ZE MANEL
After years of political and musical exile,
"the talisman of Guinean music returns
to the origins on a Sea wave"
-Diário de Bissau
"...politically sharp, poetically soft,
guitars mourning without pedal effects,
...and Manel's terrific voice."
-The Rough Guide to World Music
In the tumultuous 60's and 70's, as independence from colonial rule was won across Africa, there emerged many expressions of cultural revolution. In Guinea-Bissau, it was music. Deep-rooted rhythms and folklore were re-interpreted in modern arrangements that inspired, mobilized, and unified. The new music featured electric guitars, brass, and lyrics sung in Kriol (a synthesis of several African languages and Portuguese), the language of the people. Zé Manel is a foundational figure of that movement.
Manel was born in Bissau, the capital city, on May 22, 1957. At age six, he formed a band to play music at boy scout camp. Soon the band was playing weddings, baptisms and birthday parties, and its members took their craft so seriously that some were forced to leave. By age seven, young Zé, playing drums and acoustic guitar, had become the main attraction of this band, named Super Mama Djombo after the female spirit of a sacred offering place. When Guinea-Bissau won its independence from Portugal years later, Orchestra Mama Djombo emerged to sing the victory.
In the years that followed, Kriol music became the bridge that brought people to their national identity. "Independence felt like people taking over their own house," recalls Manel. "After independence, life was a party, not a struggle." In that euphoric atmosphere, Mama Djombo acquired the status of national group. They often traveled with the first President Luís Cabral, representing the new nation through music. In 1978 they were flown to Cuba to mark the new musical identity "present" at the 11th Youth Music Festival. The group filled a Senegalese stadium, where the crowds literally broke down the doors to hear them play. It is said that whenever a Mama Djombo song came on the radio during lunch, people would get up and dance-and then return to their meal. It seemed an ascendancy that would never end.
The pressures of success-and ideological conflict-brought the end of the band in the mid 80's. In 1982, Zé released his first solo album Tustumunhos di Aonti (Yesterday's Testimony), which sounded the alarm over the formation of a new, repressive ruling class. The album was a national event (people in Guinea-Bissau today still sing the songs from this soulful, relevant album), but the political environment was heating up and Manel's fans were concerned for his safety. It was becoming increasingly easy to "disappear." He was given a scholarship to study abroad-one of the more pleasant means of removing voices of dissidence.
Manel left Guinea-Bissau for a Portuguese conservatory to study classical music, opera and piano. Upon completion of his studies, Zé played for a year on the Paris scene, then moved to Oakland, California to equip a studio.
Maron di mar marks Zé's return to Guinea-Bissau for the first time since Tustumunhos. The album has touched a nerve with people there, and Manel is once again a national hero. The struggle for dignity and new possibilities that drove the revolution continues today, as a society strives to affirm democracy and identity. Thanks to Zé Manel, Kriol music once again aids that fight, providing a counter-narrative to potential constitutional fictions.
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