Interview by : Sébastien Jobart
Pictures by : DR
on Thursday, October 16th 2008 - 6 952 views
Caught between two stools: that is the uncomfortable position Alpha Wess finds himself in. A superstar in Guinea, which he left in 2004 under threats after the release of his album "Koutou Koutou", he has lived since then in France, where he is a political refugee. But the cost of living is not the same and Alpha no longer has the same access to studios to record.
To turn the tide, he is counting heavily on the reissue of the offending record by Makasound under the title "Le Choc des Cultures", written, composed and produced by himself in 2004. We meet an artist who, as he says himself, is "not one to bite his tongue".
Reggaefrance / You were set for a career as a writer, but you finally opted for music.
Alpha Wess / I wanted to describe Guinea's ills in order to get the message across to Guineans. I realised that out of a population of 9 million, only 30 to 35% can read and write: the message was going to be very limited. I preferred to use music, using dialects that are widely spoken in our country. The message had to reach the majority of the population, because they are the ones who were suffering from the ills I had to denounce. By expressing them in the most widely spoken dialects in our country, Guineans recognised themselves in it. It worked for me, I think I wasn't wrong. I also sing in French, which is the administrative language, common to the educated and literate population.
Was choosing reggae a natural way to put your message across?
Of course. Reggae has always been a locomotive carrying very good messages for society on board. It's a music I liked and Bob was my idol. For me, he is the last messenger after Muhammad. His simplicity in saying things...
That first album, you sold more than 100,000 copies... Taking massive piracy into account, it's at least double that.
Of course we're talking about more than a million copies. The impact was huge, for Africa and for Guinea itself. It was as if all Guineans had been waiting for this, as if I'd arrived at the right moment. It worked for me. On the other hand, the authorities were set against me. My strength was that the whole population was behind me. There were attempts to arrest me, which never worked, threats, which I didn't listen to...
You were such a nuisance that you were shot at.
I was shot at in 2004. The reasons are simple: where we come from, when you release an album, it is customary to organise a launch concert, with 60% of the gate going to the artist. Fans come and give him money on stage. But I was refused that launch concert, and all the venues too. Fortunately, the French Cultural Centre agreed to host me for a press conference. The album came out on 18 May, and on 12 June I was shot at.
Do you see the two events as linked?
In three weeks, it had taken on crazy proportions. Even the reception of the first album hadn't impressed me like that. Once I visited a pal who was ill, in the ghetto: I couldn't get out of the neighbourhood. I, who don't like the police, needed their intervention to reach my car. On the other side, the authorities were watching me. In the first weeks after the album came out, when the president went past, he was pelted with stones, like his ministers. I had become the source of their problems. If it had only been a question of arresting me, I would have stayed. But when I found out they wanted to kill me... In January or February 2007, for once, the entire population of Guinea rose up to express its disagreement with the regime. The army fired on the demonstrators, there were 216 dead, more than 500 wounded and more than 400 people disabled for life. And those are the official figures... Inquiries were launched, but it was a sham, there wasn't a single arrest. So, killing one single person is nothing to them...
In 2004 you arrived in France and in 2006 you became a political refugee. Did you keep writing during that period?
Yes, because I was taken in for an artistic residency at the café La Pêche in Montreuil. They put a rehearsal studio at my disposal, with all the right equipment. That allowed me to audition musicians, with whom I've been working for three years. It's going really very well. I sincerely thank the City of Montreuil. Even if I had nothing, I had my music and that was important to me.
Your voice is muzzled in Africa, but in France people don't much like loudmouths. Many hip-hop groups end up in court.
You know, God is on the side of truth. I'm a believer, I believe you have to say things as they are. There's no use being afraid. But if you can save your soul, save it. Don't hesitate to denounce things as they are. You mustn't invent things to smear someone. If you go to court for that, that's your problem. But if there is a wrong, it must be said. That's what will contribute to the civilisation of Man. Some think we are civilised, but we are very far from it. We have access to technology, but we haven't managed to become civilised. There is a lot of work to be done on Man to reach the point of civilisation. We are in an age of barbarity, even worse than the one attributed to those who lived 300 years ago. Worse because it is a double barbarity: a barbarity that kills nature, and a barbarity that kills Man, between politicians and populations, and between populations themselves.
Nicolas Sarkozy's speech in Dakar caused a great deal of ink to flow. What do you think of the idea that "the African man has not entered history enough"?
