Ivorian reggae star Tiken Jah Fakoly has seven best selling albums and three golden cds to his name. And he was the only artist ever to receive a Freemuse award in 2008. But the road to success was bumpy, he tells Bridges with Africa, in an exclusive interview backstage.

By Alberta Opoku

Despite the rain, technicians are taking instruments to and fro and wiring up the main stage in The Hague’s Zuiderpark. Less than half an hour to show time, the sun starts shining. And Tiken Jah Fakoly does what he is famed for on this first The Hague African Festival. He throws an unforgettably scintillating show.

The concert is hardly over when fans are already queuing up in front of the artist’s big blue tour bus. Everybody gets a handshake and some encouraging words, and others - a group photo with the reggae maestro. The contrast between the cordial handshakes for his fans and the lyrical blows he was dealing to world leaders on stage just minutes earlier, couldn’t have been bigger. 

‘I’m not a salesperson’
Tiken Jah Fakoly’s reggae career started in the late 1980s. Fakoly and his group, the Djélys, steal the hearts of the people in Odienné and neighboring villages in north-western Ivory Coast. Thanks to their cassette-recorded albums Les Djélys and Missiri, they become a national sensation. However their breakthrough is stalled by promotional challenges. “I was going from town to town to sell the album. But that didn’t really work. I’m a singer, not a salesperson,” he says.

Shortly after Missiri Tiken Jah Fakoly goes solo. And in 1995 he breaks through internationally with Mangercratie (On a tout compris). “When we first became a democracy, we thought we could change the system,” he explains. “But some politicians were buying the conscience of the people in the ghetto. So we said: if this is democracy, then we want another system. We want something new, homegrown: mangercratie. In short, it’s the power to feed, educate and heal everybody.”

Bumpy road
Today Tiken Jah Fakoly is an acclaimed reggae star, with seven international bestsellers and three golden cd's. His album Françafrique won the 2003 Victoire de la Musique – the French equivalent to the Grammy -  in the category ‘reggae album of the year’.  And last year he was the only artist ever to receive a Freemuse award, an acknowledgement for his fight for freedom of expression.

But the freedom comes at a high price, tough: censorship and exile. Tiken Jah Fakoly was censored in his native Ivory Coast. “I get my commitment first of all from my ancestor Fakoly Koumba Fakoly Daba. He was fighting injustice as far back as 1235. And I wrote my first political album in 1995, during the first election after the death of Ivory Coast’s first president. Politicians are liars, that’s what I was saying.” 

In Senegal he was declared persona non grata after he called president Abdoulaye Wade undemocratic and treated him to quitte le pouvoir (quit the power). The song almost immediately became the African anthem against corruption. The highest price for his artistic liberty was, perhaps, spending five years in self-imposed exile in Mali.

‘Nobody will change Africa for us’
But the artist has no regrets over the sacrifices made. Nor does he intend to soften down on his criticism against African and Western leaders. Tiken Jah Fakoly’s message for Africans is also a clear one. Stop being bystanders and take matters into your own hands:

“We need a revolution now. Everybody wants to leave Africa, but I don’t encourage that. Who will stay home for the revolution? Everybody wants to come to France or Holland. But Paris didn’t fall from the sky. The French fought their revolution in 1789, and in 1968. Nobody will change Africa for us. We have to do it. I’ve always believed that we determine our fate. Our ancestors fought against slavery. Our parents fought colonisation. We have to fight corruption and political perverseness. That is our revolution. Nobody will do it for us.”
 

Photos: Ad Hupkes  

More info: www.tikenjah.net

Listen to the Bridges with Africa interview with Tiken Jah Fakoly: