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Angelique Kidjo, Baaba Maal, Femi Kuti
speak out on HIV/AIDS
On the occasion of the historic United Nations General Assembly special session on HIV/AIDS, we asked Afropop stars Angelique Kidjo, Baaba Maal and Femi Kuti to share their thoughts on the pandemic--its causes, priorities now, and the musicians' role in fighting HIV/AIDS.
ANGELIQUE KIDJO
Internationally acclaimed singer Angelique Kidjo, from Benin, is currently opening at stadium shows for the Dave Matthews Band and finishing a forthcoming album. Angelique has been tapped by the U.N. to be a spokesperson on HIV/AIDS. We spoke to her at her Brooklyn, New York home as she peeled ginger root to make ginger beer.
BIG PICTURE
HIV/AIDS in Africa has to deal with poverty. If you look at the photo exhibit that we saw at the UN yesterday (of AIDS sufferers in Zambia, South Africa, elsewhere), most of the people are seen in very poor surroundings, sleeping on the floor. They seem to have the misery of the whole world with disease on top of it. So why is it possible for certain human beings on this Earth, no matter where they are, to live worse than dogs? We take better care of dogs and cats in rich countries, than is being focused on a human level because it doesn't demand us to be involved. HIV is breaking every shell and barrier that we have around ourselves, so that we realize that the most essential thing is a human being's life. Not only governments or pharmaceutical companies can get things accomplished; a global conscience has to make things happen.
It's good that America is going to remove the sanctions against Brazil. Drug companies break the patents, and make the medicine themselves. It's too expensive for the poor people to buy the drugs if they import them from America. If we had the same technology in Africa as Brazil has, we would have done the same thing. Why do we have to be the victim of elitism? It's a matter of money and power. When it comes to a disease so important as HIV, it should be an instinctive reaction to try and get it to the whole world; governments should not have to be involved.
THE SITUATION IN BENIN
There are a lot of people that have AIDS or are infected with HIV. There are about 100,000 out of nearly 6 million. That is such a large number for such a small country. I haven't been to Benin since 1998. I said in an interview then that it should be a priority for everybody. There is no time to hide behind, "sex is my private life," because it is no longer your private life when you have AIDS. You have to protect yourself. Traditional musicians in my country have always made an issue of it. And this gets to people more than sitting in a conference. I remember there was a song on the radio in my country, I don't remember the name or the melody but it spoke about how it is necessary to be a Casanova with a condom in your pocket, or you won't be a Casanova too long. It was very effective. The people heard it, and it did its job. It was traditional music from the south in the Fon language. I was laughing very hard when I heard the song because it was so funny.
MUSICIANS' SPECIAL ROLE
I remember in those photographs yesterday at the UN, there was a guy that had AIDS and he said he liked to get fresh air and listen to the radio. At least at the other end of the radio he knows that some people are talking to him and are concerned about his condition. Those few pleasures that he has just listening to the radio, things like that don't cost a penny. That is the power of music. If the song describes your condition, you don't feel alone anymore. You know that somebody cares so much about the disease that they are talking about it. And even if there is no chance of life anymore, at least he won't die with despair. When you are alone with a disease that nobody talks about, you are in solitude. If you know that people are marching about a disease and for it, you know that there are people who care. If the disease has already taken you, it still raises your spirit, and you know that people are working towards helping others. That's why we have to break the silence. Not facing something will not make it go away.
ANGELIQUE KIDJO'S ROLE WITH U.N. IN TERMS OF HIV/AIDS
I'm a spokesperson because I am a musician, because I can bring up the subject of AIDS. I am available to help on anything--bringing the message to people by doing a concert to raise funds--I will do it. For me it is a matter of the survival of our continent, and humankind. Because this disease does not discriminate. It is not a matter of white/black, rich/poor, it doesn't make any difference. If the UN needs me day or night I will come and help them and do whatever it takes to get the message to people that need to get the message. It is frustrating. The future of this planet is the kids, and it breaks your heart to see it, and know that some kid might not make it. With malaria at least you can protect yourself. In Africa you know that you have to take your quinine all the time. But in the AIDS situation, the only protection you have is a condom, but sometimes before it gets to you it is too late. This is because AIDS is something more private, which is sex. Because when it comes to a sex issue in Africa, you are touching something very sensitive. Men are going to say, 'I don't need a condom, I am never going to get AIDS.' No one wants to talk about his or her sexual life. But we are going to have to talk about it at some point. We have to break the taboo down until HIV/AIDS is eradicated.