People took that sentence badly because they are people who think very little. I agree with Mr Nicolas Sarkozy. He gave Africans a lesson, a very good lesson. When you know that intelligence is universal, where do we stand with regard to Africa? We Africans have had access to education for three centuries. People will tell me we suffered the slave trade, that we were disoriented, even uprooted... But when you come out of all that, when you are handed the destiny of your populations, of your countries, the management and the steering towards reliable and adequate development, towards development linked to improving the living conditions of the mass of the people, and you achieve nothing... When you also fail to put in place technology, technique, the management of the mass of the people, of medicine, you expect everything from the other. Everything!
Today foreign companies are still exploiting Africa's riches without it benefiting Africans.
Whose fault is that? In your opinion?
The colonial legacy?
Me, I say no. You can't blame the colonising countries. When you believe in the universality of intelligence, you immediately refuse to let someone put in your mouth what is bad for your body, you don't swallow just anything. France or any country in Europe will not give you its diamonds to extract. France, like the other countries, practises nationalism, which is perfectly logical, dignified and noble. Charity begins at home. If you wanted to extract France's riches, France would tell you no.
And Africa should have said no?
Africa should have said no. It didn't. Is that France's fault? No. It's Africa's fault. Our countries produce precious and rare raw materials, and export as much as they produce. You can't tell me my currency must be lower than yours, you who don't produce those commodities. The raw materials that keep most of the big factories around the world running come from my country. Why would I accept you telling me my currency is inferior? By virtue of what? Because indeed, the inferiority complex still exists among Africans. Because indeed, the African is naive. I've just given you a down-to-earth example. Today, we are dominated. Colonisation is now economic: in my country, 1 euro is worth 7,000 Guinean francs. France, with an area of 55,000 km², doesn't have a single carat of diamond under its soil. Guinea, with 27,000 km², has diamonds, gold, bauxite, phosphate, aluminium, zinc...
With agriculture alone, my country could feed itself, but also feed the neighbouring countries of West Africa. Guinea has good rainfall for six months and a dry season of six months: nothing but good periods for sowing whatever you want. Today, Africa has millions of intellectuals who have done brilliant studies in universities all over the world. Where is the result? They are always asking. They expect everything. Mr Nicolas Sarkozy made an observation, he noticed that these people are waiting for others to make their destiny. They cannot invent a destiny for themselves. A destiny linked to the proper functioning of the standard of living of the mass of the people, which should give them dignity, fulfilment. That destiny must come from no one else, it must come from Africans.
Only Africans can save Africa?
It was China that saved China, it is the French who saved France and who keep on doing so... With today's competitiveness, do you think I'm going to help you if we're competitors? If on top of that I know that you're the one with the raw materials, I have no reason to put you on the right path. That's a reflection people must make. France gives 9 billion dollars a year to Gabon. Gabon doesn't even have 600 million, according to Ms Eva Joly, a jurist by profession, Norwegian, who wrote "Justice for Africa" (in charge of the Elf case at the time, ed.). I congratulate Mr Nicolas Sarkozy for having given this lesson to Africans.
That doesn't stop France from continuing its policy in Africa.
As long as we remain fools... It's not compulsory! There is no document, no law that says we have to hand over our raw materials to France or to other countries. They are contracts. The day we say no, it will stop. But as long as we remain fools, as long as we say "yes", it will go on.
Let's get back to the music. You tour with two different line-ups, one classic, the other acoustic. Why?
It's deliberate, to satisfy more listeners and audiences. To satisfy the live audience, you have to create the maximum number of possibilities to reach as many people as possible. I, who used to fill stadiums in Africa, found myself playing in quite a few bistros in Paris, in Montreuil and elsewhere... Because you have to live. I come from an average family, my father has died, I am the only one responsible for my family. The image they have of me is not what I live here.
Do you suffer from that gap?
Of course. I had everything very young. At 30, I had managed to build a house, I have two cars... I created the literacy centre for the poorest, so that children could have access to education. I didn't keep that money for myself alone. After that, it's my destiny that sooner or later I would go abroad. In France, in four years I spent all the money I had saved. Because you have to live and in France, it goes fast, very fast.
Will you go back to Guinea when you are no longer unwelcome there?
Of course! My wealth is over there, it's not here. It can't be, for many reasons. I have to go there to make use of my wealth and let others benefit from it.
When do you see that return?
I'm waiting for the regime to change. When that happens I'll see who comes in, and how he works. If it's a man of the current president (Lansana Conté, ed.), it won't change anything.
Have you recorded tracks in France?
I can't record an album here, I don't have the means. If God gives me the means, why not?
So as long as you stay in France you won't be able to bring your compositions to life in the studio?
I'm seeing where it will take me, with the album that's coming out. If it can open other doors, if I'm offered recordings... I'd like to record in Africa. Maybe not in Guinea, but in Mali or Ivory Coast. There are African instruments that are important to me, and I can't bring the musicians over here. Recording in France takes means that I don't have at the moment.
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