 |
  |
Dobet Gnahoré, Africa without borders
Her third album: Djekpa La You
Paris
15/04/2010 -
Dobet Gnahoré: Looking back, it seems to me that there could have been a lot more done over the years, particularly in terms of education and health. Africans could ask a lot more from those who govern them, but they keep quiet because they’re frightened of repression, of being killed, like earlier heads of government who had the right ideas. In addition, Africans have not properly benefited from their own natural resources, since the authorities are still too much under the sway of foreign governments. I’m not that knowledgeable about politics, but I don’t like what I see. I find it very sad that after fifty years, Africa still has no real standing in the world and in people’s minds. Ask anyone on the streets of Europe what Africa means to them. They will always reply poverty, war, epidemics. In fifty years, we haven’t succeeded in dislodging this image from people’s minds, in France and in Africa too.
When you sing about street kids, like in Mouzigue from your new album, aren’t you also communicating this image of misery?
This album – the title of which means “Children of the world” in Dida, my father’s language – is a homage to the children of Africa. Through them, I also want to call on everyone, whether they be politicians, leaders or simple citizens, to realise that we’re all responsible for the future of Africa’s children. We have a duty to ensure that there are no more homeless children roaming the streets.
On this album you sing in Dida, Bété, Bambara, Swahili, Mina, Dioula and Maronga… and in your previous album you used even more languages. Are you especially gifted with languages?
It always makes an impression on me when I travel around and hear different languages. I love it! Before, I spoke Bété, Dida and Dioula, which is the second most important language in Côte d’Ivoire, after French. By the time I left my native village, I spoke very good Bété with my grandmother who looked after me for my first few years. When I arrived in Abidjan, my French wasn’t very good and I got mocked for it, so I wanted to learn it properly at school. And because I was speaking French all the time in Ki-Yi [an artists’ cooperative where Dobet Gnahoré grew up and trained, founded in 1985 by the Cameroonian writer and director Wéré Wéré Liking], I unfortunately lost my Bété, which is sadly a fairly normal story among young people in Côte d’Ivoire. We have this immense linguistic wealth: 72 languages are spoken in the country, but parents don’t encourage their kids to keep up with their mother tongue. That’s why when I hear languages I don’t understand when I’m travelling in Africa, it makes me a bit nostalgic and makes me want to sing in those languages. What I do is write the songs in French and then get them translated by friends. Then I learn the lyrics phonetically.
Ki-Yi led me in that direction. There were people there from all different African countries (Congolese, Malians, etc.). Then it also comes from what I hear, and the people I’m with or meet when I tour. Even as a child I had a very open mind, because even if my father was around, I was actually raised by a lot of different people. In my songs, I try to pass on African culture in the same way it was passed on to me by Wéré and my father, who also had a decisive role in the music I make. At a very young age, from twelve on, I also developed a sense of my responsibilities. I knew that the small amount I earned, around 15 euros a month, I had to divide in two: half for me, and half for my family, to buy a sack of rice.
You currently live in France. Do you still go back to Côte d’Ivoire?
Regularly. And each time, I go back to see Wéré Wéré, who is still teaching kids. Things have slowed down a bit at Ki-Yi, there are fewer artists and tourists at the shows, but it’s still continuing.
Boudou
Currently touring Europe
Patrick Labesse
Translation : Hugo Wilcken
11/03/2011 -
13/02/2007 -
