Ngochi Moun’Afese
Kotto Bass and the Art of Rooted Fusion
A reflection on Kotto Bass, the Cameroonian bassist and vocalist who, despite a public career of only two years and two albums, became a musical legend by fusing Congolese Soukous with Makossa traditions. The piece traces his trajectory from studio musician to innovator, arguing that his genius lay not in mere imitation but in deep mastery of his own musical heritage.
Kotto Bass and the Art of Rooted Fusion
A reflection on the brief but consequential career of bassist and vocalist Kotto Bass, who in just two years (1994–1996) created a distinct sound by layering Makossa grooves onto Congolese Soukous standards. The piece uses his example to argue for a deeper principle: that meaningful cross-cultural innovation requires mastery of one's own tradition first.
Hala Your Own Matter: On African Hypocrisy and Black Lives
The writer questions the selectivity of African outrage over police violence in America while overlooking systemic violence, discrimination, and institutional neglect of Black lives within Africa itself. Drawing on a Chinua Achebe anecdote, the piece argues that Africans have lost the ability to distinguish between others' serious problems and their own, and that this represents a kind of colonial-minded abdication of responsibility.
The Gift That Obscures the Legacy
The writer examines how Cameroon's cultural and political systems privilege material gift-giving over substantive contribution, using Manu Dibango's global musical influence as a counterexample to ask what true value—and true remembrance—should mean.
Pardon My French: Language, Identity, and Cameroon's Linguistic Divide
The writer reflects on what it means to speak French as an Anglophone Cameroonian, prompted by a controversy around musician Daphne's acceptance speech at the Canal d'Or Awards. Rather than seeing French fluency as erasing Anglophone identity, the writer argues that speaking French—learned late and deliberately—is itself an expression of that identity, a conscious act of navigating a Francophone-dominated society.