MEDI1TV Afrique : Cinéma, littérature et musique - 26/10/2024
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00:00And it's with great pleasure that we meet you again on Mediantv for this new cultural stopover in the heart of Africa.
00:18And in a few moments we will talk about cinema with this huge classic of African cinema.
00:23I speak of course of Hyènes in the plural. We will also talk about literature, without forgetting the new album of L'Homme Vince.
00:31Out of time, we will only have fun talking about it. But first of all, place to our guest of the day.
00:37And today, we have the immense pleasure of welcoming a young woman full of talent, music as a vocation.
00:53She has it in her blood. Nelly Ozuga is with us. Hello Nelly.
00:57Hello.
01:01Thank you for being with us. It is a pleasure to receive you today.
01:07We have a lot of questions to ask you, Nelly, in particular in relation to your influences,
01:14since you have a musical universe made up of several musical influences.
01:19What are these influences and why this visceral need to feed you by several musical genres?
01:28My name is Ozuga, and I am inspired by a mix of African traditional music genres with more contemporary sounds, such as jazz and soul.
01:48And above all, I like to explore the bridges between different musical cultures,
01:53in particular through artists such as Myriam Makeda, who was a very, very great South African artist, and more recent icons.
02:06In terms of my influences, it is above all the music of the peoples that speak to me,
02:12the music that we hear on the outskirts of the villages, the popular festivals that nourish my creativity,
02:19and this fusion between African roots and the music of the world that allows me to create a sound universe that resembles me.
02:30A sound universe that resembles you, and this creativity in you that boils.
02:38So we talked about influences, but your artistic universe is very eclectic,
02:46and we have a hard time putting a label on it, and that's good.
02:49How would you define it after all these years in music?
02:53Do you have enough hindsight to put words on it?
02:59What defines me is diversity, for me it is very important,
03:07because music is a universal language that goes beyond words,
03:13it is a language that speaks to the soul,
03:16and for me it is important to be able to make sure that everyone can find themselves in what I tell,
03:23in the stories I tell, in the messages I convey, in the emotions.
03:28And above all, the most important thing for me is that this music brings people together,
03:33that it brings peoples together, regardless of their origin,
03:37and that it is both personal and collective, and intimate and public.
03:46That's really what's important for me, that it can speak to everyone.
03:53And Nelly, beyond this universality, your music is deeply rooted in the soil of Africa,
04:02its roots are there.
04:05How does music, African culture, feed you on a daily basis in relation to your art?
04:11Are there particularities of African culture that feed you?
04:18African culture is my first language, it is my first language,
04:24it is part of my cultural and spiritual identity,
04:29and regardless of the rhythms, the songs, the harmony,
04:37it is a culture that is an integral part of my personality.
04:46And it is important for me to be able to share this wealth,
04:53this inexhaustible wealth that we have in Africa,
04:57in terms of rhythms, harmony and stories to tell,
05:02because it allows people to connect through music
05:09and to travel through music to learn a little more about the culture,
05:15because they are so diverse.
05:18For me, each sound and each instrument reminds me of where I come from.
05:24In the instruments, there is what is called the balafon,
05:29I play it live, it is a traditional instrument
05:34that allows you to bring out certain sounds that are particular to Central Africa.
05:45And while opening doors with new creative explorations,
05:51I also mix other rhythms, as I said before, other rhythms from elsewhere.
06:00To sum up, it is part of my DNA and it is my first language, African music.
06:11And beyond African music, your musical universe, which is very rich, very eclectic,
06:18which has a real soul, you were talking about DNA,
06:21but there is also perhaps a DNA, and you will certainly confirm it,
06:26which goes through the words, which goes through the texts.
06:31So beyond music, for you, art in general, and especially for you,
06:37music is a human and ethical commitment.
06:43Yes, music is a human and ethical commitment.
06:48The artist, through his messages, can convey messages.
06:58In this case, I focus on women, women and education.
07:05For me, it is important to celebrate the woman who is the mother of humanity.
07:10And I try in all my songs to always magnify,
07:15to always send a positive message for all women,
07:19from all social classes.
07:25In any case, the woman as the mother of humanity has a very important role in society.
07:32And nowadays it is even more important with social networks.
