Musicians Are Suffering

Music Freedom Report no. 1: Côte d’Ivoire • 3 March 2012 DJ Volcano, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Kajeem, Fadal Dey Côte d’Ivoire: Musicians are suffering Ivorian musicians are struggling to survive. Whilst not actually being subject to official censorship mechanisms, musicians are restricted by unofficial state mechanisms just enough to prevent them from functioning professionally, reports Rose Skelton from Côte d’Ivoire. By Rose Skelton Côte d’Ivoire’s 2010 election crisis, in which former President Laurent Gbagbo refused to cede power to the winner recognised by the Independent Electoral Commission Alassane Ouattara, ended in the death of 3,000 people and the displacement of half a million, according to Human Rights Watch. Also affected during the six-month conflict were many of the country’s musicians, some of whom had been critical of the Gbagbo regime in their songs and others who had musically supported the campaigns as official flag-bearers of one or other side and who suffered the repercussions once the power shifted. Many musicians went into exile in neighbouring countries and many are yet to return. Those who stayed have had to survive in a highly-politicised climate and in an industry that is severely depressed. DJ’s house burnt down DJ Volcano is a DJ, dancer, and choreographer who ran a small training centre for dancers and musicians at his home in Yopougon, a neighbourhood of Abidjan. In January 2011 pro- Gbagbo police came to one of his shows and arrested him, saying that his music was ‘too strong,’ meaning critical of Gbagbo’s regime. In March 2011, pro-Gbagbo patriots burnt his house down, he says, and he now can not afford to rebuild it. Many artists who suffered similar fates have ‘given up’, he says, becoming DJs to animate crowds in clubs rather than using their music to comment on social or political subjects. “Politics is destroying music,” he said. Tight state control But Côte d’Ivoire’s music scene had been suffering long before the 2010-2011 electoral crisis; the industry has been in a state of stagnancy since the 1990s when piracy became completely embedded in the system, even institutionalised. Tight state control of the media means that censorship, both imposed from above and imposed by the musicians themselves, makes life either dangerous or extremely difficult for engaged musicians to survive financially. Furthermore, the country lacks any kind of cultural policy, meaning that there has been no long-term vision of how the music scene could develop. Though the musical culture in Côte d’Ivoire, both traditional and popular, is one of the richest in Africa, Ivorian musicians are some of the least represented on the international tour circuit. “We are heard nowhere” Côte d’Ivoire experienced its first civil war in 2002, a conflict that divided the country in two, north from south, and over its two year duration largely destroyed what was left of the local music industry. Although zouglou , a dance-orientated music, further developed during this crisis, this was more focused on fashion, humour and relief in response to the political crisis. During the war, many musicians fled the country and did not return home, including reggae singer Tiken Jah Fakoly who stayed in exile in neighbouring Mali for fear of political reprisals. Fakoly had used songs like ‘Quitte le pouvoir’, or ‘Get out of power’, to criticise the Gbagbo regime. Fakoly experienced unofficial censorship during this time. “It’s not banned officially,” he said in 2005 after the release of the album ‘Coup de Gueule’, “but when the album came out there were some young people close to Gbagbo who told my distributor that he had to stop selling my cassette, or they were going to burn his factory. So he stopped.” This message reverberates through Côte d’Ivoire’s recent musical history, musicians restricted by unofficial state mechanisms just enough to prevent them from functioning professionally, whilst not actually being subject to official censorship mechanisms. “We are not censured,” said Kajeem, one popular and engaged reggae artist living in Abidjan, “but we are heard nowhere.” The result has very much the same effect, but risks attracting less attention than a blanket censorship imposed and enforced by the state. The media climate in Côte d’Ivoire is highly politicised and strictly controlled by the state. The result is that while music censorship does not officially exist, music which criticises the regime or discusses politics in what the regime considers to be a subversive way, has no chance of getting on television and some radio stations, making it almost impossible to make a living as a musician. This has further depressed a music industry already in crisis. Violent attacks against musicians Unofficial censorship in Côte d’Ivoire is common-place and the