Angelique Kidjo: 'Africa is not just diseases' | Talk to Al Jazeera

angélique Kidjo is a symbol of Africa's creativity energy and beauty her music is a unique blend of her own very West African heritage with funk jazz Latin music and much more from the small country of Benin she's won awards and recognition around the world but angelique kidjo is also a champion of african causes through her work with the UN and her own foundation she's travelled across the continent raising money at times of disaster every dollar counts every life counts thank you so much but above all campaigning for the right of more girls to go to school school is the only solution that we have to beat poverty angelique kidjo now in her mid-50s has just written her life story she's still recording and touring in a hectic pace but where does she see her musical career going from here and with Africa facing new challenges from Ebola to Islamist extremists opposed to girls education does she feel optimistic about the future of her beloved continent we'll find out as Angelique Kidjo talks to al-jazeera thank you very much for talking to Al Jazira Angelique Kidjo let me ask you first you've been performing for decades now anyone who's ever seen you on stage or heard your music is blown away by your energy is that energy that enthusiasm still there all these years later if it's not there I'm not there it's part of me I mean I grew up in a country that is poor you know in my country and in a middle-class family where laughter have always been at the center of the house it's been even though sometimes it was very hard even when somebody passed away we cry and every continues laughing because life continues and I think I was born with this energy of my mother my mother is 87 years old and I ought to tell everybody she has more energy than I do and you wanted to be a singer a performer at a very young age it was something that you knew was right for you my father say I used to sing before I speak so I take his word because he's he's the only one that can say that or have any memory prior to five or six years so that should be jacked I should bid I mean I've always really be more marine and singing all the time when I was playing everything I was doing I would be singing because a kidney company when you're Korean started to take off in Benin the was some disapproval wasn't a young woman on stage some people said some pretty nasty things yeah I mean when I started singing at 6:00 everybody find it cute everybody's raving about it oh you see that little girl everybody giving me candy here congratulate when I hugged me and then really kicking and then it becomes a different story you from one day to the other you went you go to the hit zone in sort bad word zone where you don't understand where it comes from what trigger people calling me prostitute suddenly and you start struggling with it and luckily for me I'm I was surrounded by great family my grandmother's my mother's mother was home when I walked into one day and then I was crying I couldn't I could barely speak I was like I would want to sing anymore because of the insults people and I want to go back to school to be bullied anymore and she said tell me the story was going on why you make such a drastic decision right now you had that at this moment so I told her what was going on and she said to me you know what I won't tell you what you do because it's not up to me to tell you what you have to do but I have a piece of advice for you you do whatever you want to do with it and it's your decision at down the line and you say in this life you have to understand that you cannot be accepted nor loved by everybody and it goes both ways you have people that you like but more than you cook people that you don't like I mean that's just the way life is if you let people decide your fate then you have no personality you have no life because you're gonna you gonna just become the magnet of the frustration be who you are did your parents tell you not to say no did anybody criticize you in this house because you think no she said then what you care about somebody that you don't know that tell you nasty stuff out of jealousy and you want to decide not to say and I went back and I read think about as you know what from now on out let people speak they have the right to it you became famous in Benin but it was quite a different different and a difficult political atmosphere at that time late seventies early eighties you had to pray sing effectively for for the man who was in control the president yeah I mean before the military regime arrived when it was a place where you can listen to the barrels from the pillows the Rolling Stone from Rolling Stone to Aretha Franklin from the Rita Frank into the traditional musician in Benigno Ibanez obey from Nigeria or shala alguna all those but it was a melting pot of music that was coming through the radio I mean music from Cameroon music from Zaire that time Democratic Congo and it was just French music music was just it's you just put the radio on and you can travel to the country where the music was coming from and then the military regime arrived and it becomes a death dead silence country where they install paranoia in you is amazing to see the change from one ear to the other where my father come and say today from now on this house of ours that used to be a free speech zone we gotta kept me careful no one would talk people it's about politically more so you don't trust anybody