Yao Kouakou Michel, LE guitare-koubo


This post brings us back to the Côte D'Ivoire, with another figurehead of Baoulé music.  Yao Kouakou Michel is the most reknown guitar-koubo of the 20th century, a guitar-playing troubadour beloved for his improvised epic poems/songs.  (Koubo is the Baoulé name for the traditional guitar.)  He was one of the first Baoulé troubadours to become a popular recording artist, releasing at least a half-dozen 45s in the 1970s.  Each song tells a story, anchored in time and place, with a clear message.  They are humorous, often irreverent, include proverbs, and praises for his faithful patrons.  

The song Mossi Kouakou is a typical example of his art. 

O! Kondo, Son of Ahou

All of the women have left

There is a woman named Kouamé Adjoua

She has travelled far and wide in search of a child

Without success

She was never able to bear a child

She went everywhere

No child

She decided to travel

She went to Abidjan

She went to Abidjan to marry a white man

We went to sleep and when we woke 

All of the women had left the village

In Abidjan she saw a white man

You, Adjoua, you can call a man?

You are illiterate, you don’t understand French 

And you want to marry a white man

Adjoua said hello 

The white man said ‘get the hell out of here’

Koffi Hubert, listen to me

Let me tell you this story

Adjoa wants to marry a planter

We give you a field 

But you refuse to cultivate it

All the women have left

Adjoua is crying 

I will start over, she says

“I am going to marry a Mossi” (ethnic group from Burkina Faso)

One day Adjoua met a Mossi

The Mossi said hello

They both agreed

Night fell

She slept with the Mossi

A week later she was pregnant

Adjoua gave birth

He learned to crawl

He grew up 

He went to school 

He got his high school diploma

One morning he said, I am going to France

In France, he didn’t want to be a labourer

He didn’t want to be an electrician

I want to take a civil service exam

The child returns to Abidjan

Adjoua laughs when she sees her son

What work did you do in France?

He answers: I was a gendarme

How can you do that to me?

You are my only son?

Gendarme is good and bad

You are my only son 

Don’t ruin our name, don’t hurt others

He didn’t listen

He told her ‘get the hell out of here’

A week later Kouakou was a traffic officer

Cars going by, back and forth

A nurse drives by on his moped, Kouakou blows his whistle

“Where are your papers?”

Kouakou confiscates the moped

The nurse pleads

The next morning the nurse walks to work

Cursing Kouakou

That same morning Kouakou wakes up with a headache

He is driven to the hospital

The nurse sees him and laughs

Adjoua pleads with the nurse to heal her son

The nurse tells Adjoua to go home

The nurse gives him a pill

Ever since Kouakou won’t wake up

Kouakou passed

We called his mother

We did all we could to save Kouakou

Adjoua cried until she became crazy

This is why I always say

Policemen, gendarmes, customs officers

Don’t hurt others when doing your jobs

 This is my abbreviated translation of the full transcription by Koffi Loukou Fulbert, of the University of Bouaké, which can be found on page 234 of this book.  (There is also a transcription of two songs by Alla Thérèse, starting on page 232.) 

Mossi Kouakou is unfortunately not included on this cassette.  I don't know when these eight songs were recorded, my best guess is the early 1980s.  This cassette does not seem to be a reissue of selections that were released on vinyl. There is little harmonic, melodic, or rhythmic diversity to these songs.  If you don't understand Baoulé 'everything sounds the same'.  True, but what a sound.  I love Yao Kouakou's vocal phrasing and the antiphonal backing vocals.   

Download Yao Kouakou Michel

If you are ever in Abidjan, make sure you hit Chez Ambroise in Marcory for some of the best grilled fish and alloco in the city.  While you wait for your food, chances are you will be serenaded by a new generation of Guitare-Koubo.

Enjoy!! 



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