entire music scene is highly politicised, making it hard to even discuss the issues without being seen to take sides. Your political leaning – currently either pro- or anti- Laurent Gbagbo – can be easily 2 determined by the music you listen to. Sporadic imprisonments and physical attacks against musicians have occurred over the last few years as the political stalemate has worsened, and these increased as the country spiralled into violent conflict after the October 2010 elections. There is very little reliable documentation of attacks against musicians. As one analyst put it, everything is so highly politicised that one can’t even count on the facts to be objective. But musicians tell of and bear the scars of violent physical attacks and many more journalists, musicians and actors say they are afraid of what would happen to them if they anger one or other of the political sides. Fadal Dey, one of the country’s most famous reggae singers and an engaged artist speaking out against political repression, was threatened with being ‘eliminated’ by pro- Gbagbo youths after his album ‘Mea Culpa’ came out in February 2010. Fadal Dey already has a long scar down the side of his face from when he was attacked with a brick during a confrontation with music bootleggers in 2007. Political campaign music Historically in West Africa, music has been a tool used to spread messages to the people, a culture which developed from the griots , or praise-singers, who accompanied kings and important people during their work. Nowadays, musicians are used to support political campaigns and presidential candidates as it is the radio, not the newspaper, that is the first medium of news-dissemination in West Africa. Today in Côte d’Ivoire, with the music scene as depressed as it is and the chance of a musician earning a sustainable living harder than ever, musicians report of being ‘bought’ for relatively little by politicians eager to have the strong words of popular musicians on their sides. DJ Volcano describes how during the campaign period, politicians paid musicians to support their campaigns with their music, a practise which can have dangerous consequences once the political power shifts. “They use musicians for their political campaigns, and then they leave us,” DJ Volcano said. Those musicians who supported Ouattara were harassed, attacked or arrested during the election period and ensuing conflict by Gbagbo supporters. Then when power changed hands, the harassment turned to those who had supported Gbagbo. Many left for neighbouring countries and are afraid of returning for fear of violent recriminations, leaving the music scene divided along political fault lines. Musical refugees There are many reports of musicians in exile from Côte d’Ivoire, those who fled the fighting or who found themselves on the wrong side of the divide once the power changed hands. However, there are no official records of these ‘refugees’ and as west Africans are a naturally fluid people with strong links to France and linguistic and geographical proximity to neighbouring countries, musicians regularly leave the country for tours, recordings, family visits, and tend not to come back for many months. In September 2011, rumours abounded in Abidjan that certain musicians had ‘fled’ the country. While many musicians did leave during the last crisis, it was impossible to say if that person had left for a tour or to escape politically-motivated violence. Fadal Dey left for Mali for some months for fear of attack, but Kajeem was already out of the country in 3 Switzerland and did not consider it safe to come back. While it’s not precise to say that he was ‘fleeing’, the political events certainly had an effect on where he chose to be. While it is impossible to tell how many artists fled or were attacked during the crisis, it is clear that it was not safe for any of them, especially the ones who had taken the side of Gbagbo once his regime fell. Many singers sung for peace and reconciliation during the violence, and Tiken Jah Fakoly and Alpha Blondy both have been vocal about a need for peace, the latter planning a country-wide peace tour with a host of popular African musicians. The new government has only been in power since May 2011 but musicians say that they will watch and see, and continue with their engaged music if there is no improvement on the last regime. “If Ouattara’s administration is bad, there will be songs sung about him,” said Sally Ouattara (no relation), manager of Fadal Dey and Vice-President of the National Union of Journalists of Côte d’Ivoire. “Reggae music is very strong.” Media control Côte d’Ivoire was one of the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to have its own television channel, the state-owned and operated Radio-Television Ivoirienne (RTI).

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