07:38We must always look after our progeny
07:44to be able to transmit values and ethics to them
07:50to continue to grow in a world of benevolence above all.
07:59And speaking of growing, you are also always growing as an artist.
08:03Can you tell us about your current activities, Nelly?
08:09Yes, at the moment I am releasing a single,
08:13always in this continuity of diversity.
08:17It will be a single, an ode to the woman.
08:21The song will be called Sista,
08:23but I will adapt it and sing it in Arabic.
08:29Always in my concern for diversity and openness.
08:32It will be sung in Arabic and in my mother tongue.
08:36I will update this song a little bit.
08:39Otherwise, I am currently writing a project.
08:44I am in Rabat at the moment.
08:47I am writing my next album,
08:50which I will have the pleasure of sharing with my brothers in Morocco.
09:00I know that artists are very superstitious.
09:04It is normal not to talk too much about future projects.
09:08But this re-writing of Sista in Arabic,
09:14will this album, which is being released,
09:18also be in this vein, a little mixed,
09:21between Arabic and Cameroonian culture?
09:24Will there be this mix?
09:26In relation to this album,
09:28yes, there will also be mixed sounds.
09:33We will make a mix between Cameroonian culture
09:37and some Moroccan sounds.
09:40I really like Gnawa,
09:42so I think there will be a lot of Gnawa in this album as well.
09:47And we can't wait to see the result.
09:50And of course we will be at the rendezvous.
09:52Thank you very much Nelly for being with us.
09:54It was a pleasure.
09:56Thank you very much to you too.
09:59Thank you. Have a good day.
10:07And after talking about music with Nelly,
10:10Ozugan continues to talk about music.
10:13Since it is impossible to miss this fall,
10:16in front of L'Homme Vince,
10:18which signs its fifth studio album,
10:20L'Homme Vince is a studio called Hortan,
10:22a dance project of 17 songs
10:24composed by the Togolese
10:26in all spontaneity,
10:28accompanied by jazz pianist Camaru Kwaku Anthony.
10:31L'Homme Vince,
10:32from its real name,
10:33L'Homme Kosi Winslas,
10:35presents itself as a contemporary griot.
10:38In his lyrics,
10:39the Togolese rapper declares his love for Pan-Africanism.
10:43L'Homme Vince is first and foremost a storyteller,
10:46a griot of the 21st century,
10:48who tells in his new album Hortan,
10:50stories in prose,
10:52full of poetry,
10:53philosophy,
10:54of Pan-African commitment,
10:56also tinted with the daily life of his country,
10:59Togo,
11:00a fight that has always led.
11:02It's a title on the album Amehouga,
11:05where I also talk a lot about betrayal,
11:08in the struggles.
11:09And it's Kwame Nkrumah who said that,
11:12Cabral rather,
11:13who said that Kwame Nkrumah
11:15didn't die of a throat cancer,
11:17or whatever,
11:18but of betrayal.
11:20And when there is betrayal,
11:22there is often silence.
11:24And these silences are written.
11:25In our history,
11:26there have been many betrayals.
11:28To be able to put this project into image,
11:32I wondered if Cabral was still alive.
11:35How would Cabral question the question of betrayal,
11:39knowing that Cabral himself
11:40was betrayed and murdered in Guinea-Conakry.
11:43They wanted to kill me,
11:44make me live,
11:45what they did to Malcolm,
11:46to Mika,
11:47or to Bifreda.
11:48So I told myself that Cabral,
11:49who was an agronomist,
11:50and who also built his ideology a lot
11:53on the relationship with the peasants.
11:56I said to myself,
11:57after the COVID period,
11:58that we had to give the floor to these women.
12:01At the beginning,
12:02when I wanted to give the floor to these women,
12:04the first idea was not so much to talk about voodoo,
12:06we'll come back to that later,
12:07but it was also to show the link
12:10that should be between the ants,
12:12which I consider to be the organic intellectuals.
12:15And among the organic intellectuals,
12:17I see the artists,
12:19I see the university professors,
12:21in any case,
12:22those who went to what I called the school of the West,
12:27who graduated with diplomas,
12:29but who also try to use this knowledge for the people.
12:33So there are these ants,
12:34it is the link between the ants
12:36and the people who are on the ground,
12:39those who preserve culture.