anymore even your friends your parents your brothers it's just like they destroy completely the trust of people because you don't know who is by a host not spy so you decided to leave you went to Paris you turned up in Europe penniless no one had heard of you here even if you were famous in Benin you encountered racism it was a very tough time in your life oh yeah it's very tough time but that's when you realize the capacity of adaptation and survival of the human being we have that capacity of adapting very quickly in order to survive and also based on the education that I received I know that racism is out of ignorance so I tell a try people I tell people you don't like me it's your choice don't insult me I won't insult you I don't care about your skin colour if you've been stupid right now it's because you decide to be stupid if you be decide to be a little bit more clever you just listen to yourself speak and you cannot be a shame of yourself and get into a corner and those moment where when you realize that the education that your parents are giving you comes in handy because you don't take it too personal it's hurtful by the other hand you understand that the other person that is hating you have other issues and you're just there and because you're there at that moment you are taking all his frustration out of him it was difficult but at the same time for me it was interesting very interesting why because suddenly I said to myself I woke up one se now I'm an adult for real I have to pay rent I have to work for my food when I wasn't being I don't have to worry about those I have to buy my school furnitures have to find clothes for myself shoes shoes what I mean talking about thing you have to a dad he's wearing clothes shoes all the time most of the time the only way sandals summertime and my whole life I wear open shoes so here I am trying to wear boots and my feet was like uh-uh not going to happen so I have to adapt to a lot of stuff wearing coat we're never caught before so you must feel great sympathy when you see young Africans making that same journey today from at fit from Africa to Europe I feel for them I mean that the way I understand and I recognize when African just arrived in Europe is like looking at their face do smile on the face and when the smile is gone you know they have faced harsh reality of the Western world where they are not welcome anyway no we're pretty much and it is really for me it's always a way of balancing things all the time if the countries in Africa could develop their themselves create job for the people you will have less young immigrant here it must break your heart because literally every day young Africans are dying to reach this continent you're they're drowning in the Mediterranean suffering as they cross the Sahara yeah it is dreadful it is a shameful not only to the African nation but the rich countries too because poverty have been the base on which they do business in Africa the deal designed with the government in Africa every government that signed deal with any colonizing country is not for the benefits of the is the benefit of the rich countries so how do you keep a balance we create the society that is fair for do your kids of the rich country and odd the poor country because the poverty is coming back here too because it's not trickling down to create a fairer society so the question that always asked today as we are seeing the Islamic state unfolding in front of us Isis what bring our young young kid from the UK from Europe from America to join Isis what did we do wrong for them not to believe and fight for this democracy as imperfect as it is for them to say where I come from for a still thing we can do to make it better for us and have a future here why did they are disenchanted so much that they are willing to go to the extreme of extreme the question is not asked here anybody want to fight Isis why can't we just do something better for people and remove the legitimacy of all those crazy extremists that are there just for the pleasure of killing people let's talk and power let's talk about your advocacy work in Africa I know it matters a lot to you that's why am i doing advocacy work because I want the next generation of African women in African boys to become a better leaders to become to be the agent of change that they want to see by educating them giving educated education to young girls bring girls them to bring boys to education we need today in Africa to have an education system that incorporates into the curriculum gender equality inequality in school for us to understand that talent in girl to get them leave the school is not an option anymore that both of them have the responsibility of building a country that a woman's brain is as important as a man's prey so it must break when you see a movement like Boko Haram in northern Nigeria wreaking havoc on well all young people in fact but specifically trying to get girls out of school how does that how do you how do you explain what's happening I mean as a mother it's a heartbreaking I don't even want to think one second that I can put myself in the shoes of the mothers of those girls the question in the problem we have in Africa is the status of a girl when the child is born girl her life is less important on a boy's life so this is not the westfall this is something within African society needs to change Jill absolutely dear weave what is the status of a girl the girl have the right to go to school