Tiken Jah Fakoly receives us in a hotel in Clichy (Hauts-de-Seine) where he has his habits. The day before, he presented his new album to the press in a setting very different from the traditional listening sessions of record companies. He invited journalists to an African hostel in Paris to unveil "Dernier Appel". "I was supposed to present this album in Africa. As we can't afford to take all the journalists to Africa, I decided to choose Africa in Paris. And for me, that's the hostel!"
At Le Retrait, in Paris's 20th arrondissement, the common room is quickly packed. Tiken Jah Fakoly's arrival sparks cheers, and the singer is monopolised by incessant requests for photos. The queue of hopefuls for the inevitable selfies does not let up for the entire duration of the album playback.
"Dernier Appel" takes up the themes dear to Tiken Jah Fakoly: education, unity, respect for institutions… "The album is still addressed to the African people. As long as victory isn't here, as long as we aren't close to what we want, we must keep fighting…" An interview with a tireless activist.
At Le Retrait, in Paris's 20th arrondissement, the common room is quickly packed. Tiken Jah Fakoly's arrival sparks cheers, and the singer is monopolised by incessant requests for photos. The queue of hopefuls for the inevitable selfies does not let up for the entire duration of the album playback.
"Dernier Appel" takes up the themes dear to Tiken Jah Fakoly: education, unity, respect for institutions… "The album is still addressed to the African people. As long as victory isn't here, as long as we aren't close to what we want, we must keep fighting…" An interview with a tireless activist.
Musically, “Dernier Appel” moves away from the artistic direction of “African Revolution” and returns to a more direct reggae, with the horns, the skank… Why?
Tiken Jah Fakoly With “African Revolution”, we tried to open up to reach people who don't necessarily listen to reggae. The objective was achieved, since the album went gold in France and did well in Canada, Belgium… It's also an album that allowed us to go and play concerts in the United States. Alongside that, the purists who had supported me at the beginning seemed a bit lost. They called on us, and we decided to come back to that sound; it's not a problem because it's what we know how to do. We kept the same artistic director and the same producer as on “African Revolution”. We found the happy medium: those who liked “African Revolution” will find themselves in it, and so will those who were disappointed, since they'll see the return of the horns, the big basslines, the skank…
Even so, we find the same arrangements of African instruments that were on “African Revolution”.
Tiken Jah Fakoly I think there are even more! We used about ten traditional African instruments: the balafon, the sokou (violin), the kora, the kamélé n'goni, which is the little kora… All of it to keep the African colour, so that my reggae keeps my identity. We'll never play reggae better than the Jamaicans who created it and who were lucky enough to have the prophet of reggae, Bob Marley. It has to be said that the Jamaicans came from Africa, with reggae in their bag. The tangible proof that reggae comes from Africa is the fact that traditional instruments go well with reggae; it sounds right. It's the same feeling, the same vibes. We hope the audience will enjoy it.
On the cover, we see you in the street, in the middle of a crowd, holding a megaphone. That's a change from the previous one, where we saw you on a horse, like a general…
Tiken Jah Fakoly The photo was taken in a working-class neighbourhood of Bamako called Bankoni. It's a very poor district, where there have been floods. That image fits well, because “Dernier Appel” is addressed to Africans; I'm asking them to take responsibility. Not by going out and smashing things, I would never ask anyone to smash things to make themselves heard. In Africa, we need to rebuild everything. We don't smash, but we can have ideas, come together, fight battles together… We can make ourselves heard by the authorities in another way. I tell Africans that we must respect our institutions: an elected head of state must be sure that it won't be the military who remove him, they are not the ones who put him there. The head of state mustn't be sitting on a stool but rather in an armchair. If you drive a car while sitting on a wobbling stool, you worry and you stop concentrating on the steering wheel. I want elected leaders to be able to concentrate on the steering wheel: the seat has to be secure for five years. If at the end of the term he hasn't been able to lead us towards development, then we stop the lorry, tell him to get down and put somebody else at the wheel.
On the album, you cover Tata, the only love song of your career, which was on the album “Cours d'Histoire”. Why?
