Up Close and Personal with Les Nubians

By Shelah Moody
Photos by Kimara Dixon

Hélène and Célia Faussart, best known as Les Nubians, have made a name for themselves with their blend of Afro-beat, smooth jazz, hip hop and R&B. The Faussart sisters, who are of French and Cameroonian descent, began singing together as children and have been performing together for 15 years.

Their influences include everyone from Nigerian Afro beat pioneer Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, South African vocalist Miriam Makeba and Michael Jackson. Their music has been described as “Afro-pean.” Their latest CD, titled “Les Nubians Presents Echos, Chapter One,” is influenced by the global hope inspired by President Barack Obama.

Les Nubians perform August 26 and 27 at Yoshi’s nightclub in San Francisco. CityFlight.com caught up with the Grammy nominated duo following their performance at the Stern Grove Festival in San Francisco.

CityFlight.com: How do you like performing in northern California?

Hélène Faussart: I love it. There are so many beautiful festivals in Northern California. I didn’t know about Stern Grove, this is our first time. We’ve done the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival and Earth Dance (in Laytonville). All of those festivals are really special; the people are so cool. Back in the day, I used to love going to festivals, being in the audience. I’m very happy because it is the same pleasure to be on stage during those types of events.

CF: Both of you always look stunning on stage. Do you have a fashion philosophy? I know that you design clothing and jewelry.

Hélène: Yes, we do. In fact the idea from the start of Les Nubians was to embellish natural black beauty. We tried our best to work with designers that represented that idea—something new, something coming from another type of imaginary world which is not the western world, which dictates the rules about what is not. Or years now, we’ve created fashion relationships with designers in Africa, France and throughout Europe.

CF: What is the meaning behind the white dots painted on your faces?

Célia Faussart: The white dots are to pay tribute to Fela Kuti and his wives, and also we use the dots and the white, in fact, in our traditional rituals. The people who are painted white are the invisible, the connection between the spiritual world the living and the ancestors.

CF: As siblings, what is your secret to working well professionally?

Célia and Hélène: Love, strength and common passion.

CF: What is the meaning behind singing about and shaking the Makeda, or the derriere or the booty?

Célia: It’s normal and natural. We come from Africa, we shake the Makeda. It’s something that is part of who we are—our culture and we never see it as dirty or whatever…

Hélène: It’s a popular dance, [at] nightclubs, the girls and even the boys do it…

Célia: In the rhythm called makossa, you have bat la terre, which means to shake to the ground.

(Hélène sings riffs of the Michael Jackson’s “Shake Your Body Down to the Ground”).

Célia: It’s just saying that we empower ourselves; it is part of our culture. We don’t need anybody to ask us to do it. We don’t need to do it to sell albums or music. We do so because we love dancing, too. I don’t like the commercial side or the other connotations that booty shaking has in western countries.

Hélène: They’re making it vulgar, exaggerated…

Célia: Materialistic, gross, burlesque and disgusting. Grotesque. It’s a part of being black, that’s what I think. The shaking of the booty. If we have dignity and respect and love for ourselves, we do shake our ass.

Hélène: Without any hidden thoughts. C’mon, it’s your first chakra, shake it, balance it.

Célia: We do it to show that we are African women who carry ourselves proudly and who embrace our culture the way we are.

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