12:42To come back to the last scene,
12:45or the first scene,
12:46because in fact,
12:47the whole idea is part of this scene.
12:49During the COVID period,
12:50there was confinement,
12:51semi-confinement in Togo.
12:53There were two phenomena.
12:54One of the phenomena
12:55was that people spent more time at home.
12:57The second phenomenon was that
12:59the state,
13:00in order to contain the virus,
13:02asked that the populations
13:04do not move from region to region,
13:06but let food and others circulate.
13:10And I asked myself the question of knowing
13:12that we who are in the city,
13:14we who are the intellectuals,
13:16we who are the elite,
13:18where the elite of the people live,
13:20if the peasantry did not feed,
13:22how do we do it?
13:23So that made me think about the development model
13:25and also all this condescension
13:28with which often those of the city,
13:30or the graduates,
13:32or the elites,
13:33or the intellectuals,
13:34how they look at the peasants.
13:36So always to make the link between elite,
13:38ants,
13:39and always the mass.
13:41And for me, the mass is really
13:43the peasants.
13:46When you look at our African countries,
13:49because this is what I'm talking about,
13:51where Togo, for example,
13:52to be more concrete,
13:53there are more populations in the hinterland
13:56than in the cities or capitals.
14:03Elon Musk,
14:04free-spirited,
14:05born for music.
14:06By the way, when you ask him
14:08why hip-hop,
14:09Elon Musk answers,
14:10I don't rap,
14:11I tell stories.
14:12And when you ask him
14:14when he started making music,
14:16he smiles and says,
14:17when I was in the stars.
14:19For the committed rapper,
14:20militant,
14:21the world in which we are
14:23is a world where we dream less and less.
14:25He comes back to the artists,
14:27to dare to invent new ways
14:29to do,
14:30to help.
14:31He says,
14:32I think the world is going wrong,
14:33the extremes are rising,
14:35the political system is more and more
14:37closed in Africa as in Europe
14:39and the world needs to reinvent itself better.
14:42And it goes through the dream,
14:44through the imagination,
14:45by inventing other ways.
14:49Every struggle we have to do
14:50against imperialism
14:52must lead to what life,
14:54populations,
14:55the mass,
14:56change positively.
14:57For me,
14:58every struggle against imperialism,
14:59whatever it is,
15:00is to be questioned.
15:01To do this,
15:02I find that artists,
15:04in any case,
15:05those who went to the school
15:09of knowledge,
15:10of the white,
15:11Amadou Mpateba,
15:12I think he said,
15:13those who win without having reason,
15:15those who learn art
15:16to win without having reason,
15:18those who went to that school,
15:20what is it for?
15:21And I think there are two waves.
15:23There are the elites,
15:24who are mostly in power,
15:25who make decisions
15:27and who don't necessarily make decisions
15:29that go to the benefit
15:32of the populations.
15:33And then there are those who,
15:35like Kizerbo,
15:36by the way,
15:37the term organic intellectual,
15:38it is through Professor Kizerbo
15:40that I heard him for the first time,
15:42showed examples
15:44to tell us that yes,
15:45we can also go to the school of the white,
15:47we can go to the western school,
15:49but not lose our roots
15:51and see how all this knowledge
15:53can be put to the benefit of the populations.
15:56When I talk about organic intellectual,
15:58there are names that come to mind.
16:00There is Walter Rodney,
16:02who used to talk about history
16:04in the ghettos in Jamaica.
16:06For me,
16:07it changes the perspective
16:09of the university professor
16:11who is in these beautiful buildings,
16:14this always elitist side
16:16of praying, in fact,
16:18to say that knowledge
16:20is not only deserved,
16:22knowledge is paid for,
16:24which means that some people
16:26will never have access to this knowledge
16:28because, precisely,
16:29beyond the intellectual capacities
16:31they can have,
16:32they will not necessarily have the material means
16:34to have access to these circles.
16:37So yes,
16:38it's interesting,
16:39it's also a way of questioning
16:41the place we give to knowledge
16:43in our societies.
16:44And it's still linked
16:46to these old ladies
16:47that I'm going to question.
16:48What makes these old ladies
16:50not as recognized
16:51for their know-how
16:52as others who have PhDs?
