9/21/2008

Africans from Former French and Belgian Colonies Sing in English

The French are anxious that their former African colonies, most of which they have managed to keep in a state of subjection, shouldn't open up to the English-speaking world or use English. The fact that many artists from that region choose to express themselves in the tongue of the archrivals, the much-hated "Anglosaxons", is certainly not something that Chirac and his fellow francophone fanatics can approve of.

Here are a few of those liberated francophones:
Angelique Kidjo was born in Benin, West Africa.(...) her (...) husband, Jean Hebrail, (...) collaborates with her. They now live in New York and Paris.(...) Angelique speaks and sings in several languages, including Fon, Yoruba, Mina, French, and English.

Native of Ivory Coast, Angelo Dogba fuses Hip-Hop, Dance Hall, Jungle and traditional African ingredients in Abidjan-Paris-New York.
Hundreds of hard edged performances across Africa, Europe and the US.
Award received in New-York from "African Eye" in 2002

Depipson is an African born artist from the North West Province of Cameroon. Songs are written in 9 different languages:English, French, Spanish,Pinyin,Douala,Pidgin English or creole, Lingala,Nkambe,Bali and more

Fojebais a singer songwriter currently settled in Toronto, Born in Cameroon,Fojeba migrated to Europe in 1996,and used to live in The Hague ,The Netherlands for about 7 years. Lyrics in Bamileke, French, Lingala, English

A first generation Congolese-American, Omékongo writes and performs poetry in English, French and Swahili, and has occasionally used Wolof in his writings.

Congolese musician Samba Ngo sings in French, Lingala and English.(...)Ngo, the son of an herbal doctor, was born in the tiny village of Dibulu, in the center of what is now called the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A most heart-warming trend and a crushing blow to French pretensions: while those artists increasingly use English as a medium, African anglophone singers still almost never sing in French!

No comments: