Cool Fawa, decked out in a yellow costume and high-top sneakers, takes the mic and gets the crowd amped up. The hip-hop artist and rapper boldly begins her signature song, “Validated,” as the crowd sways and joins in on the chorus. Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, is home to her job, a bar that is undoubtedly one of the most difficult places in the world for a female rapper to try to break out.
Talented individuals in the music industry flock to the major metropolitan areas of developed nations, and aspiring musicians use the internet to promote their work. When measured in this way, the CAR barely registers. Geographically isolated and cut off from the sea, this country has been at war for over a decade. Its citizens are some of the world’s lowest earners. Ten percent of the roughly five million people living there don’t have access to the web.
Princia Rapper Flora Plisson, aka Cool Fawa, the most followed woman in Central Africa on Instagram, performed at a benefit performance for young musicians in Bangui.
Even in the face of adversity, Cool Fawa, an Arabic term meaning “Cool Girl,” maintains her cool demeanor. She has been in the music industry since 2012, at the age of 27 today; her 2018 song, On va se marier (We’re Gonna Get Married), has received over 50,000 views on YouTube and over 4.5 million likes on Instagram.
It’s true that these numbers pale in comparison to Adele, Beyoncé, or Taylor Swift’s fan bases, but they’re significant within the context of the CAR. Her music is fantastic. My confidence in my eventual success has been bolstered remarked a Bangui bargirl of sixteen. A young man’s exclamation of, “Cool Fawa, she rocks,” sums up the general consensus.
Princia Plisson, better known as Cool Fawa, sings in a variety of languages, including the national language Sango and English. When she first began thinking about a career in music in 2010, there were no prominent local female musicians in the CAR.
Diam is the stage name of French rapper Melanie Georgiades, who became a household name thanks to her groundbreaking debut album Brut de Femme. “I was a fan of Diam’s,” Cool Fawa admitted.
The young lady was so determined to join the revolutionary rap scene that she became the only female member of the all-male MC Fonctionnaire, whose songs railed against social injustice. She explained that at first, people “didn’t take me seriously,” but that they eventually came around and accepted her. She said, “But my music was looked upon; there were parents who no longer wanted their children to connect with me.”
Rapper and the most followed Central African woman on Instagram, Princia Flora Plisson goes by the stage name Cool Fawa.
Her promising career flamed out within a short time frame.
A civil war broke out along religious lines after Muslim insurgents toppled the government of President Francois Bozize. She explained that going outside presented too great of a risk of being shot or abducted.
Once the violence subsided, Cool Fawa began a new chapter in her career, writing songs with a “zouk-love” rhythm about romantic relationships between men and women. This musical style originated in faraway Haiti but quickly gained popularity throughout the Caribbean.
She added, with a hint of remorse, “That’s what sells.” “Rap music is considered by the majority of CAR residents to be the music of the down and out.” To get by, one must constantly hustle, as obtaining sufficient funds is a constant challenge.
Despite her humble origins, she has garnered some assistance from family and the ministry of arts and culture.