MESSAGE TO YOUTH
You only have one life. We are all the same but we are unique in the way that we are created and what we think. If you want to keep that life and if you want to share that experience, then you have to protect yourselves. If you love yourself, then you have to protect yourself. Today, a teenager that doesn't want to protect himself, it's his choice, because everywhere you go today you can find condoms. And if don't use it and you decide to have sex without protection your putting yourself at risk. If you get infected, and you go out and give it to someone else than that is what I think of as murder.
SPECIAL NEEDS FOR WOMEN IN AFRICA
I hope that that AIDS will bring a consciousness to the man to not use women only for sex. Women have sex with men without knowing what protection ever means. The men don't think about protection. I fear for the women that speak up about protection. The man has to know that if the wife is asking for protection, it is a matter of saving both of them. When it comes to sex between men and women in Africa, it is all about, "You have to have my kids." Women are seen as those that are going to carry the next generation. Once you are sure that you both don't have AIDS then you can do it without condoms, but when you have many partners, it's a difficult situation. When a woman brings the subject up, they are going to treat her as a prostitute. What is this machismo about wearing a condom? If they made a condom for women to wear then AIDS would regress.
MESSAGE TO HEADS OF STATE, MINISTERS ATTENDING U.N.
It is not a matter of power, it is a matter of human beings. If you want to be a minister then you have to save your people. Are you going to be minister of empty houses??? If nobody pays taxes, where is the government? If the whole population dies, what are you going to do? It is your duty to make everything possible until this disease is eradicated. It demands everything that you can do. Whatever it takes, you have to do it. It must be equal treatment and health systems for every human being on this planet that is affected by HIV/AIDS. It has to be your priority when you return to your country because if they are your people, then it is your priority.
HOPES AND FEARS FOR 2021
I hope that we find a solution. My biggest fear is that we will not find a solution. If people don't move, then I don't know what is going to happen. The vaccine is an important step, but the human step is more important. HIV/AIDS is a war. There is no way that you can run away from someone with a gun. There has to be something that can be done. I can't imagine that nothing can be done until then. Above and beyond a vaccine, everyone has to take some kind of action and responsibility to make the situation better. The most difficult thing in the world is to change someone's mentality. The apocalyptic vision that seems to be on its way, I hope that we never get to it. I still have hope. We need to work for life.
BAABA MAAL
Senegalese superstar Baaba Maal has participated in U.N. sponsored discussions on HIV/AIDS education. Baaba spoke to us by telephone from London. He and his band will be touring the U.S. this August in support of his just released album, "Missing You" (Palm Pictures).
BIG PICTURE
The first thing to do in Africa is to try to help the ones who have this disease already.
One of the things that really can help people to stop the disease is to fight poverty. It's poverty that puts people on the streets. It's poverty that prevents people from going to school and from understanding the realities of times they live in now. It's poverty that prevents people from healing themselves when they are sick, to take care of themselves. It's poverty that stops development. We have to see exactly how to share, so that we can
make life easier for human beings.
THE SITUATION IN SENEGAL
When you look at Senegal, the rate of HIV infection is very low compared to other countries. Why? Because people met together and talked. We tried to bring information to people about the dangers of the disease and how to prevent it… I talk mostly to young people because they are in danger of facing HIV/AIDS. Especially young people who live outside the big cities such as Dakar and Abidjan.
MUSICIANS' SPECIAL ROLE RE: HIV/AIDS
In some countries and some continents, people are very close to their music and they listen much more closely to what the music is saying. And it's an opportunity to talk about HIV/AIDS. At the same time, I think the musicians who travel a lot and understand a lot of things much better have that role to play also. For example, when I go to my country, people really need to know about my experience outside. The second role is when I go from Senegal to the outside world and can talk to people about their responsibility towards Africa, about what Africa expects from them...I think the artists, musicians, and people in communications must be the link between all the people in the world. We can really do something.
