Mamman Sani is a Nigerien-Ghanaian musician. He first recorded his electronic organ music in 1978 but it remained largely obscure and undiscovered until 2013.[1] He is considered to be an early pioneer of synth music in Niger.[2] Sani found unlikely fame in Denmark, regularly appearing in the playlist of Copenhagen bars.
In 1952, Mamman Sani was born in Accra to a privileged family. His father, of Nigerien descent, was the son of a World War I Colonel. Sani's mother was Ghanaian and the daughter of a chief.[3] [4] At the end of the 1950s his family moved to Niger, where his father became a librarian for the American Cultural Center, which gave him exposure to cultural materials from all over the world.
Sani began to play music in 1968. He was a fan of Otis Redding, James Brown, and Percy Sledge. After being an English teacher for some years, he got a job as a UNESCO functionary. In his role at UNESCO, Sani began to travel internationally. During a UNESCO meeting, Mamman purchased an Italian Orla electronic organ from a delegate from Rwanda.[5]
His first professional experience as a musician was being hired by Niger's national television station to compose credits and interludes for their shows.[6] At the time, Sani was still employed by UNESCO.
In 1978 he recorded his first album at Niger National Radio in two takes. It was released as a limited series of cassettes.
In 2013, Christopher Kirkley, an American musician and producer with a specialty in Sahelian music, discovered Mamman's recordings while searching through the musical archives of the Niamey museum. Kirkley described hearing Mamman's music: “It was esoteric and bizarre, unlike anything I had ever heard—the imaginary audio track to an arcade game of desert caravans trek through an pastoral landscape of 8-bit acacias and pixelized sand.” That year Kirkley released the recordings through his Portland-based record label Sahel Sounds, as "La Musique Electronique du Niger".