Interview: Georges Collinet, 2006

Georges Collinet, 2006

Place and Date:	Detroit, Michigan 2006
Interviewer:	D. Misha Turner

Our very own Georges Collinet gave the keynote address for the Concert of Colors Diversity Music Festival's first annual Forum on Community, Culture and Race July 14th in Detroit, Michigan. Presented by the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) and New Detroit, the forum was attended by a cadre of artists, cultural institutions and community leaders from southeast Michigan to examine the role of arts and culture in overcoming racial and ethnic barriers. Georges' warm and allegorical style enchanted the audience, yet his wisdom shown through to garner a greater understanding for the discussion at hand.

Well thank you for inviting me to be part of this first forum on community, culture and race. The idea of having people of different race and culture coming together has been one of my life’s ideal since I am the product of a mixed race and cultures. I was born in Cameroon of a Cameroonian mother and a French father. My grandfather on my mother’s side, was a chieftain of the “Bulu” tribe in the Bityé area. And Bityé is a series of small of villages along a track in the Equatorial forest of Southern Cameroon, not far from Gabon. Just in case you wanted to find where it is on the map, it is about 60 km from the small city of Sangmelima.

My mother was very young when I was born. She was raised in the village, and her main objective in life was to go away, and I think that she gave me that spirit. My father was French, as I said—a true, blue French—he needed his silver, cheese and wine in the middle of the Equatorial forest, so you can image what that was. It was quite amazing! One day my father decided to take me to France to get an education. It was a traumatic experience for me and for my mother. My father had to ask the elders: “Please, can I take my son to France so I can educate him?” They finally said, “yes.” At the time, very few Africans were going to Europe. Europe and France of the 1940s was different from what it is today. I will always remember when I arrived in Bordeaux, because we traveled by boat then, I looked at the city far away and said: “is this France?” And my father said, “yes.” “Wow! It’s very small!” [laughs]

There in France, I don’t know if we can say that it was racism or just ignorance. We were just coming out of 5 years of a brutal war against Germany. So I arrived with my father in the mid 40s in the small town of Neris-les-Bains. Neris-les-Bains is a very beautiful small town—if you go to France be sure and visit Neris-les-Bains. Even the Romans loved it! We have Roman swimming pool there. So, the city of Neris-les-Bains is a spa, as I said, and it’s right in the middle of France. Of course when I arrived there, a little Georges Collinet—my name actually is M’vam, it’s my Bulu name. Little M’vam arrived in Neris-les-Bains in this small town of less than 5,000 people. The people were saying: “What is that? This guy is black! What happened to him?” [laughs] Well, of course when I went to school there it was difficult because all the kids would say: “Negro…negro.” And I said: “Me? Negro? What do you mean?” “Negro...” It’s like if you call someone nigger here …”nigger…hey nigger…little nigger...” So I used to punch a lot of people. [laughter] And, then my grand mother--on the French side who raised me—said: “M’vam, you have to be a gentleman, you know. You have to let go of this and live your life the way you should.” Which of course was very difficult. I don’t know if a lot of you have seen the soccer game—the finals—when Zidane went [thunk] and punched that guy? You know what happened? Is it that this Italian player was calling him—all throughout the match--all kind of names? With a person of Arab descent like Zidane, when you talk about his mother or sister or whatever, he can get very, very annoyed. And that’s what happened at the end. He just butt-headed this Italian player and actually he’s suing him now. But anyway. So I said, yeah, I was happy. But I also said to myself, well grandma wouldn’t approve.

After this long introduction…well, it’s to tell you that, I know the problems of people who are different. Are we different? we’re just people right! People of colors. We may live in Paris, in Rome, in London…wherever—in Detroit. The problems are the same everywhere. I don’t know why people have to look at you because you are a different color, a different this or that, but anyway that’s the way it is. So, when I was young I found out early on that some people could transcend this difference. They were the musicians, they were the artists, they were the soccer players. In the Paris of the 40s and 50s, it was chic to be seen with Blacks. Because, Black Africans would come to France and they were fantastic dancers, fantastic musicians… And the French who were there in the cabarets were looking at these African dancers dressed in really tight—I used to dress like that, something happened! [laughs] Tight black outfit and tight pants, tight jackets. And it was nice, very nice! [laughs] So Africans were king in Paris. But that was in Paris. When you went to the countryside, people would look at you and say: “What is this, a Black guy like that? He looks so different, he’s acting different!” When I arrived in the US in the 1960s, I was kind of prepared for the onslaught of racial challenges that I encountered. Not many, I must say, not many. But anyway, I just kept thinking of my grandmother and thinking that: man, carry on with what you have to do. Just do it.

