement.