RIP Manu Dibango

It has become inevitable that we will lose some cultural figures who are important to us in this pandemic. This is the first one for me - the Cameroonian jazz-funk legend Manu Dibango has died at age 86 in a Paris hospital from the COVID-19 virus.

I first became aware of Manu's work in the 80s when British pop stars started name-dropping him and he appeared on the records of the likes of the Specials AKA. His biggest hit was "Soul Makossa," which Michael Jackson riffed on his hit "I Wanna Be Starting Something." RIP Manu.