mark your calendar ! Among the events on the menu for the world Day of Africa, on Monday, may 25, with the theme ” raising awareness of the pandemic and think about after-virus “, the internet users will be able to watch a live concert of two hours organized in the framework of the show, pan-african, ” Together as one, together is WAN “, WAN for World African Network, in association with the african Union of broadcasting under the high patronage of the Unesco. This event at the initiative of the facilitator, reporter and producer in cameroon Amobé Mévégué well known to listeners of Radio France International (South-facing) and viewers of Canal France International (Africa Music), MCM Africa, TV5 Monde (Acoustic, Africanités), France 24 (Journal of the culture of music) and the chain pan-african Ubiznews, is a rare moment that will bring together a hundred artists in africa (with Youssou n’dour, sponsor of the event, Angélique Kidjo, Fally Ipupa, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Jocelyne Béroard) on a large virtual scene. “There will be lots of surprises “, already announces the composer and multi-instrumentalist malian Cheick Tidiane Seck. At the helm of this concert broadcast on social networks and on privately owned television stations, as he was nicknamed, “the warrior” is also a master of the merger. He knows like no other to take the sauce from the ingredients heterogeneous : jazz, reggae, afro-beat, musique mandingue, traditional, etc., a Musician, a generous and engaged, he gives a taste of this mega-show is unprecedented, and also declines to The Point Africa his vision of Africa, and the lessons of the pandemic of the Covid-19.
The Point Africa : what motivated you to participate in this event #IamWAN-#I WAN (also known #TogetherAsWAN) ?
Cheick Tidiane Seck : This is one of my little brothers, the reporter from cameroon Amobé Mévégué, who told me about it.
When the health crisis has started, I’ve created the group artists against the Covid-19. It is not the CAC40 but the CACC-19 ! The goal is to mobilize and mobilize resources for actions. For example, thanks to the support of a man of affairs, the algerian owner of a chain of hotels, Boubekheur Kelfhaoui, we had the idea of housing artists blocked in France who could not return to their country because of the border closure. Be it African, Asian, whatever, the idea is to help those who are on the edge of precariousness because the borders have been blocked. And Amobé Mévégué was part of this group.
then He asked me about of this large-scale project including Youssou n’dour, on which he worked for a while. He wanted that I in charge of the artistic direction. This is how I found myself enrolled in this adventure.
I had also noticed on the occasion of this pandemic, this time of suffering we all share, that we had no right at prime time on television channels. We haven’t seen Manu Dibango on TF1 when he died. Rather, they are other artists or French thinkers that we have put forward. Why are we still left behind ? In this sense, this initiative I was so comforted. It is a way of saying : “You don’t want us in your prime time, OK, we’re going to make our prime time to us, but by inviting you ! “Because we need a world where we take more risks, and where we should not see this discernment.
Concretely, how this event goes-t-he decline on the musical level ?
We are going to make the two-hour concert on the Internet, with musicians who will play live set to celebrate the Africa Day, but there will also be videos, pre-recorded by the artists. I have already started to receive.
Personally, given that the coronavirus surprised us, I want to surprise me also musically. I’ve already composed one or two pieces specifically for the event, but we will also leave room for improvisation.
I’ll be at home, with my guitar and my keyboard, and many musicians confined to their homes will join us. There will be in the world ! This is the first time that we bring together so many african artists on the same topic. We can expect a mobilization much stronger than in 1985 famine in Ethiopia. It is very open, but without the mess ! When I led the Jam Sahel at the Cabaret Sauvage in Paris, there were more than 200 musicians, and everyone could go on stage at any given time.
What reflection inspires you the occurrence of this pandemic coronavirus ?
Recently, I wrote a text, titled ” the breath of the stale. I say in particular : “This world to which we all aspire has just suffered one of its greatest defeats since so many centuries. Master nature says to us : Your powerful, rich, poor, experts, specialists, etc, in knees all, putting us to our limits. All impotent. “
I wonder if there would not be a lesson of life. The human is in one of its deepest trenches, in the face of an insurmountable wall. On the societal level, this epidemic must lead us to greater solidarity.
If we speak about damage on the economic plan, it doesn’t even have a name. For us, artists, it’s a slaughter. That said confinement, said withdrawal to avoid contagion. And for those of us who live in the sharing, exchange, and hand-stretched, it is a disaster. The profession of musician, and artist in general, is particularly affected by the coronavirus.
What do you think of the way this pandemic has been experienced and managed in Africa ?
It had predicted a tragedy unprecedented in Africa particularly. But it is in the 4th month of the outbreak of the epidemic on the african continent, and in Mali, for example, there are approximately 60 deaths, while there are tens of thousands in the world. And most african countries are in the same boat. Madagascar with its treatment Covid Organics has a mortality rate near 0 %. Therefore, I welcome that, and the fact that Africa has not yet given up everything for the benefit of the lobbies, the pharmaceutical.
So I welcome this, but at the same time, I also deplores that some States might not have understood that they must accept to leave the places of worship closed. Even the mosque of Mecca where the Kaaba has been closed, therefore at any given time, there can be no more muslims in this sacred place. Why this pandemic does not tell us to think of spirituality, whatever the religion, as something which conveys the sharing and preservation of life ?
what is it that the arts could bring to Africa post-Covid-19, according to you ?
The arts can help to bring even more top of our voices, for we are the real actors of what we produce and create. It is to assert our identity, including an identity that is more open, with more opening by, for example, of the Britons mixed with Bamilékés.
The time is not to witch-hunt, to the controversy between the pro-and anti-Pr Raoult, the pro-and anti-Big Pharma, pro-and anti-WHO… the Whole world has shown its limits, it is time to ask : what is it that we can invent ?
Personally, I think there needs to be more solidarity in the decision-making and that we also listen to more of our own specialists and experts. We are still in a colonization of the mind.
How do you see the Africa of tomorrow ?
I see a continent full of promise and future. It constantly says that Africa is a young continent, but it is the oldest continent ! Let’s put this to good use to give letters of nobility to our knowledge, to nature, to plants, to respect animals. Me, I’d like to abolish permanently all that is chemical fertilizer, for example.
The Covid could lead us to revise our conventional, dust the traditional pharmacopoeia in the world. Why not enhance it ? I say that Africa has everything to gain. I don’t understand why the human goes as far in its experiments, in particular in the agri-food industry ? A mango, without GMOS or chemical fertilizers, it is so good. We can imagine a world where agriculture has become a discipline more enjoyable, like a kind of item It is not to see the peasants suffer in their flesh. I am sure that we can produce on a large scale with methods that respect nature, and who do we oppress not.
we are in the process of destroying the environment. You have to listen to this warning signal what is the coronavirus, and stop following the current trends on the agricultural level.
Our grandmothers never ate not with food as rich as those to which we have access today, but some were a century old ! One of my aunts died last year in Bamako at the age of 105 years. His granddaughters were going to steal his sauces, to understand the recipe of its longevity. But she only used healthy products : okra, garlic, onions, tomatoes… Me, who loves good cheer, I am in the process of change for a healthy lifestyle. Give me a year and you’ll see. Word of ramadan.
* The Point Africa was broadcast Facebook Live on its official page, the “WAN (Worldwide African Network) Show” 2.0 ”
