François ESSINDI is an artist and a musician from Cameroon.
He plays traditional wind, skin-stretched, stringed and body-activated instruments such as :
Stringed :Mvet, Ngomo (traditional harps)
Wind : Pygmy flute, leaves, mouth –activated bow
Drums : Nkul ( calling drum), Ngom (long drum), Djembe, Cajon, …
Body percussion : snail-shell and hazelnut, body drumming
Educated at the National Orchestra of Cameroon and thanks to many trainings and cultural meetings, François is also an actor and followed many educational sessions via the Goethe Institut in Yaoundé and the French Culture Centre in Yaoundé.
A professional actor, François played with several theatre companies in Cameroon. Among others he shared a long adventure along with the Eyala Pena company, a road theatre company. He also shared a project together with the Un-Excursus theatre company, from Montrouge, France.
François ESSINDI is a current member of the ALEPH theatre company in Ivry-sur-Seine, France.
François as a musician :
François music- wise works with different artists from various backgrounds, works with dance and theatre companies as an actor or music composer.
Composes or co-operates on movies as an actor, composer or co-author. He works with and upon traditional music instruments, that are on the verge of extinction, and which he handcrafts himself in Paris, sometimes modifying their original shape. He defines his music as ”The Tag Ekang Music Experience” … : bring together on stage instruments, sounds, machines and musicians from all backgrounds.
François performs in schools, penitentiaries, on concert in cultural places for festivals and in the corridors of the Parisian metro, as a certified artist of the Parisian metro since 2009.

François as an artist :
Author and composer, his prime music project Otoulbaka : http://www.myspace.com/otoulbaka representing Cameroon in various places and festivals between 1980 and 2001.
In 2003 François signs a professional contact in France that takes him to Paris where he is currently living.
A former actor with the Compagnie du Théâtre Inutile in Amiens, François keeps alive his dream to promote his culture throughout traditional instruments, tales, stories and rituals of his native Ekang culture.
In 2005 he designs the musical project Abakuya thanks to meeting in Switzerland with an Australian bass player (Jimi SOFO) : http://www.myspace.com/abakuya
This project will breed two records :
. Primitive love in 2008.
. Abakuya Ep in 2010
François works on different projects with many artists ( Painters, Musicians, Performers, ..)
Such as Brice WASSY (Cameroon), MADESHEERKAHN (France), Caroline CHIVE (France), Hilaire PENDA (Cameroon), Riad ABDELGAWAD (Egypt), Florence SOISSONG … and many more.
François also directs workshops on rhythm, for the ALEPH theatre since 2016, on African story-telling, and on Drama Teaching.
François as an author :
Having authored four bilingual, illustrated books of African tales, published by L’HARMATTAN, François works on collecting tales, rituals, songs and stories of his native eking culture in southern Cameroon.
He considers building there a cultural place thanks to the support of the AKIBA association, www.association-akiba.fr

François as an instrument maker :
Concerned about the survival of instruments from his native Ekang culture, François handcrafts in Paris their instruments (Mvet, Ngomo, Mouth-bow). He repairs as well skin-stretched instruments ( changing skins, maintenance of all these instruments such as Djembé and others).