Bassy seeks the future from 1958
The Cameroonian discovered early that, when you move people, they then want to know why
‘What helped to make us famous in Cameroon was that we were very young but we had decided to sing in our mother tongues,” says musician Blick Bassy from across the table in a guest house in Johannesburg’s suburb of Linden.
“Each singer was singing in their mother tongue, and then we were singing the same song. So sometimes you would have the same song singing in three [different languages], everyone just singing his language. I think it was the first time that people saw that in Cameroon, because most people were trying to sing in Douala. Other young bands were singing in French and English.”
Bassy, whose fourth album 1958 (his second with French label No Format!), is dedicated to the memory of Cameroonian nationalist leader Ruben Um Nyobé. He is narrating the story of his former group Macase, which at some point was fronted by three singers, meaning the songs could, at any point, be a mixture of Bassa, Ewondo and Eton.
Bassy, a singer and influential former member of the group, helped to orchestrate its fusion of Cameroonian rhythms with soul and jazz elements. After a 10-year stint during which the group rose from obscurity to international recognition, he left it in 2005 to pursue a solo career in France.
Deeply invested in the fortunes of Cameroon (he still travels to his home country, checking in on his home village of Nkol Messeng, every year), Bassy says his move to Europe not only thrust him into an environment where he was forced to assess his abilities from a new perspective, it also enabled him to reflect on how he could connect with people who didn’t understand where he was coming from with regard to his melodies and lyrics.
“I said to myself, things are really easy. We are human beings, and human beings have a … you can have goose [bumps], you can be touched by seeing beautiful art, without any words, without any lyrics, you just have to give some vibration.”
At an early February showcase held by his record label at the Untitled Basement in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, a living document of Bassy’s sentiments played itself out in the form of the video for his single Ngwa, which celebrates the legacy of Um Nyobé, the martyred leader of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC).
Shot in Lesotho with a South African crew under the direction of filmmaker Tebogo Malope, the video references multiple histories, to conjure scenes inspired by Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Matigari and Solomon Mahlangu’s “tree of freedom” declaration.
“When I was in school, in our books, Ruben Um Nyobé was a terrorist, you know,” he says. “So finally I went to him to understand what is happening today. So you can understand the Cameroonian situation today because the team they was putting together was asking totally [for] freedom and others were agree[ing] to half freedom, and this is the team still managing our country today. So you can understand that we’re not really free.”
In his musical choices, Bassy continues to be driven by a yearning for self-knowledge, exhibiting a constant search for quietude and mindfulness, even as he had toured 80 countries in the past two years.
At the February show, in which he patiently discussed the context behind his music video and upcoming album, he began with a bare musical piece, in which he played a threadbare, pulsating riff that highlighted the unique emotional register of his voice. It was enough to translate his earnestness and the quest for a singular voice.
“I’m lucky to have a job in which I could expand [on] what I really have in my heart, besides my emotion but also my message as a human being. Sometimes you can touch someone with an emotion and, when they come to listen to what you are saying, they will also come to you for your ‘why’ and I think people are following us [artists] for our ‘why’, why are we doing this?”
The second single off Bassy’s new album is Woni, another sparse song driven by string instruments, horn accompaniments and delicate melodies, all, of course, showcasing the warmth and melancholy of Bassy’s voice.
“Woni is about the fear that we carry with us,” he says, relating a story of how his grandfather lowered his voice conspiratorially when narrating the story of how he, Bassy’s mother and other family members spent extended periods in forest hideaways during the anti-colonial struggles.
“He was scared that someone can beat us because we are talking about this period. I wrote this song talking about how even our new generation is living in fear, ’cause they don’t have enough courage and they are hiding in alcohol and finally accepting that this is a normal way to live.”
The video, directed by Justice Mukheli, and the album 1958 will be launched on March 8. The album is accompanied by a narrative history about the struggle for independence in Cameroon, contextualising the era in which Um Nyobé was politically active.