Last summer my friend Lamin, who works on WFMU's Mudd Up Show with DJ Rupture and writes for the Dutty Artz music blog posted a video there to highlight a dance called the Whop from Liberia.
The video drew my attention because I recognized the melody that the kids were singing from a Senegalese Hip Hop song that every so often would get played at San Francisco's Little Baobab. I liked the song, but didn't know the artist, the origins of the melody, or the language, which prompted some interesting comments from Lamin and crew. Luckily a week later I was in Dakar and was able to track the song down from DJ Coco Jean at a local radio station.
Here is Didier Awadi with Zamouna.
For me the mystery was solved after I found Awadi's version...
...that is until I got this tweet a couple of weeks ago:
I answered, a little confused, and all of a sudden a flood of versions started popping up as Dave and I traded versions of the song.
Here is the Bubbling remix that he talks about:
DJ Mai$taH - Waka Waka (Bubbling Remix)
We eventually found the original of that song which is Los Chicas del Can's El Negro No Puede. What I eventually realized is that the Los Chicas del Can version was written for them by Wilfrido Vargas, who like Juan Luis Guerra, has played with several African diasporic styles in creating his high energy version of 80's synth Merengue. It makes sense that he would adapt this tune from somewhere like West Africa. What's also interesting to note is that in some of the comments on the Youtube page people speculate to the meaning of the words saying that they were meaningless phrases made up by Wilfrido to sound African, but didn't actually reference anything.
The problem we had now was that Los Chicas del Can's version predates Awadi's Zamouna, the Liberian Whop video, and the Bubbling remix, and I'm convinced that the words mean more than nothing. Eventually Dave found a cover from Suriname that helped us connect the Bubbling remix to the Merengue original:
In the meantime while me and Dave were going back and forth, my friend Sonja re-tweeted the Zamouna video, which led to this exchange:
So now we have global proliferation and a potential origin. All I had to do was connect the dots to end up here:
The song is apparently a Cameroonian military song (click the link to watch the whole video) popularized in the 80's by the group Golden Sounds. A roughly translated French Wikipedia page explains a little more:
This song was apparently sung very often without understanding its meaning. The language is Fang since Za engalomwa word for a "Who did you sent?": The question of a Cameroonian military to another foreign-born, according to Guy Dooh Zangalewa group.
This song is interpreted in Fang. This language is widespread in Gabon, southern Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and a little east of Central.
So that's my story of an Internet musical mystery presented and resolved. We've found versions or mentions of the song in places far from each other in distance and language, places like France, The Netherlands, Rwanda, Suriname, The Dominican Republic, Senegal, Liberia, and Cameroon. The meaning of the words may escape most people who sing it, even some from the nation of origin, and I'm sure there are versions in other countries around the world, but with the help of Twitter and some tricky Youtube searching, we were able to track down the origin and proliferation of a truly global song that proves language is no barrier to a great melody:
There's another tune using this melody:
Dj Steady Vs Dj Idriss - Chicas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rsQ5R0XZJ4
Posted by: Maxledaron | March 02, 2010 at 01:12 PM
Great work, detective
Posted by: dave quam | March 02, 2010 at 01:17 PM
Great song. Some 80's makossa from Cameroon is worth seeking out. Moni Bile, Ben Decca, Charlotte Mbango, Petit Pays and many others.
Posted by: Marco Romano | March 02, 2010 at 01:49 PM
Great post! THIS is why I visit this blog regularly and love this station. All the "Top 10 shows I went to" posts around New Year's were cramming the good posts like this right out, which was a month-long bummer. Thanks for the effort in infotainment!
Posted by: Quizmasterchris | March 02, 2010 at 02:39 PM
You have this one too :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr17Cnk7y8c
A coupé decalé track with hilarious lyrics,if you understand french
Dj Alfred Hitchcock magazine
Posted by: Chocomix | April 04, 2010 at 06:57 AM
And now WORLD CUP ANTHEM!
Posted by: andres | April 17, 2010 at 04:52 PM
This video it's from an old town close by to Cartagena calles Palenque where slaves escaped (I'ts a town in need as you will see). I couldn't find the video I was looking for, but you could see how this guys move...
NIÑOS PALENQUEROS BAILANDO CHAMPETA
Posted by: Melisa | April 29, 2010 at 11:38 PM
Wats the meaning of waka waka?
Posted by: Jessy | June 12, 2010 at 05:17 PM
Great Post!
It is one of those tunes that just grabs you forever.
I can understand why you just HAD to find out more about it. I bet you were as surprised as me to hear the World Cup Song by Shakira. When I heard it I knew I recognized it and it took me a bit of searching the net to finally find the source (at least in my case)
I first came to know the song through 'Las Chicas del Can' version probably in the late 80's early 90's. They are a great 'girl band' from the Dominican Republic that were put together by a legend of Merengue, Wilfrido Vargas. I remember it played in every party & dance club back then. It's a great song and I am glad to see African music is getting played worldwide. Check out a post on our website on the subject & our take on the songs origins.
By the way, I love the video of the kid doing the Liberian whop!
Thanks!
Posted by: Fermin Beltran | June 17, 2010 at 08:02 PM
Thanks for all this. I've long been intrigued by the interest in African pop music in Colombia - you certainly see in Colombian champeta which draws directly from Congolese and also Congolese-style Nigerian music (particularly the late great Prince Nico Mbarga). And also the Dominican Republic's flirtation with Francophone African music, which is unusual for a Hispanophone Caribbean country. But it does make sense since the DR shares an island with Haiti. In fact Dominican artists like Wilfrido Vargas and Juan Luis Guerra have also covered Haitian compas (see http://www.konpauniverse.com/?q=node/86).But I was bummed (if not surprised) to see Shakira get the World Cup song rather than a South African artist. (And the South African group that collaborates on the track, Freshly Ground, while very well-meaning multicultural folks, are musically absolutely insipid.) Why not a popular South African group that dates back to the apartheid years like the Soul Brothers? Or a significant kwaito artist like Mdu (or someone more current)? Ah well.And if you can bear one more World Cup music gripe: I also was also pretty dismayed by the selection of artists selected for the kickoff concert at Orlando Stadium (lineup at http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/organisation/concert/artists/index.html). Shakira of course - but also many South African and other African artists. Certainly some admirable artists like Tinariwen and Amadou and Mariam were included. But they were all artists on the North American touring circuit, having nothing to do with their significance in South Africa. The reason for this curious booking I guess is that the event was orchestrated by the company run by the American businessman Kevin Wall, a main instigator of Live 8. Again, well-meaning, but really pretty lame. Kind of like having a Chinese businessman come here to book a salsa festival. And really a missed opportunity, because there are so many angles to music in South Africa that the rest of the world knows very little about - why not use the opportunity to provide a once in a lifetime opportunity for international exposure for some of those artists and musical styles? Again, ah well...But I do have one happy World Cup music thought: The perpetual vuvuzelas droning in the background make every World Cup broadcast sound like a Lamonte Young Theatre of Eternal Music Performance!
Posted by: Rob W | June 21, 2010 at 04:03 AM
It's always artists and travel professionals that help to break down borders and promote the free flow of CREATIVE ARTS, people and culture. Thank God for small mercies!
Posted by: Derek | July 26, 2010 at 04:58 AM
Great work finding out this information, I wonder if all the correct people are getting the necessary royalties for the song!
Posted by: CABS | July 26, 2010 at 04:10 PM