Ithaca College

Laba Sosseh wrote the African hit song "Diamoule Mao " - The intro part is apparently in the Congolese language, Lingala. I am looking for an English translation.

This is the (only) part that Joe Arroyo used for his Salsa version of the song, which became an international salsa dance hit. The text is short, and repeats a lot.  Here is a transliteration of the Lingala section, minus all the repetition.

+++++PART ONE TRANSLITERATION++++
Ah diamoule mao
Bilimama miye
Bilimama miye eh
Diamoule ma sheshe

It is possible that the title "Diamoule Mao"  translates as "boy from the blue waters," but we could be wrong.  Link to the song on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj7POnTyuGs

The rest of the song is in Wolof and French and we have translations for those sections.

help? thank you!

kurt lichtmann
ps - I teach Salsa dance here at I.C. and I use this song a lot.