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Saturday, December 28, 2013

The Complex Nature of Gospel Music in Cameroon

Most Cameroonian secular musicians sing songs that carry both explicit and implicit gospel messages, like this one. Thus, it is sometimes not quite clear if what they are doing is parody or serious. Given that Cameroonian secular musicians sing songs that carry gospel messages it leads one to wonder whether or not what they do could be considered as gospel music. This raises the question of what gospel music is. This is a subject that needs to be seriously investigated in the Cameroonian context. The song below is both in Douala (a popular language in Cameroon) and French. The setting seems to mimic a Roman Catholic context; the musician is Cameroonian Jean Pierre Essome. He says something about Christ which I do not understand but towards the end he asks God to give him strength to live the rest of his days. The video ends with the cross of Christ and the expression "Glory to Jesus" in French. Is this gospel music? This cries for further investigation.
 

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