Few years back I lost a good friend of mine, his name was Wilfried Mandengue, he was a guitar player from Cameroon that I've met during my years of learning music at the "MAI" in Nancy, France.(music school)
He was an self taught musician, a very smart guy, and a genius in every way that you can possibly imagine.He is the first guitar player that I've ever saw using finger style guitar playing on a electric nylon, and I literally copied his style of playing for the rest of my career, like I am carrying a bit of his spirit with me.
He passed away 8 years ago now in a tragic car accident.I was already gone to South Africa and never had the chance to tell him how proud I was of him and how much influence he had on my career.
He was supposed to play with me at the "Olympia" in Paris, which is one of the most prestigious venue, I was to open for a 80's band, and he was excited to be a part of it. Eventually he couldn't make it , but we stayed in good term, his life was going somewhere, he had a girlfriend and was recording his first album.
I remember precisely the day I received the news, it was on Facebook , so insensitive... "Oh by the way Wilfried is Dead"
Just to think about it brings back the memory of it. Anyway , the news shattered me through my bones. I felt that the world was collapsing around me and I was a part of a bad joke, that someone would slap the life out of me and wake me up.
But none of this happened. Death happened, and there's nothing you can do about but swallow your remorse.It's probably easier said than done, for my part I started really getting depressed, more about the fact that I was stuck here in South Africa and won't be able to make it for his funerals.
That guilt devoured me and I eventually lost all my hair.It's called alopecia, and it happens after an emotional shock like the one I went through.
Anyway this picture was taken at a gig not so long after it happened, you can see that I was wearing a hat all the time to hide the baldness, It was a very weird time of my life.
He was living in France at the time of his death but now he rests in Cameroon and I've sworn I will visit him soon, and pray for him as I am closer than ever.
One day, if I gather enough information from his cousin Geraldine, I would love to make a post about him, talking about his body of work because he was an amazing human being, and he loved Bill Withers very much, this song is for you Will.
