A Passion for Cameroonian Culture
Paola Yoko, a cultural promoter and manager of African artists, is also President of the Women Entrepreneurs in Arts and Culture movement. She is the founder of the MOFEAC program, whose flagship activity is a professional trade fair, and serves as General Coordinator of the Africa ProdFest festival.
An Initiative to Showcase African Music
As part of Africa ProdFest, a festival dedicated to sound, beatmaking, and music production held in Kribi, Cameroon and founded by Blick Bassy, an ambitious project was launched: the creation of the African Music Library.
This project seeks to highlight Africa’s rich musical heritage while supporting local producers. Its goal is to build a catalogue of African music to enrich audiovisual projects around the world. It is worth noting that Paola Yoko is assisting Blick Bassy in this major initiative.
A Decisive Meeting in Abidjan
On Thursday, March 13, 2025, Paola Yoko brought together about ten Ivorian beatmakers at the MASA Lab, a leading incubation center for cultural initiatives in Côte d’Ivoire.
The purpose of this meeting was to present the African Music Library project, which is set to launch in November 2025 with a catalogue of 3,000 tracks.
Producers welcomed the project with enthusiasm and engaged in discussions on its long-term sustainability, expressing particular interest in contributing to this groundbreaking initiative.
Next Steps
The next phase of the project will be the creation of an exchange platform connecting beatmakers with the Music Library team, including the legal department.
This platform will facilitate the submission of music while securing artists’ creations through formal contracts. The aim is to strengthen local music production and ensure that artists are fairly compensated for their contributions.
