Африканың Боб Марлиі – Альфа Блонди

Ivorian reggae singer

Seydou Koné (sedu kɔne; born January 1, 1953, in Dimbokro), better known by his stage name Alpha Blondy, is an Ivorian reggae singer and international recording artist. Many of his songs are politically and socially motivated, and are mainly sung in his native language Dyula, French and English, though he occasionally uses other languages, for example, Arabic or Hebrew.

The first son of a family of eight children, Seydou Koné was raised by his grandmother in an environment described by him as "among elders", which was to have a big impact on his career. In 1962, Alpha Blondy joined his father in Odienné, where he spent ten years, attended Sainte Elisabeth High School, and was involved in the Ivory Coast students movement. He formed a band in high school, but this affected his schooling and he was expelled for poor attendance. His parents sent him to study English in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, in 1973. He spent thirteen months there and then moved to the United States to improve his English.

In 1974, Seydou moved to New York where he majored in English at Hunter College and the Columbia University American Language Program, pursuing a career in teaching. In New York, he was introduced to Rastafari and attended concerts by Jamaican artists including Burning Spear. Seydou was involved in multiple altercations before returning to the Ivory Coast where he encountered further trouble until he reunited with his childhood friend, Fulgence Kassi, who had become a noted television producer. This was the beginning of his career as a musician, and he adopted the alias "Alpha Blondy".

After various TV shows for Kassi, Blondy recorded his first solo album in 1982, entitled Jah Glory. This album was to have enormous success and would become later a symbol of resistance because of the song "Brigadier Sabari," which documents his experience of being arrested in Abidjan in the 1980s and his subsequent mistreatment by the police. Alpha Blondy became a big star in Abidjan with his African twist of Reggae music, becoming in the eyes of his fans "the Bob Marley of Africa". Alpha Blondy is spiritual, political and positive just like Marley himself, and recorded a cover of Bob Marley's song "War". In order to reach more people with his message, he chose to sing in many languages: English; French; Baoulé, and his native language – Dioula. On 27 June 2010, Alpha Blondy was the closing act at Parkpop, The Hague, Netherlands. He replaced Snoop Dogg and Beenie Man. Blondy has also been an important influence on other African reggae artists such as Ismaël Isaac. In November 2014 singer/songwriter Jonathan Wilson released an EP called Slide By featuring the song "Alpha Blondy Was King". Released in January 2015, the Roots Reggae Library featured an edition on Alpha Blondy with interpretations and translations of songs in all languages, including those in Dioula.

Alpha Blondy was born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother, and was brought up by a grandmother "who taught him to love everyone". He made great efforts to bring about a peaceful solution to his country's political and physical division which was a result of an attempted coup in 2001. As of March 2007 a peace agreement was signed and implemented, due to the hard work of many people including Alpha Blondy. Alpha now reaches out further with the newly created not for profit, non government, non political, charitable foundation, Alpha Blondy Jah Glory Foundation, which works towards ending social injustice and generational poverty by giving people the tools that they need to help themselves. He strongly believes in helping the poor (Jah Glory), and also that children should not be hurt. The Foundation strives to create and implement grassroots programs at the village level, such as the Women's Self Sufficiency Micro Loan Program, to teach women who are caring for multiple orphans how to start and manage their own business, to better provide for their families, as well as other sustainable projects, such as the Tafari Genesis Retreat Camp for Children (Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso). It especially hopes to bring joy and hope to children who have been affected by civil wars, former child soldiers, and those who suffer from chronic life threatening illnesses, such as sickle cell anemia, malaria, asthma, etc.