Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe

♬ My Love

Côte d’Ivoire gained it’s independence from France in 1960. With the highest production of cocoa and third highest coffee production in the world, and becoming the lead exporter of pineapples and palm oil, Côte d’Ivoire was the most prosperous of the French West Africa territories. But while in other countries in Africa, Europeans were driven out following independence – in Côte d’Ivoire, they poured in. The French community grew from only 30,000 prior to independence to 60,000 in 1980, most of them teachers, managers and advisors. For 20 years, the economy maintained an annual growth rate of nearly 10% – the highest of Africa’s non-oil-exporting countries.

While Ernesto Djédjé is considered the father of Ivoirian popular music, there are many other artists who have had success both at home and abroad – Amédée Pierre, Eba Aka Jerome, Guéhi Jean, Paco Sery and Zakri Noël – to name a few. One of the defining traits of Ivoirian popular music is the use of the folk rhythms of the Bété people, which has been prevalent since Côte d’Ivoire’s independence. Also, Djédjé has long been a vocal advocate of Ivoirian music, rallying against the “Congolization” of the Abidjan scene.

The only information that I have been able to find about Audio Rama Orchestre National (also seen as L’Audiorama Orchestra) is that Anon Anon Joseph was the primary songwriter and vocalist. According to what he says in the song, he was “born In the United States of America” and apparently started college when he was twelve years old… Currently, he sits on the Bureau Ivoirien Du Droit D’Auteur, along with Amédée Pierre and Zakri Noël. I’ve only seen one album by them, titled Extraordinaire Surprise Partie on the label Safie Deen, and at least one other single. The label that released this single – Djima Iyanda – was the name of the Yoruba producer who was based in Abidjan in the early 70s. If you have any other information, please contact me.

Catalog number DAD 948 on Djima Iyanda of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Manufactured in France. No release date listed.

Looks like a good one, but I get a “file not found” error when I try to play it.

Comment by icastico August 9, 2009 @ 8:36 am

Guess it’d help if I uploaded the file, huh?

It’s fixed now.

Thanks.

Comment by radiodiffusion August 9, 2009 @ 12:24 pm

Cool, that worked…thanks.

Comment by icastico August 9, 2009 @ 3:19 pm