16:54So that's also what's being questioned.
16:57But to come back to that,
16:59I think the work of the organic intellectual,
17:01to come back to the scheme
17:03of the cockroach,
17:05ants and ants,
17:07our work is a bit of a...
17:09how can I say it
17:11so that it doesn't sound sad?
17:13It's a bit of a work of sacrifice, in fact.
17:15For me, the organic intellectuals
17:17have to do a work of sacrifice
17:19because you always have to do the...
17:21how can I say this?
17:23To put away everything that can be
17:25a privilege that detours us
17:27from the first fight
17:29that we won.
17:31So yes, it's by keeping in mind
17:33that the work we do,
17:35it's not a work that will benefit us directly
17:37and that will benefit the masses.
17:39This work can be well done.
17:41And that requires consistency.
17:43And that's the reason why,
17:45even with our heads down,
17:47it's not them who say yes,
17:49no, they did the thing
17:51and continue to do the work.
17:53As a Pan-African activist,
17:55his work is based on three pillars,
17:57intimacy, spirituality
17:59and activism.
18:01He doesn't think in terms of priorities
18:03but in terms of transversality
18:05with a rather holistic vision
18:07of our problems.
18:09A Mwe Uga, the title of one of his albums,
18:11means, by the way,
18:13the human being has more value
18:15than material goods.
18:17It's the living that is at the center of his work,
18:19the respect of the living,
18:21while the rapper offers us
18:23a global artistic experience.
18:25He designed his album
18:27as if it were a 7-chapter journey.
18:29Elan Vance doesn't rap,
18:31he tells stories standing up,
18:33with a full and powerful voice,
18:35accompanied by Ghanian jazz pianist
18:37Kamaru Kwaku Anthony.
18:39As the artist himself says,
18:41it's the album of the unexpected,
18:43designed during the COVID period.
18:45It's composed of 17 tracks,
18:47as committed as the others.
18:49The album will be released
18:51very soon.
18:53It's also the result of a long introspection.
18:55It's a question of commitment,
18:57humanism and above all, love.
18:59I'm not a filmmaker,
19:01I didn't go to a film school,
19:03but I have visions in my head.
19:05I understood at one point
19:07that speaking was no longer enough.
19:09We have to show things to our people.
19:11And then,
19:13this image came along
19:15and I used it.
19:17It's the youth of this film.
19:19That's how I dissected it.
19:21It's my reading of the world.
19:23Today, we must no longer
19:25rely on the elites.
19:27Africa must understand
19:29that if it has to change,
19:31we must not rely
19:33only on the elites.
19:35And that there is a link
19:37to make,
19:39or another fusion to create
19:41between these organic
19:43intellectuals and the mass.
19:45And that's what I show
19:47in the video between the two.
19:49There are two parrots on a thread.
19:51At first, they were black and white,
19:53so we don't necessarily see
19:55that they have something in common
19:57because black and white
19:59dim the colors in a certain way.
20:01But at some point,
20:03as soon as the color arrives,
20:05they begin to coordinate their actions
20:07and end up on this side.
20:09I did something in the opposite direction.
20:11In the foreground, there are all the protagonists.
20:13But in the background,
20:15there are only two protagonists,
20:17the organic intellectuals
20:19and the peasantry.
20:21And the third part,
20:23which is the first part,
20:25is really a focus on peasantry.
20:27As the film goes down,
20:29we can take it in both directions.
20:31I start with peasantry,
20:33then I show the role,
20:35the link that I think
20:37should have more peasant
20:39and organic intellectuals,
20:41which are all the protagonists.
20:43And that's when, I think,
20:45in Africa,
20:47the link between
20:49organic intellectuals
20:51and peasantry,
20:53or everything that represents the hinterland,
20:55will no longer be a link of domination.
20:57Because that's what's happening.
20:59We say to ourselves,
21:01because we went to school in Europe,
21:03we are superior to others.
21:05AFRICA IN CULTURE
21:09And right away in Africa in Culture,
21:11we talk about cinema with Yann,
21:13the cult film of the Senegalese director
21:15Djibril Diop-Mambeti,
21:17who once again offers an opportunity
21:19to measure the poetic power
21:21and humor of his cinema,
21:23of his art, made in 1992.
21:25It is only today,
21:27after a long eclipse,
21:29despite the existence on the market
21:31of some bad quality DVDs,
21:33that Djibril Diop-Mambeti
21:35shows all his splendor on the screens,
21:37thanks to an impeccable restoration
21:39at the initiative of his producer,
21:41Pierre-Alain Meulet.
21:43Let's watch an excerpt from the trailer.
22:03In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
22:07who art in heaven,
22:09hallowed be thy name,
22:11thy kingdom come,
22:13thy will be done,
22:15on earth as it is in heaven.
22:17Give us this day our daily bread,
22:19and forgive us our trespasses,
22:21as we forgive those who trespass against us.
22:23Give us this day our daily bread,
22:25and forgive us our trespasses,
22:27as we forgive those who trespass against us.
22:29Give us this day our daily bread,
22:31and forgive us our trespasses,
22:33as we forgive those who trespass against us.
22:35Give us this day our daily bread,
22:37and forgive us our trespasses,
22:39as we forgive those who trespass against us.
22:41Give us this day our daily bread,
22:43and forgive us our trespasses,
22:45as we forgive those who trespass against us.
22:47Give us this day our daily bread,
22:49and forgive us our trespasses,
22:51as we forgive those who trespass against us.
22:53Give us this day our daily bread,
22:55and forgive us our trespasses,
22:57as we forgive those who trespass against us.
23:01Thank you, Yotna.
23:03There is a work inspired by a play
23:05by the Swiss playwright Frédéric Durelmat.
23:07It is a question of money,
23:09but of something else,
23:11because it is the story of a very rich old woman
23:13who comes back to her village of origin.
23:15As we say, she made a fortune
23:17in a faraway foreign country,
23:19herself saying she was as fortunate
23:21as the World Bank.
23:23Everyone hopes that she will
23:25dispense a little of her favours
23:27to the local population.
23:29By the way, the mayor himself
23:31resigns, leaving the place
23:33to a certain Draman,
23:35a former lover of the lady,
23:37to encourage her to be
23:39even more generous.
23:41But if Lungar Ramadou
23:43is back with his billions,
23:45it is not what we think.
23:47She was forced to leave the village
23:49and prostitute herself
23:51after the so-called Draman
23:53refused to admit he had pregnant her.
23:55She came back to take revenge
23:57for a somewhat perverse
23:59imagination against her
24:01former fellow citizens
24:03who want her money.
24:05And then it's all forgetting
24:07that they once abandoned her fate.
24:09Although she has some
24:11magnificent short films,
24:13like La Petite Vendeuse de Soleil,
24:15the Senegalese filmmaker
24:17only made two feature films
24:19before dying of cancer in 1988
24:21at the age of 53.
24:23However, this was enough
24:25to establish his immense reputation
24:27and allow us to consider his works
24:29as real classics,
24:31a post-mortem consecration
24:33we can no longer deserve for this
24:35atypical filmmaker, very inventive,
24:37avant-garde and full of humor,
24:39viscerally attached
24:41to defending small people
24:43against the powerful.
24:51And before leaving us in Africa
24:53we talk about literature.
24:55After two years of research,
24:57Moessa Ibenget
24:59published her book
25:01L'Anthologie de la Littérature Congolaise
25:03to give more visibility
25:05to the authors of yesterday
25:07and today.
25:09This book is a gigantic library
25:11with more than 400 Congolese authors
25:13and their works published
25:15in two books.
25:17A pride for the author
25:19whose goal was to give more visibility
25:21to the authors of yesterday
25:23and today.
25:25He said he wanted to show
25:27almost all of the Congolese literary
25:29productions from the origin,
25:31from the 1930s to 2022.
25:33I thought it was important
25:35to have this update
25:37so that from this document
25:39we can bring back the old authors
25:41and get to know the new ones.
25:43When you ask anyone
25:45to tell you about Congolese literature,
25:47you will not be told about recent names.
25:49So I had to do this update
25:51of Congolese literature
25:53so that people
25:55can talk about the present.
25:57This concludes L'Afrique en Culture.
25:59Thank you for being with us
26:01and we'll see you next week
26:03without fail.