Anne Marie Nzie to be buried July 23

According to a source from the Ministry of Arts and Culture, the legendary queen of Cameroonian music, Anne Marie Nzié, died at the Yaounde Central Hospital last month after months of illness, will be buried on July 23, 2016, in the Ocean division, her home division.

The funeral of the artist will be held at the mortuary of the Yaounde Central Hospital a few days earlier, and other funeral rites, including special posthumous honors to be conferred for his meritorious services to the State in the field of culture.

According to The Guardian Post of Friday, June 24, 2016, the Ministry of Arts and Culture (MINAC) is working closely with the family of the deceased, to make her a worthy farewell.

It is still unclear if the Head of State, Paul Biya, will hold an official funeral in memory of this icon of the Cameroonian music. Papa Wemba, an icon of Congolese rumba, who died two months ago, for example, received an official burial from the Congolese President, Joseph Kabila, with respect to a man who catapulted the country’s image in the zenith of world music.

The paper recalls that Anne-Marie Nzié, credited for bringing the Bikutsi genre in front of the stage, died on May 24, 2016, after weeks of illness at the Central Hospital of Yaounde. She remained in critical condition in intensive care of the said hospital since May 9. She died at the age of 84.

“The queen mother of Cameroonian music,” “the mother of Bikutsi” was an ardent supporter of President Paul Biya and the CPDM party to which she has dedicated her hit songs “Liberté“.

She openly protested after the main opposition party in the country, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), used the song during the presidential campaign of its leader John Fru Ndi in 1992.

Born in Lolodorf in southern Cameroon Region, Anne-Marie Nzié began her musical career in the early 1940s.