HOW TO REACH RELIGIOUS LEADERS IN AFRICA
I also talk to the young students who go to the Koranic school and who love my music. They come to see my show. They come to see me. I can talk to them. And they can be the link to the religious leaders because (the students) are going to be able to explain it because they are more open. They see themselves as part of the young generation. They can talk to the marabouts and other religious leaders. The students can talk to their parents. So I think this is important to give the message, the information. This is what I'm doing when I'm traveling in the country in Senegal.
TRADITIONAL PRACTICES MEET HIV REALITIES
There are very strong traditions in Africa. And some of the traditions don't work with the times we're living in now. For example, in some societies, when someone is sick, they are going to do some kind of tribal things that involve cutting a little part of the body of the whole family to go with the one who is sick. So if you use the same razor, the same knife, the one who has AIDS unintentionally is going to give it to the whole family.I think a lot of people catch AIDS not because of sex but because of the traditions they don't understand.
WOMEN'S SITUATION
The women are the ones who have the children. They live in a kind of polygamist structure where there are two to five wives. So if ever any one of them catches the disease, coming from the husband, the others are going to get it. Also the poverty, which I think is what brings all these kinds of things together, touches more women who don't have financial support. So in a certain condition of life, prostitution for a woman becomes true.
MESSAGE TO U.N GENERAL ASSEMBLY DELEGATES
First, lower the price of medicines that can help people with the disease. And don't concentrate on just one part of the world. It's a problem that involves EVERYONE on the planet. If Africa is sick, or if Asia is sick, it means that the whole world is sick because people are going to travel. No one can control the relations they have when they travel. So everyone has to make it his real problem.
HOPES AND FEARS FOR 2021
I really do believe in human beings. We can achieve everything. My dream is that the scientists should have found something by 2021. You can't just say that nothing can be done. I believe in God and God can give everything to human beings. Another dream is to see people equal. It doesn't matter what your color, your continent, your country. HIV/AIDS is not a poor or rich, or black or white problem.
FEMI KUTI
Femi Kuti has revitalized international interest in Afrobeat, a style created by his father, Fela Kuti (who died of AIDS in 1997). Femi is currently touring the U.S. We caught Femi's show in front of 5,000 people in New Haven, Connecticut, and spoke to him via telephone the next day from Virginia--tired from the road but willing to talk.
MESSAGE TO U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING ON HIV/AIDS
I would tell them to stop the corruption in Africa before it can work. How do you stop corruption? You stop the government from stealing and exporting our money to Europe and America and you do the right things. Put good hospitals in Africa; until that happens it will always be a problem.
THE SITUATION IN NIGERIA
The corruption is the problem, not AIDS anymore. We don't even know how many people have AIDS in Nigeria. They will just give you rough figures. How many people go for tests? I know so many people that have never gone for tests. So where are they getting the figures from? How can we estimate the seriousness of the problem in a country like Nigeria? In South Africa we can say it because in South Africa we have figures, in Nigeria we don't have figures to even tell us. The UN is just using brainstorming on the figures. But I don't even believe that AIDS is the major problem of Africa, the major problem of Africa is the corruption by the leaders. Once that is eradicated I believe that everything will sort itself out. There will be good education, there will be the right kind of education, there will be good hospitals, there will be good roads. Even if we give Africa the drugs, there are many places that the drugs will never get, because there are no roads--it's true in many places. When are we going to stop the wars in Africa? When is Africa going to start to rule? When are we going to have fire departments? When are we going to have all those things in Africa, put in place properly like in the United States and Europe. So until the corruption is stopped, you have all the African officials traveling everywhere, enjoying themselves….And when they refund the money to the African governments, will they just take it again? Until they do all these things, Africa will not know peace; it's as simple as that.
MUSICIANS' SPECIAL ROLE IN HIV/AIDS EFFORT?
It's not the musicians' responsibility. It's the government's responsibility, but every professional should be responsible…I have a song on my forthcoming album (fall 2001)
that's called "Stop AIDS."
