- Overshooting 1.5C risks 'irreversible' climate impact: study
- Demis Hassabis, from chess prodigy to Nobel-winning AI pioneer
- Global stocks diverge as Chinese shares tumble
- Time runs out in Florida to flee Hurricane Milton
- Chad issues warning ahead of more devastating floods
- Creator's death no bar to new 'Dragon Ball' products
- Chinese stocks tumble on lack of fresh stimulus
- Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction
- Braving war: Lebanon's 'badass' airline defies odds
- US weighs Google breakup in landmark trial
- Chinese stocks tumble on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China slaps provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free soon after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China says to take anti-dumping measures against EU brandy imports
- China stocks rally fizzles on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- China stocks rally peters out on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- Taiwan's Foxconn says building world's largest 'superchip' plant
- Nobel literature jury may go for non-Western writer
- From Bolivia to Indonesia, deforestation continues apace
- China holds off on fresh stimulus but 'confident' will hit growth target
- German suspect in 'Maddie' case faces verdict in sex crimes trial
- Top economic official 'confident' China will hit 2024 growth target
- COP29 fight looms over climate funds for developing world
- Shanghai stocks soar to extend stimulus rally amid Asia-wide drop
- Will Tesla's robotaxi reveal live up to hype?
- 'Invisibility' and quantum computing tipped for physics Nobel
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street falls
- 'Dark day': Victims mourned around the globe on Oct. 7 anniversary
- Mission to probe smashed asteroid launches despite hurricane
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street slips
RBGPF | -2.48% | 59.33 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.28% | 24.64 | $ | |
BCC | 0.24% | 142.365 | $ | |
SCS | 2.29% | 13.08 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.11% | 24.8248 | $ | |
BTI | 0.42% | 35.37 | $ | |
NGG | -0.6% | 65.51 | $ | |
RIO | -0.94% | 66.04 | $ | |
GSK | 0.24% | 38.11 | $ | |
JRI | 0.24% | 13.191 | $ | |
RELX | -0.1% | 46.595 | $ | |
BP | -0.69% | 31.81 | $ | |
RYCEF | -1.01% | 6.9 | $ | |
BCE | -0.19% | 33.445 | $ | |
AZN | 0.03% | 76.89 | $ | |
VOD | 0.23% | 9.682 | $ |
Cameroon's 'funeral music' gives voice to frustrated youth
It began as a form of music chanted at wakes to comfort mourners -- now it is part of Cameroon's cultural mainstream, and a powerful form of expression for its frustrated youth.
Mbole (pronounced "em-bo-lay") developed around a quarter of a century ago in poor districts of Yaounde, the central African nation's capital.
It began as a sort of back-and-forth at funeral vigils between a chanter, who would devise lyrics and sing them, and "responders," who sang the lyrics back and provided rhythm using buckets, saucepans or other implements.
"You would invite people around, you formed a circle, and you started to play to keep people entertained," said Etienne Koumato, a 24-year-old biology student who performs in a mbole group called League des Premiers and is signed to a specialist record label.
"At the start, mbole was stigmatised -- people looked on it as gutter music, like rap," he said.
"But beneath the image, it was adaptable and it won people over."
Mbole spread to weddings and baptisms and other ceremonies, progressively becoming more sophisticated as instruments such as keyboards and the big West African drum, the djembe, were brought in.
Around six years ago, mbole started to go mainstream, and it is now feted as a national music genre.
"There's no TV or radio station which doesn't have mbole," said Yannick Mindja, who has made a documentary on the music's rise.
"We had Afro-beat, which came from Nigeria, but when you listen to mbole, you hear all the sounds of Cameroon," he said, pointing to traditional music forms called bend skin, makossa and bikutsi.
"Mbole is the grandson of bikutsi and the nephew of makossa, but when you hear it, you feel immediately Cameroonian," said Lionel Malongo Belinga, who performs under the name of Petit Malo.
- Neighbourhood roots -
Beneath the media success, mbole remains a versatile form of expression and is still very much rooted in poor neighbourhoods.
Poverty, drugs and insecurity are recurrent themes among its young performers, some of whom have almost iconic status in their neighbourhoods.
In 2016, Petit Malo recorded his first mbole hit, "Dans mon kwatta" ('In My Neighbourhood'), which depicted life in Nkoldongo, a rundown area of Yaounde.
The district is a warren where wastewater runs in rivulets down the narrow unpaved streets.
Many homes have no door but just a cloth to cover their entrance, hanging above some shoes, showing that people live there.
The sound of voices and the djembe bring neighbourhood youngsters running.
"Petit Malo is a good singer," said Herman Sone, a 15-year-old fan. "He sings about peace and hope, and lots of good things."
Female singers are also shouldering their way into a genre that "is still very male-oriented," said Jeanne Manga, 29, who, as performer Jay-Ni, has set up a girls-only mbole group.
Mbole is a fine vehicle for denouncing sexism, she said.
"In my lyrics, I talk for instance about men who invite women out and then expect sexual favours in return," she said. "We are not targets, and mbole gives us the chance to say so."
P.Kolisnyk--CPN