by Shortly after its introduction in 2020, the Instagram Ivoire project archive received a big boost when the French superstar Aya Nakamura had made a MEM, which had made her millions of Followers, one of the most beloved TV shows of the Francophone Africa.
In the years since then, Archives Ivoire, which documents the female aesthetics in Ivor-pop culture, has accumulated 85,000 supporters, with the moderation of Cinema Club sessions in the Ivorian city of Abidjan and the neighboring city of major fire and started a successful website in the merchandise.
Much of the archive is devoted to the Y2K aesthetics of the Y2K aesthetics of jeans with a low out of chain belts that were made popular by Nollywood actors, which were inspired by pop stars such as Destiny’s Child and Christina Aguilera. Ivorory stars also rocked the style and built up a cult support in Francophone Africa.
“I started saying:” Look at what my country did for the audiovisual world, “said Marie-Hélène Banimbadio Tusima, the founder of the project.
Cédric Kouamé, who heads an archive of Ivorian music, is also driven by personal passion and a feeling of patriotic responsibility in a country in which only a few record shops and museums are located.
A few streets from the belly of the Cocovico market in Abidjan, where dealers and buyers were hidden over the DIN of Rap Ivoire, Zouglou and Coupé-Décalé, the most popular Ivorian music genres. Hundreds of records and cassettes of Iconian icons such as pure Pélagie and Daouda Le Sentimental are stacked on shelves together with other black musicians such as Sun Ra and Youssou N’Dour.
“About 95% of the archive are music from black people to blacks,” said Kouamé, a multidisciplinary artist when he bends over an analog mixer board.
“We have to document it. The West has already documented Pink Floyd, the Beatles and copies are already in museums. But a large part of our own material disappears,” added the 32-year-old, who is better known from his DJ and the music producer alias, African diplomat.
Although their media differ, the ethos for Kouamé and Tusima: Africans who document African stories. “It is the duty of every African to take the seeds, to record the information,” said Kouamé.
Kouamé, the son of a microbiologist from Ivory Coast – whose petrios aroused his curiosity – and a teacher mother from Guadeloupe, he soon found that he loved collecting things.
During his studies in Europe, he stumbled on a music platform in Los Angeles, whose online chat rooms connected him with a global network of music lovers. When he was at the art school, he collected vinyl to pursue the origins of the rehearsals he heard on the radio.
Baoulécore – named after a language spoken by a sixth of all Ivors, was opened in 2023, which was sown by the collection of Kouamé’s deceased uncle, a doctor who amsing vinyl during the field missions throughout Africa. Visitors only come by appointment and ensure that they can browse, listen and read without haste.
Kouamé plays music for her on an old record player from Philips and tells anecdotes about the artists, their tours and the politics of their time. At a nearby stand is the JVC video video from its late grandfather, a television that is shaped like a helmet of an astronaut.
He advertises in newspapers and on the radio and asks for clues to forgotten plates and players.
Quality documents are scarce, often damaged or overpriced. “Record digging becomes a rich sports sport,” said Kouamé and quoted Zamrock LPS, which now receives thousands of dollars in retail. “Most of the original originals from the 70s and 80s are no longer in Africa-Sie in Europe and America and sell for much more.”
The interest of the TuSiama in the preservation was also shaped by their background. Her mother, who worked in science, was often on the move, but encouraged her curiosity. “When I started archiving Ivoire, she was my first supporter,” said Tusima.
Both projects work with other art lovers and have ambitions to scale. Kouamé organized listening sessions with guest researchers and awarded exhibitions rare LPs. He hopes to extend Baoulécore into a room in which live appearances and workshops for sound preservation can also take place.
Tusima works on archives about athletes and would like to work with videoographers and photographers at Nostalgia projects about the forgotten West African cinema.
During the football tournament of the African nations in the Ivory Coast last year, she repeatedly met people with archives Ivoire Crop Tops and felt confirmed. She also wants to do more, even if they have shaped the civil wars that have shaped the country’s political landscape. “I try to research how such an era can shape the body and how we wear and what we wear,” she said.
