Afrikkanitha was born Eunice Quipuco Piedade José in Angola in 1974. From the age of 4, those close to her noticed her artistic leanings while she was singing along to Madonna and Whitney Houston. When she was 5 years old, she had an accident which atrophied her right eye and gave her a squint. This marked her out from the rest and caused her to be teased and left alone. So she sought refuge in music and religion. During her teenage years she enjoyed writing, especially poems.

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At 15, a friend introduced her to the cultural set. She started to take guitar and singing lessons but rapidly focused on singing. In 1991, at a lecture, she met the Brazilian Sergio Ricardo, one of the great singer Elis Regina’s appointed composers. Afrikkanitha went on stage for the first time and sang two songs. Sergio Ricardo asked her up for the first, and she sang the second with the pianist Joao Oliveira, who later became her mentor, playing variations by Tom Jobim, Djavan and other standards with her.

From then on she was unstoppable. She joined the group Vozes Negras and sang massemba songs and African music from other countries as well as American standards. Then she took singing classes with a teacher who put her in a Methodist church choir for several months. In a completely different register, she then joined the band N’Sex Love and explored r’n’b, soul and jazz styles.

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After visiting South Africa, she emigrated to France where she got to work with Ray Lema as well as sing in Frank Okoa’s choir in Grenoble. Once she got to Paris, despite working with different bands and singing 60’s and 70’s soul, jazz remained her true passion. In 2007, she recorded a first single Kebrando o silēncio ("break the silence") followed by a first album entitled Weza which combines jazz with African rhythms. It was produced by her husband Simmons Massini.

Three years later, she recorded a new album called Ainda sonho ("I’m still dreaming") with the talented producers Etienne Mbappé, Cheikh Tidiane Seck, Julien Agazar and Moreira Chonguiça from Mozambique. More experimental, this album is a clever fusion between rhythms the young woman knows well from her continent and ones for which she has a natural ear; gospel, jazz, and bossa nova. Most of the lyrics are in Portuguese.

In 2011 she features on the disc of the Portuguese fado singer "Carlos do Carmos e amigos".

Translation: Caroline Preller

Afrikkanitha on MySpace