My parents moved to Abidjan when I was 5, and left when I was 20. Dad (American, half Philadelphia Quaker half Russian) was a consultant there. I went to college in New England at age 18, and moved to central VA in 1985 for graduate school, and never left. While in Abidjan, since Dad worked for the local government rather than the US for a while, my parents' friends were either African, French, Hungarian or Yugoslav (Mom's native region), or if American were Peace Corps rather than USEmbassy. I went to local (French) school, not the American school once there was one, from 1st grade through the Baccalauréat, so I really am not American by culture, despite having settled here. I feel like a satisfied expat, but I have the advantages of US citizenship. Or the disadvantages if you want to take it that way, some of you know that my Dad, after becoming a regular USEmbassy type, got transferred into harm's way in the Middle East. But there were also the years I got to go "home" to Bangkok, Thailand, during college...

So I was really fishing for actual Africans. To my shame, all I really listened to there was my folks' vinyl, lotsa folk, we didn't have a radio other than short-wave for political things like the Nixon resignation, so y'all know more about the music than I do! What I like about Daouda Kone is that he's Abidjanais, so he mentions landmarks I know, it's like reading a novel set in your home town. What I hear I like, but I don't hear a lot. My fault, I guess, but I listen to my folks' music mostly, still...