#MusicMonday: Soul Makossa — Manu Dibango and the Horn That Circled the Globe

Great Rising Your Highness, I hope you are exceedingly well. Children of the sun I invite you all ring Mother Earth’s Great Bell.

Mama-ko, mama-sa, ma-ma-ko-ssa. If that chant just started playing in your head, you already know the power of today’s #MusicMonday. Before it was Michael. Before it was Rihanna. Before it rocked a single dance floor in America, it was a saxophone player from Cameroon writing a B-side for a soccer anthem. Let’s ring this bell properly.

The Horn From Douala

Manu Dibango was born in Douala, Cameroon in 1933, and he spent a lifetime proving the saxophone has no borders. In 1971 he recorded a song meant to be the flip side of “Hymne de la 8e Coupe d’Afrique des Nations,” celebrating Cameroon hosting the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time. The A-side was for the stadium. The B-side was for the world. That B-side was “Soul Makossa.”

From a Brooklyn Crate to the Whole Planet

Here’s the part that should light a fire under every independent artist reading this. In 1972, DJ David Mancuso pulled a copy out of a West Indian record shop in Brooklyn and played it at The Loft. Then Frankie Crocker put it in heavy rotation on WBLS. The demand got so loud that more than 20 groups rushed out cover versions before Atlantic Records licensed the original. By 1973, a Cameroonian sax record sung mostly in Duala was sitting on the Billboard Hot 100 and the soul chart.

No marketing budget. No algorithm. Just one curator who heard something real and refused to keep it to himself. That’s the whole blueprint, family. That is why I build SoulFusion Radio the way I do.

The Chant That Kept Traveling

A decade later, that chant closed out Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin'” on Thriller. Twenty-five years after that, Rihanna brought it back in “Don’t Stop the Music.” In 2009 Dibango took the matter to court in Paris, and the court ruled against him because of a prior agreement that put his name on Rihanna’s release. Hold onto that lesson too: the music travels forever, so read every agreement before your sound leaves the building. Ownership is part of the art.

Manu Dibango joined the ancestors in March 2020, but his horn never stopped. Afro-jazz, funk, disco, hip-hop, pop — you can hear Douala in all of it.

The Horn Today, the Horn Tomorrow

The bridge is still being built. London-born saxophonist Nubya Garcia carries that diaspora frequency right now — her 2024 album Odyssey on Concord Jazz brought in Esperanza Spalding, Georgia Anne Muldrow, and the Chineke! Orchestra. Past, present, and future, one breath at a time.

And the future is right here in the DMV. The Phantom Phunk Collective is out here blending funk, hip-hop, soul, and rock with a full live band. Nasim Siddeeq carries international soul on his voice. These are the records somebody’s going to pull out of a crate one day and change the world with. Let’s not wait 50 years to find them.

Put Your Money Where the Music Is

• Listen: Run back “Soul Makossa” today, then play it for somebody who’s only heard the remix.
• Support directly: Pick up Nubya Garcia’s Odyssey straight from the label.
• Back DMV artists: Meet the roster at COBRAMusic.net — 80% of profit goes to the artist.
• Tune in: Stream SoulFusion Radio and be the Mancuso in your circle.
• $5 Challenge: Spend five dollars on one independent Black artist this week. Bandcamp, merch, a tip jar. Then tell somebody.

#MusicMonday #ManuDibango #SoulMakossa #Saxophone #AfroJazz #Cameroon #BlackMusic #Diaspora #NubyaGarcia #COBRAMusic #SoulFusionRadio #DMVMusic #PutYourMoneyWhereTheMusicIs

Follow the L𓂀ght…