Cameroonian Artist Mama Nguea is No More
The Makossa Artist died in the morning of Sunday, July 14, 2020 in Douala. Before her demise, Mama Nguea had been suffering from diabetes for years which led to the amputation of her legs.
Her unique voice, style, character and music differentiated her from other artists.
Louise Koubinom alias Mama Ngea was born in 1960. She was able to carve a name for herself in the world of music, singing in Douala, French and her native Banen language.
The hair dresser whose passion for music was perceptible in her humming of songs in her native of the Nkam division in the Littoral Region with her young brother DIN DIN Ferdinand alias Marechal Papillon and friends like Jean-Noel Sengat who will enable her to make her first steps in the studio by the end of 1980.
She very quickly convince her peers and under the supervision of Jeannot Ebelle, she will release her first album ” *Fou-malade*. It experienced mixed success at that time because of the large calibers musical which reigned like Grace Decca, Charlotte Mbango and Sissy Dipoko.
Mama Nguea never gave up and decided to embark on writing which was one of her levers before continuing with albums like” *Try me you go seam*”in *1993* , awarded in *1995.*
She later on work with a young distributor of Radio K7 and CD named St-Lazare Njocké who also embark on an
adventure that led her to meet best musicians like Eric Sefu, Jojo Moussio and Papa Zoé.
*”Désillusion”* a title extracted from her first album and the famous “Zingué” dance will put her at the top of all the hit parades of her time and her stage name ‘ *Mama Nguéa’* given to her by Papa Zoé during a rehearsal session.
Apart from Papa Zoe and the others the artist met several great arrangers in the field, namely: Joly Priso, Aubin Sandjo just to name a few.
During the 2000s, she released 4 other albums, such as *” Chauffer moteur”* in 2002, *Merry and John in 2007, Ambiance Assurée in 2011* and *A votre choix in 2018.*
Her efforts was rewarded twice in a row in 2004 and 2005 with the song *”Soleil de Décembre”* a song which made her popular.
She later became the Queen of makossa and toured not only Cameroon but in other countries overseas.
The year 2019 was not rosy year for her, as she will fall ill for a long time and was admitted at Laquintinie hospital in Douala. Her left leg was amputated, which caused a shock to her admirers and fans. A glimmer of hope was still felt until few months ago when another bad news followed with the amputation of her second leg.
The Makossa queen with 6 albums in the market continued battling with the illness despite the amputation of both legs.
Her death according to fans and colleagues has created another vacuum in the Music industry as it came just few days after Claude Ndam slept for eternity.
Nguea La Route popularly known as Mama Nguea leaves behind her family and fans who will forever keep her in their minds.
Natacha Lehman