My friend and Global Voices colleague Lova Rakotomalala is crowdsourcing a list of the 15 most influential musicians in Africa:
There is a list from 2006 on the Independent of the 50 greatest African artists, encompassing all type of arts chosen by a selected panel that also left a lot to be desired as far as representation of the whole continent (this might be a byproduct of deep cultural and lingual boundaries between regions).
Making a list for such a large, heterogeneous continent is bound to be flawed. But the purpose here is to celebrate and discover artists that do not get to receive the exposure that their western counterparts receive.
Top contenders so far: Nigeria’s Fela Kuti and Cameroon’s Manu Dibango. You can add your choices by commenting on Lova’s blog.
Everyone one knows Luambo Makiadi is and will probably forever be The African musician.
Fela , Manu, Youssou etc only have had the advantage of being known in norte America. In terms of influence, output, longevity and penetration into the common masses – the places where only local outfits get heard Franco & OK have several laps on those above. From his band there emerged tens of succesful musicians who had influence well beyond Congo and some like Madilu and Sam Mangwana their music is truly international.
As for your list…MEH