to university what is the age of a child a teenager and a woman be secondary education is a game-changer in Africa because when girls stay three years in the second education they will not go back and marry an old man that the father have chosen for them when you educate girls in secondary education not only that the GDP of the country Rises you reduce child mortality drastically you reduce sexual violence abuse of any sort because women do girl know their rights and you start creating wealth because the women in Africa when they have money they invest in their family the community in the country and it's proven today that if you give secondary education and tertiary education to women the GDP of the country will rise up that's where the danger is for group like Boko Haram because if you educate women you educate men you educate the village you educate everything the component of what makes society stable and there will be people watching this angelique who will say what right does she a singer have to tell us how to restructure our society I mean she's just a celebrity I'm not a celebrity I'm an African person before being a celebrity and I grew up in Benin and father is an African man and my father never ever say that because I'm a woman I cannot have an opinion because I was a good I don't have right to go to the school to school he makes sure that no one stand in front of him telling him not to put his girl to school my father will fight till his last drop of blood in front of anybody that would come to his house and said get your daughter to be married he refused he said they are not rich and Isis they are human being I want them to go to school I want them to make choices for themselves I don't want to be the father that gonna be called every time something happen no I want them to be responsible he teach us since we were born boys and girls to be responsible for words our action and to stand for it we do good we stand for the rewarding we do bad we take we stand for the consequences so therefore no one in Africa can tell me because I'm a singer I don't have the right to speak up for girls because I was raised in Benin I was raised in Africa with a father that believed in the potential of girl never he told my mom once don't speak back to me or don't do anything you want to do because he believed that if our mother is happy he's the most happiest man on the planet and you have the courage to say that to to an African president who might order the probe how will they know that I'm not gonna make this up they know that what I'm saying they know it is the will to do it that it's not there the comfort of being not having any challenge to deal with it's creating this but some countries are taking steps in this direction we have to turn around and look at those countries that are taking the steps to do this right and encourage them to become an example to become a poster countries for other countries for their pair to see and to follow up we can just keep on dueling into problems and the negativity we have to see what is done in other countries also and give it as an example and talk about enough to emulate over leaders that want to do that I mean the African leaders a lot of them wants to do things but do they have the capacity of doing it it brings me back to the contribute the deal we have signed with the country that colonized us how far can we go in a will of developing our countries if we want to if you want to build road who's gonna come and build it no African societies it's going to be an European Western society that come and gonna come and get the market and charge us more than they can charge anybody so it doesn't matter how we what whatever did direction we go to we still at the mercy of the rich country that decide our fate so I mean the leaders of the rich country have to take the responsibility to they can sit on the chair saying this one is corrupted this one is doing this they are part of the problem in Africa you have fought so hard for Africa's image and to project Africa's image around the world we have now an Ebola outbreak in in in West Africa how much do you worry that that is hurting Africa's image I'll put the question back to you if a bola has an outbreak in the Western world will the media the Western world treated the same way are you unhappy with the way the Western media has treated Leah better I mean the older Fantasma comes back Africa the dark place I forgot this i forgot that i mean i wasn't attacked in new york and we were talking i was talking to the driver driver see where you come from you have an accent I said I'm from West Africa the first word that come out of his mouth is Ebola I mean that's what the immediate are doing what did you say to him I tell him no I have no you ball otherwise I won't be in this country do you think that everybody in Africa have Ebola I was given a lecture in a primary school in in part in pant pant Beach a little boy 9 years old tell me did are the African kids we can see the ribs that's the image you give to people I mean the media have responsibility in this the outbreak of Ebola is there what are we doing to help strengthen the health system of those countries we're doing nothing we are using it for political political benefits I mean it's just like looks like the Western is the hyena feeding on the misery of African people to make themself elected or to have take benefit out of it this should be Shem food doing this but isn't it also true that there