ANTI-AIDS DRUG POLICY
Everyone knows that Africans can't afford the drugs; only the rich can afford the drugs. They are holding a meeting (at the U.N.) to see whether they should keep the drugs free or not free. They know Africans will never be able to afford the drugs--not in the next 50 years. The U.N. knows the African governments are corrupt. They don't need me to tell them all this. The media in American knows this, except people don't want to be honest with themselves…The disease has been around for 20 years now. You want my suggestions? Who is going to listen to me? Let me just continue playing my music.
From an interview done with Femi Kuti by Banning Eyre and Sean Barlow in Spring 2000
BENG BENG BENG
(the song "Beng Beng Beng) is totally commercial. That's all. I was just thinking, Okay, everybody criticizes my father about not doing a commercial song. Everybody is on my case about doing something commercial. "Why are you restricting yourself because you are talking about Africanism?" I wanted to just let my spirit flow. Okay, so let me do something commercial. What is the most talked topic? It's sex! Everybody talks sex. Boys and girls. Girls and girls. Boys and boys. When you are talking to your friend, the bottom line is, "Wow, I love that girl." It's sex, sex, sex, sex. So let me do something in the African way that is not really sex, but it's funny. When I play that song, my brothers are laughing. They are completely gone. So it was a big joke for me.
SEXUAL SENSITIVITY RELATED TO AIDS
My father died of AIDS, AIDS related disease. If the government did not even manage to convince my father that it existed, they were not doing their job. If Americans and Europeans are careful about AIDS now, it's because the propaganda against it was massive. Man, they were even afraid to touch each other. Eh! Eh! Eh! And they had to come out and say, "No, it's not about touching. It's about blood." It had to be explained properly. Now in Africa, it's just in about the past 3 months that we have a serious campaign against this disease. Even when my father died, the campaign was not born. I was the one campaigning. I was the one talking about AIDS. I started MASS to talk about AIDS. And now, they want to use me as an ambassador. And to use me as an ambassador, they want me to criticize my father. And I tell them, "Excuse me. It's not about criticizing my father. You say you want people to come out and say when they have the disease. Then you lambaste the people who come out!" It's so confusing. So no, it's not about AIDS. And it's not about not having sex. It's about being careful. They have a program in Nigeria saying abstain from sex until you are married. That's the most ridiculous thing you can tell a youth. I know how sexually active I was as a youth. I know. When you are born, sex comes to the brain immediately. You start to have wet dreams. You start to dream. You start to see why you are in love. And the while, your mind says, "Okay, I want a house. I want a. Ah, but I want sex." Then you say, "Don't have sex for the next 30 years." You see, the propaganda is even wrong.
Now, it's being religious. That's not how to campaign against a disease like that. And now, I'm not the cause of AIDS. And if that was the case, and they had said, "Ah, Femi, this song. Don't you think it's dangerous?" And I would have said, "Yes, let this song come out and then we'll start another propaganda." Yes, "Bang, bang, bang, but be careful, brothers and sisters." They came and did a documentary on me, denouncing AIDS. They never used it. Immediately, my father died. They never used it once.
SAFE SEX MESSAGE FROM THE STAGE
Of course. I say it on stage. My last message on stage is, "Be careful, my brothers and sisters. If you know you must have sex, and if you are not sure your partner and you are not clear, use a condom." Be very careful. Any time I play now in Africa, that's my message. I don't talk about it here, because I would feel stupid. The propaganda is so strong. I mean there are condoms everywhere. It's open. You don't ban. What we are going to have is we are going to ban sex. And then that's going to be the biggest mistake humanity can make. You see? You let people know the risk involved. You let them know the danger. Before, nobody in Africa was sensitive to this issue. I would say until my father died, nobody took this matter seriously. And even when my father died, nobody took it seriously. The campaign is just in the last 3 months. Maybe you would see a small column in the paper. Now we're talking about posters, bills, schools. It is now even private forums and individuals getting involved in the campaign.
Interviews by Sean Barlow
info@afropop.org
www.afropop.org
Interview transcriptions by Adam Wasserman
Contributed by: Sean Barlow
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