Antoinette Konan

Über Antoinette Konan

Antoinette Konan made the ahoko, a notched stick and rod scraper from the Baoulé country, the lead voice of a pop record. Her 1986 self-titled album set that dry rattling texture against drum machines and synthesisers, a combination nobody else was attempting in Abidjan at the time. The record circulated on cassette for decades before the Awesome Tapes From Africa reissue introduced it to listeners outside West Africa. She remains the clearest example of an Ivorian artist building pop around a specific local instrument.