are many brave nurses and doctors who are volunteering to go to Liberia and Sierra Leone then you have somebody that dinner Trump that said if somebody goes in help if the purpose will get Ebola he can come back I mean what is this I mean it's everybody's fantasm about Africa's always negative any success story from Africa doesn't interest any media they are so eager and hungry for horrible story from Africa why if Africa does bad everybody too bad people that put gas in the car what two guys come from their countries all the people that live in lodging in this country and in the Western world had the cost of whose life instead of helping the country Stefan that's the health system there are nurses there are courageous people in Liberia Sierra Leone Guinea that are working day and night to stop this outbreak and instead of giving them courage instead of supporting them in many different ways we are counting how many people are dying with its fears and it may be where we're afraid of this disease and that's why people are reacting in the way worse fear would kill started the fear-mongering the media I mean it will have existed for the for the last 20 years why don't anybody come up with a vaccination the pharmaceutical firm there knew about it as long as he's in Africa it's tequila African people nobody cares and in the fact that he it can come to their country start moving up the ladder now to come up with something when we say we are live in a global economy it's true but we also live in the global crisis and global global viruses because we travel around the world so if I see a problem in Africa you don't have the Africa to fix it it's going to come to your doorstep it doesn't mean that we create Ebola we don't invent Ebola even though it's just a disease that exists there like we're going to be blame ossible of inventing malaria too or we're gonna be blamed for everything and it's people forget the history how many how many people have died when the the Spanish were in Mexico when they bring their bring the disease that white people out the Indians out on a moon it is I mean Africa is not just diseases Africa is beautiful of course it is and on a more optimistic note I mean I think many economists now say Africa is rising yes is it it is I mean it's the only part of the world why you have growth Europe is sinking everybody's sinking we're going up and then of course here comes Ebola and then they can put us back on the level where they can't control it it's not going to work anymore first one thing that is a game changer is Internet the young kid in Africa they know what time is it today it's gonna be very difficult to play the game that we used to pay twenty or fifty years ago today won't happen anymore but we'll just return we're coming towards the end of the interview but let's just go back to music I mean fact you your music is a celebration not just of Africa but of connectivity and you're so interested in in the African Diaspora in Brazil in the Caribbean jazz the blues away I'm interested in every human being because we are all linked I wonder if that has something to do with where you're from that the coast of Benin wieder where tragically so many millions of Africans where were taken as slaves is does that feed into your world vision in some way absolutely I mean the music of the world comes from Africa without the Blues was no rock'n'roll it's the same chord rock'n'roll it's the same chord as blues that's just the way it is fact I'm not making it up African music have transformed the music of the world today they call it world music whatever they call it you don't like that term do you know or without African music we won't be talking about pop stars let me talk an R&B soul music jazz none of that will exist without the input of the slave that have been brought from Africa oh they didn't want to go they did not Amy Amy great by their own wish they've been forced to leave the continent instead of building their continent they're building other peoples and they bring music to it music have helped the slave to keep the dignity as human being to communicate to still see that they have a soul that are not animal that then people are reducing them to for me music is a groundbreaker it breaks silence it breaks cliche that's why it is so powerful every time I do music collaboration I always learn from somebody else and somebody else learn from me music has helped me my microphone I call it my weapon of mass loving everywhere I've been people have welcomed my music even though they don't speak my language every time I start singing people cry people laugh people dance that's what I want us to realize we are one family within that umbrella of the human family that we are we diverse we speak different language you have different view of things we like different food it's okay that's the challenge of humanity and I like it I like the diversity of it because I know that till I die I will be learning every day from people not leakages thank you very much for talking around resume such a thing you

Channel: Al Jazeera English

Views: 58,264

Rating: 4.9448528 out of 5

Keywords: 3915043829001, music, human rights, Health, education, ISIL, ebola, entertainment, al Jazeera, angelique kidjo, talktoaljazeera, talk to al jazeera, Benin, youtube, Africa, aljazeera, media

Id: dSeMvTe_ASU

Length: 25min 0sec (1500 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 29 2014

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