Born around 1949 in the Bali district of Douala, Axel Jean-Pierre Mouna Diffio a.k.a. Axel Mouna attended public school in Bonapriso and the College of Technical Education. There he obtained a Professional Apprenticeship Certificate (Cap) in drawing at the Centre for the Promotion of Women Workers (Cpfo) in Douala. While he dreamed of a career in music or football, his elder sister directed him towards a more technical side, especially painting. Axel obeyed his sister's recommendations and after a few years, he put his artistic skills (drawing and silk-screening) at the service of the Cameroon Industrial Cotton Company (Cicam) in Douala. A company to which he devoted 13 years of his life. Besides his work he remained a passionateded footballer and played for Vent Lalan, a club that played in the second division (D2) in Cameroonian.
With his talent and ball skills, Axel will very quickly impose himself within this team. He spent two good seasons there before joining the Juventus team, one of the mythical clubs led by Moundi Elimbi and Ndoumbe Mondo, respectively president and coach of this formation. Unfortunately this club full of great players will not shine for long, due to the tragic death of its two leaders Moundi and Ndoumbe, who both died in a traffic accident in Douala. A tragic accident that caused a great stir in Douala and forced the prodigal striker of Juventus, to focus to music.
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Juventus with Axel Mouna standing, fourth from right. |
Axel Mouna was a footballer who drank his victories in one of the busiest places in Douala: the Mermoz Club. At that time Nkotti Francois and the Black Styl were the house band of this popular venue. Axel Mouna and Sallé John wrote melodies that they submit to Nkotti Francois, who played their songs in the evening with Black Styl.
With the help of Nkotti Francois and Emile Kangue, Axel Mouna recorded in 1977 his first two songs he wrote together with Salle John for the Disques Cousin record label. It was the song Dimuti and the first version of his later greatest hit Juventus. This 45rpm single was followed in 1978 by a second one, Makaki/ Munenge on the Maison du Jazz label.
Axel Mouna's musical breakthrough came in 1980 with his first LP, Take, released by Patrick Jules Wonga on the Africa Oumba label. The album was a great success in Cameroon and was followed in 1981 by the album Bobia whiche means, ‘the new one’ in the Douala language. Bobia contains two absolute hit songs, Jemea and a new version of Juventus, the song he previously co-wrote with Salle John. Jemea is a tribute to the legendary football club Oryx de Douala and Juventus a tribute to coach Ndoumbe Mondo and chairman Moundi Elimbi, the two managers of Juventus who died in the earlier mentioned traffic accident. Forty years on, we can safely say that in particular Juventus has become one of the greatest Makossa classics ever.
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Oryx de Douala, the first winner of the Africa Cup for
club teams in 1965. |
Unfortunately, Axel Mouna was unable to continue this success. Due to all sorts of personal problems and setbacks, he has not been able to build a stable musical career. It took ten years before producer Njonang Simon Lowe released a new album by Axel Mouna, titled Time ni Time. Despite the cooperation of Toto Guillaume, Jean-Claude Naimro, Richard Bona and Grace Decca, among others, this album also represented only a brief revival of Axel Mouna's musical career. In the years that followed, it was his song Juventus that prevented Axel Mouna from falling completely into musical oblivion.
Until 2012, when he suddenly came with Makossa Bugulu, an album that, apart from six Makossa tinged tracks, also contained two Salsa/Latin tracks. However, due to all sorts of distribution problems, this album remained completely unnoticed and can nowadays unfortunately no longer be found anywhere. In the same period, Axel Mouna was involved in a traffic accident and broke his pelvis. As a result, he was only able to move around with the help of crutches. On 7 May 2019, he died at the age of 70 after a short illness.
It is a beautiful thought that the song Juventus that Axel Mouna once wrote in memory of Ndoumbe Mondo and Moundi Elimbi will now also ensure that he himself will not be forgotten.
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