Manu Dibango was born in Douala of Protestant parents, Michel Manfred N’Djoké Dibango, a civil servant father from the Yabassi ethnic group and a seamstress mother from the Douala ethnic group. It is in the temple choir, whose mother is occasionally a teacher, that he is introduced to singing, while the parental gramophone introduces him mainly to French, American and Cuban music, the sailors from these countries landing in the port of Douala with their records.
His schooling began at the village school and continued at the “white’s school”, where he obtained his school certificate. His father sent him to continue his studies in France.
In the spring of 1949, he landed in Marseille, where he was welcomed by his “correspondent” Mr. Chevallier, a severe teacher from Saint-Calais. It was in the host family of this commune of Sarthe that he spent his adolescence and discovered French culture. His autobiography Trois kilos de café recalls that he arrived with 3 kilos of coffee in his bag, a rare and expensive commodity at the time, to pay for his first months of boarding6. Then, as a student in Chartres, then in Château-Thierry in the early 1950s, he discovered jazz, played the mandolin and learned the piano. During a stay in a colony centre reserved for Cameroonian children living in France in Saint-Hilaire-du-Harcouët7, he discovered the saxophone borrowed from his friend Moyébé Ndédi and met Francis Bebey. The latter taught him the basics of jazz and they formed a small group playing this music; but it was in Reims, where he was preparing for the baccalauréat philo, that he was introduced to the saxophone and began to perform in “clubs” and country balls, much to the chagrin of his father, who cut him off in 1956 when he failed the second part of the baccalauréat4.
Various contracts took him to Belgium at the end of 1956, where he played in orchestras in private clubs and cabarets: in Brussels, where he met a painter and model (Marie-Josée dite Coco, whom he married in 1957), in Antwerp and Charleroi, where his jazz became Africanized in contact with the Congolese milieu in the atmosphere of the accession of the Belgian Congo to independence in 1960. He was notably the conductor of the Brussels club Les Anges Noirs, which Congolese politicians and intellectuals, in the midst of negotiations for the independence of their country, frequented. It was there that he met Grand Kalle, who engaged him in his orchestra. They recorded several records, which were successful in Africa (notably Indépendance Cha Cha in Congo Leopoldville) and brought them on tour to Congo Leopoldville in August 1961. At the same time, the Dibango couple took charge of Afro-Negro in Leopoldville, where Manu launched the twist in 1962 with the title Twist A Léo. In 1963, at his father’s request, he opened his own club in Cameroon, Tam Tam, which proved to be a financial failure because of the curfew imposed during the civil war, so he returned to France in 19658.
In 1967, Manu Dibango took the throne at the head of his first big band. He created and developed his innovative and urban musical style and discovered rhythm and blues. He took part in a series of television programmes entitled Pulsations, produced by Gésip Légitimus. He is then put in touch with Dick Rivers and Nino Ferrer, stars of the time who also took part in the Legitimus shows. He played the Hammond organ for Dick Rivers for six months and was then hired by Nino Ferrer. Ferrer had him play the organ and then the saxophone when he realized that he could play the saxophone, before giving him the direction of the orchestra. In 1969, his Afro-jazz album Saxy Party, produced by Mercury (Philips) and featuring covers and personal compositions, brought him back to success9.
9 In 1972, the B-side of a single, Soul Makossa10, conquered the United States and led to a tour there. His African accents fascinated black musicians in America.
In the 1980s, he accompanied Serge Gainsbourg [ref. necessary].
In 1992, Yves Bigot (Fnac Music) asked him to record Wakafrika, an album of covers of the greatest African hits with the crème de la crème of African artists and international musicians. The album, directed by George Acogny and produced by Philippe Poustis, was released worldwide. An ambitious project for the musical reunification of Africa, Manu revisits Africa’s musical heritage by inviting tenors Youssou N’dour on Soul Makossa, King Sunny Adé on Hi-Life, Salif Keïta on Emma, Angélique Kidjo and Papa Wemba, on Ami Oh! not to mention Peter Gabriel, Sinéad O’Connor, Dominic Miller (guitarist from Sting) and Manu Katché (among others). The single Biko (featuring Alex Brown, Peter Gabriel, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Geoffrey Oryema and Sinéad O’Connor) will be remixed in Atlanta by Brendan O’Brien.
In 1997, Dibango created the Festival Soirs au Village (the title of one of his songs) in his host city, Saint-Calais. This festival has taken place every year since then.
In 2001, he was invited by Werrason for a collaboration in a Red Cross humanitarian song in the album Kibwisa Mpimpa with the singer Nathalie Makoma.
In 2000, the Guadeloupean singer Luc Léandry invited him on the track Bondié bon from his album Peace and love.
In 2007, Manu Dibango was the official sponsor of the twentieth edition of the Pan-African Film and Television Festival in Ouagadougou (Fespaco) from 24 February to 3 March11.
On 3 February 2009, Manu Dibango decided to attack Michael Jackson and Rihanna’s record companies (Sony BMG, Warner and EMI) for unauthorised use of the Soul Makossa theme song10. The court handed down its decision on 17 February 2009, dismissing the Cameroonian singer on form. In the end, the proceedings resulted in an amicable financial settlement12.
On 8 September 2015, the Secretary General of the International Organisation of the Francophonie, Michaëlle Jean, appointed Manu Dibango Grand Témoin de la Francophonie at the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games13.
On 2 July 2016, he will be featured at the first Jazz Festival in Port-Barcarès.
He died in Paris on 24 March 2020, six days after being hospitalised with Covid-19. His family says that a tribute will be paid to him after the period of confinement in France.
Manu Dibango has two sons, Michel, James (artist and musician known as James BKS) and two daughters, Marva and Georgia.