Tiken Jah Fakoly Tata suffered a great deal for me. It's a song I wrote to pay tribute to her. It was very popular in Africa but it's not very well known in the West. It's as simple as that. You know the story of this song: Tata is the mother of my daughter, who was born when I was 18. Tata waited for me for 10 years. I was a young rasta who wanted to make music, I lived in the mud of the ghettos of Abidjan. I was poor, and Tata's parents looked at me oddly; they thought that if I married their daughter, I wouldn't be able to feed her. We agreed that we had to wait. After 10 years, Tata gave in to her parents' pressure. She married someone else, and sadly she died two years after the wedding. I felt remorse when I composed this song…
Another great moment, the duet with Alpha Blondy on Diaspora, where you call on the diaspora to take responsibility.
Tiken Jah Fakoly I call on these forces because they are people who have travelled, who know what democracy, stability and freedom of expression are, what is positive in the Western system. I tell them: "Don't just bring money to Africa, bring ideas, advice… I think the diaspora can play a very important role in the awakening of the African people, like their ancestors in the 1950s. The meetings between the African leaders of the time and the leaders of the diaspora, like Martin Luther King, Frantz Fanon, Marcus Garvey and Aimé Césaire, were very enriching, and they were essential in the fight for independence. Today I'd like the diaspora to take that place again. I called on Alpha Blondy, who did me the honour of answering. There was a slightly difficult moment between us, but when the election crisis ended in Côte d'Ivoire, I picked up my phone. I told him: "We are the big brothers of the artists, it's important that we join hands". As we were starting a tour of reconciliation for the Ivorian people (the peace caravan, editor's note), it was important that we reconcile first. We first recorded a track on Alpha Blondy's album (Réconciliation, on the album “Mystic Power” released in 2013, editor's note), then this one on my album.
Education is a theme close to your heart. You notably launched the “Un concert, une école” project; how is it doing?
Tiken Jah Fakoly The project is doing very well; there are five schools today: a secondary school in northern Mali, two primary schools in northern Côte d'Ivoire, another primary school rebuilt in the south of the country, a school we've just finished in Niger… The next school will be built in Guinea. For two years now, we have had a budget of €21,000, thanks to a concert we did with the town hall of Clichy (in the Hauts-de-Seine, editor's note). We were waiting for the political temperature to drop in Guinea before going there. Soon, I will go and lay the first stone of this school, which will be the sixth. The big dream is to build a school in every African country. Thanks to the help of the fans, since it's with the proceeds of the concerts that we build these schools.
School wakes people up. It will allow the majority of African countries to understand the plot against us, to understand why we are both rich and poor, and to look for and find solutions. As long as we are asleep, it will be others who benefit from these riches. African countries supply the whole world with 70% of its chocolate: Côte d'Ivoire 40%, Ghana 20%, plus the production of Cameroon, Nigeria… Africa alone supplies 70% of the chocolate sold in the entire world! And that's only chocolate… We have everything the Western countries need to carry on developing. The day Niger has no more uranium, part of France will have no more electricity. Yet when people talk about Niger, they present it as one of the poorest countries on the planet… Education is the foundation that will allow populations to wake up and support the leaders in place. When he feels the strength of his people behind him, he will be able to go and defend his interests. But when you have a divided people, you fight over the armchair (laughs). Whereas when the people are behind him, the leader is in a comfortable armchair, guaranteed for five years, and then he can concentrate on the steering wheel. And then he can stand up to foreign presidents. France comes for its own interests. General de Gaulle said it: "France has no friends, it only has interests." That quotation still rings true and it will for a long time to come. If we cut off the uranium, for example, France will go through the opposition, who will make contact with the military. There will be a coup d'état, and we're back to square one. France has its electricity, its cocoa, but we are going backwards… School will change all that. It will allow all Africans to understand, as I have understood, and to demand more of their own leaders.
School wakes people up. It will allow the majority of African countries to understand the plot against us, to understand why we are both rich and poor, and to look for and find solutions. As long as we are asleep, it will be others who benefit from these riches. African countries supply the whole world with 70% of its chocolate: Côte d'Ivoire 40%, Ghana 20%, plus the production of Cameroon, Nigeria… Africa alone supplies 70% of the chocolate sold in the entire world! And that's only chocolate… We have everything the Western countries need to carry on developing. The day Niger has no more uranium, part of France will have no more electricity. Yet when people talk about Niger, they present it as one of the poorest countries on the planet… Education is the foundation that will allow populations to wake up and support the leaders in place. When he feels the strength of his people behind him, he will be able to go and defend his interests. But when you have a divided people, you fight over the armchair (laughs). Whereas when the people are behind him, the leader is in a comfortable armchair, guaranteed for five years, and then he can concentrate on the steering wheel. And then he can stand up to foreign presidents. France comes for its own interests. General de Gaulle said it: "France has no friends, it only has interests." That quotation still rings true and it will for a long time to come. If we cut off the uranium, for example, France will go through the opposition, who will make contact with the military. There will be a coup d'état, and we're back to square one. France has its electricity, its cocoa, but we are going backwards… School will change all that. It will allow all Africans to understand, as I have understood, and to demand more of their own leaders.
