Traditional African Music: Yet Another Feather To Lemmy Moïse’s Cap

Lemmy Moïse, an African traditional music artiste, recently received this year’s God’s Own Country, GOCO award in Bamenda for “promoting culture through music.” The honour by the international charity was Lemmy’s third since beginning his career in 1996. GOCO acknowledged Lemmy’s music, support to budding artistes and extra talents in sound engineering, audio recording, mixing and mastering in his home studio. “A jury of six went through my songs such as “Nsuung Jazze,” “Talk for Mbuh house,” “Stop wars, let’s dance” – all released in 2001, but which still move many people as if they had just come out,” explained Moïse.

“The songs are pregnant with both messages and melody; reason why they have stood the test of time,” he added. “I was elated and encouraged because the current im passe in the Cameroon music industry makes it difficult for any artiste to live off their art. Moreover, the pu blic tends to go for songs with vulgar messages and little or no meaning, thereby making me sometimes feel that I’m not doing enough,” Lemmy said. “The award came as a morale boost. Someone somewhere - besides the Almighty Lord - is listening and taking note of my contributions to the growth of music,” he added.

“The recognition has come to galvanise my efforts to remain focused and do even better because competition is tough. I had relaxed a bit and was concentrating more on teaching in primary school. T...