One day in 1965, I was given a show on the “Voice of America” and I thought that the best way to describe America to a world that was very, very much against the United States--because of racial problems, the Russians were just kicking the US butts like crazy with this racial problem…I thought that maybe what I should do is just play some good ole American music. And, you know, it was so funny; I thought that since my broadcast was to Africa I should play a lot of Black music. Man, you should have seen the sound engineers! I used to have a lot of 45s so we could change records really fast. And I would bring these 45s and the engineer would take it like this…I’d say: “What’s wrong?” He said, “Well this are records for Black music!” I said, “So? I mean Wilson Pickett is alright, James Brown is fine.” And the guy would look at me with distain saying, “Yuck. This is ridiculous!” But then, lo and behold, I’m playing this music, its bombarding Africa from Washington, DC. Suddenly, I received this huge amount of mail from listeners in Africa. And then suddenly we received this huge amount of telex’s--because we didn’t have email then—telex’s coming from US embassies in Africa from people saying: “What are you trying to do? Are you trying to destroy America? You’re playing this crap on the air, on the Voice of America?” Well, guess who won? The listeners of course! You know, I still believe that the Voice of America broadcast to the world who were handled by people like, I don’t know if you’ve heard of Willis Conover, who had the VOA Jazz Hour program. He was a fantastic fellow. He was broadcasting across the Iron Curtain and captured the hearts and liberated the spirits of millions of listeners trapped behind the Iron Curtain. Willis used to call this the Music of Freedom.

I used to receive a lot of mail—the price of a stamp to send a letter to America represents the budget for 2 or 3 days meals in Africa. I used to receive some 28,000 letters a month, and that was quite amazing. So the people by listening to the music and by listening to what I was telling them - I used to talk to them about my daily life in America. I used to tell them: “Oh, darn I have to take out the garbage!” And people would say” “He’s taking out garbage in America? He lives in America, and he takes garbage out?” Or I would say: “I have to pay taxes. Argh, it’s a big problem…” People would say: “Wow! You pay taxes, too?” It just brought the fact that we, in America, are exactly like everybody else. Everybody thinks that we are these super people, Superman and all that. Well, I think that people are changing their mind now, but let’s not talk about that. Every time I go abroad now it’s a challenge, I tell you. “Why are you bombing Iraq?” “Me? I have nothing to do with it!” [laughs]

Well, anyway today with Afropop Worldwide, we are in fact doing the reverse. We are Africa’s advocates by presenting the real Africa, the real African Diaspora. We are presenting, as you will see here in Detroit during the next three days, those people who have so much soul and character, that all over the country and places where Afropop Worldwide is broadcast, listeners are constantly thanking us for presenting a region of the world that they do not know and that was ignored. Many emails from our listeners read: “Why have they hidden this fantastic music from us for so long?” And like in the days of the Voice of America when the Soviet Union was presenting America as an evil country, misunderstandings and fallacies exists against Africa, which is a fragile region of the world, economically and socially. Africans need

encouragement, and do not need all these bad stories that are often told about them. So, by telling the stories of Africa, Africans and musicians, AfropopWorldwide has greatly contributed to the understanding of Africans and Afro descendants in the Americas. For instance, in the past 15 years, we have brought Africa in the homes of millions. And Afropop also has helped augment interest for Africa in the major newspapers that are increasingly presenting articles on African music and musicians. There is still a lot to be done of course to bring the knowledge, the beauty and the diversity of Africa into mainstream America. But with the help of projects such as the Concert of Colors things are improving. As we say in Africa: “You cannot know your neighbor if you just look at him...” To know your neighbor, you have to talk to him, you have to eat his food, you have to listen to the music he creates, and to know his history. I was talking about this with an Irish friend of mine, and she told me: “Well, you know it’s not really racism. It’s just that well, people like to stay with their own.” I replied, “What? Is this what America is all about?” We have created this unbelievable melting pot where people are coming from all over the world! They come here, to create this unbelievable country. So, what’s wrong? Why isn’t this working better, this melting pot? We have not only to create the economy, we have to create the soul of this country and make it vibrant!