You took an interest in agriculture last year; can you tell us more?
Tiken Jah Fakoly I finished my last concerts in 2012; I did a few others, of course, but I devoted 2013 to agriculture. I wanted to show its importance. Because I don't understand: in Africa there's sun, rain, land and able-bodied people, and yet we talk about a food crisis. There's a problem: you can't talk about a food crisis in a region where everything grows! I wanted to explain to young people that not everyone is made to go and work in offices or in cities. In my day, every Saturday and Sunday we went to the fields. There was stock in the granaries. We only bought salt and dried fish, if the hunting hadn't been good.
The aim of the field was to get a message across. I wanted to make young people understand that if Tiken Jah (I stay very small, eh) as an international star decides to go to the fields, it's because farming is not a demeaning job. I started on land that belonged to my parents, in the north of Côte d'Ivoire. The first year, I farmed 50 hectares and the harvest went well, but because of my absence it was badly managed. This year, I only did 15 hectares, because I lacked time. I've just done the harvest, and it's going fine. It's not because I'm going back on the road today that I'm going to give up farming, because there's a personal love there.
Everyone says food is expensive. It's no surprise: there isn't much production, and the traders who send their goods in lorries are racketeered by the security forces. The price goes up at every police checkpoint, and by the time it reaches Abidjan, the goods cost a fortune. If there were greater production, and if the states fought against the racketeering, we would get back to a normal price. It's not rocket science. We mustn't wait for God to give us that, he has given everything!
The aim of the field was to get a message across. I wanted to make young people understand that if Tiken Jah (I stay very small, eh) as an international star decides to go to the fields, it's because farming is not a demeaning job. I started on land that belonged to my parents, in the north of Côte d'Ivoire. The first year, I farmed 50 hectares and the harvest went well, but because of my absence it was badly managed. This year, I only did 15 hectares, because I lacked time. I've just done the harvest, and it's going fine. It's not because I'm going back on the road today that I'm going to give up farming, because there's a personal love there.
Everyone says food is expensive. It's no surprise: there isn't much production, and the traders who send their goods in lorries are racketeered by the security forces. The price goes up at every police checkpoint, and by the time it reaches Abidjan, the goods cost a fortune. If there were greater production, and if the states fought against the racketeering, we would get back to a normal price. It's not rocket science. We mustn't wait for God to give us that, he has given everything!
Your optimism is striking.
Tiken Jah Fakoly I don't see why we shouldn't stay optimistic. I'm so sure that if we put children in school, if we get to work, if we respect our institutions and give strength to our elected leaders, there's no reason we won't make it. Europe too has known columns of refugees, famines, wars of religion: in Ireland, not twenty years ago, people were dying between Catholics and Protestants, and they weren't Africans! Hitler, who committed atrocities, wasn't an African. The Westerners have been through it. They even fired on General de Gaulle's convoy, here in France!
We are in a process, that's normal: we were enslaved for 400 years, we were colonised for several decades, and we were freed only 52 years ago. Côte d'Ivoire was 8 years old when I was born: I belong to the first free generation, we are only at the beginning. Our duty is to plant the seed of independence that our parents left us, to water it and look after it. We may not be here, but our children will reap the fruit. We absolutely must believe, for Africa to move forward. If our ancestors had given up, we would still be in slavery.
We are in a process, that's normal: we were enslaved for 400 years, we were colonised for several decades, and we were freed only 52 years ago. Côte d'Ivoire was 8 years old when I was born: I belong to the first free generation, we are only at the beginning. Our duty is to plant the seed of independence that our parents left us, to water it and look after it. We may not be here, but our children will reap the fruit. We absolutely must believe, for Africa to move forward. If our ancestors had given up, we would still be in slavery.
You said at the album launch that you are certain that one day, Africa will refuse visas to Westerners.
Tiken Jah Fakoly Of course! Africa is the future. If we get organised, if we put children in school, if we respect our institutions and if we have stability, I'm convinced that we will be the ones choosing who comes to Africa and who doesn't. In 100 years, maybe 200 years, but I'm certain it will happen.
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