La Marfée

Description

Yannick Noah returns to the roots of his childhood and music with his new album, *La Marfée*. In it, he recounts his return to Cameroon, where he takes up the torch from his parents in his native village, Etoudi. The transmission and rediscovery of his roots are the recurring themes of this album with African sounds. Each time, YANNICK NOAH only returns if he has something to say. And his twelfth studio album is no exception to this rule. He comes to speak of fraternity, love, Africa, solidarity, and transmission; he comes to speak of his life—a life so personal yet universal. "BACK TO AFRICA," the first song on the album, embodies the responsibility he now assumes, as the sports star turned musician has inherited the role of village chief of ETOUDI, formerly held by his father, who passed away in 2017. The former village near YAOUNDÉ, the capital of CAMEROON, has become a district of a vast African metropolis, and YANNICK NOAH is thus re-rooting himself while facing the challenges of modernity. These responsibilities are very concrete, very varied, very urgent, very moving, somewhere between the venerable obligations of an Elder and the resourcefulness of a charity leader. He titled his new album *LA MARFÉE*, after the school created by his mother when she arrived in CAMEROON—and which bears the name of a district of Sedan, YANNICK's hometown. Founded to spare children miles of walking each day, it now welcomes four hundred students, and the son, now an Elder of his village, is keen for his mother's work to continue. "The last birthday that struck me was my thirtieth, when people started asking me at what age I would retire. Sixty years old, that was a shock. So I decided to go and continue what my father had done in Cameroon." A third career, in short, focused on sharing, attentiveness, and transmission.