I’m working on a UNESCO project—UNESCO is the UN Scientific and Educational Organization—a fantastic project, called “The Slave Routes”. It’s documenting the slave trade around the world. It’s a documentary that should come out soon. It made me realize that even people in bondage contributed not only their brawn strength and resilience to the building of the Americas, but they also left a tremendous cultural and technological heritage—which very few people know. Technological! These slaves brought technology here! To cultivate rice, to feed, to building boats, etc. They brought that here from Africa! They brought a tremendous cultural, technological and spiritual heritage to this land. And when I look at Detroit--Detroit is an important city in the United States, obviously. It is known as the “Motor Town”, it’s a place where dream cars are built. It’s also known as “Motown”, a place where Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, etc. weaved dreams for the rest of the world with their great music. So, all I can say is Detroit: wake up. Smell the culture, smell the diversity, smell the beauty of… Just look at all these people! When I look at you I see diversity that is so beautiful. Your diversity is your strength. This Concert of Colors is an important journey of discovery for the people of Detroit. And in the age of the famous, or infamous, globalization

that we’re all talking about, well, you know, if you don’t know your neighbor you are going to have problems; could be fatal. So we have a very short time to get acquainted--three days—but, hey, that’s a start. The people will benefit from it. Detroit will benefit from it. So, let’s celebrate in the diversity in the fair city of Detroit. Thank you very much!

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The Concert of Colors First Annual Forum on Community, Culture and Race

Program Statement

Art and culture may not be necessary for rote survival, but clearly humans cannot live without it. Every society, regardless of its composition, size, technology, geographic placement or religious or economic disposition has produced art. It is at once and paradoxically one of the things that makes us human and therefore unites us and one of the things that shows our diversity if not our differences.

The Concert of Colors was conceived as a way to begin introducing people from a variety of backgrounds to the multitude of the world’s populations through the culture, primarily the music, of the world’s populations. Such a project has many implications for Metropolitan Detroit. We have some challenges that cannot be ignored or left unstated if we are to overcome them. Among these are racial and class segregation.

According to analysis of US Census data, the Detroit Metropolitan area is the second most segregated in the US. Detroit is the largest black city in the US and one of the poorest cities of its size. To its west is one of the nation’s whitest cities, to its north the third or fifth (depending on whose numbers you use) wealthiest county in the nation and to the east a small municipality where black youths on bikes were stopped so often the youth’s parents brought a suit against the city. Just stating these facts is enough to put some on the defensive and anger others. But these facts and statistics manifest a realist that is a serious drag on our quality of life, no matter who we are.

One of the ways we may begin to dig ourselves out of this is use the thing that connects us as humans and yet manifest our differences. What do music, visual art, dance, theatre, film, poetry and prose say about us that numbers or ordinary speech cannot? Certainly, we’d have a difficult time understanding African American culture with no knowledge of the blues. We gain insight into American Indians when we understand the rituals of dance and the place that holds in the cycles of American Indian life and culture. We can trace the Irish influence on US culture through bluegrass music. These are just a few examples of how culture sheds light on people.

But merely knowing the culture of a particular group, race or nationality doesn’t solve problems of prejudice or turn barriers into bridges. Neither does simply attending the Concert of Colors create a culture where we are all equally valued and judged, in the words of the Rev. ML King Jr., by the content of our character.

That’s one of the many reasons events like this are necessary. We need conscious, intentional examinations of how culture can help us understand one another. This does not mean we will sing, dance, paint, sculpt or write our way out of the problem. After all, we have carried at least some of our prejudices, stereotypes and misgivings into our art and just as importantly into our art organizations. How could they be any better or worse than we are?

This first annual Forum on Community Culture and Race consists of six panelists representing six areas of the arts and at least six organizations that have helped us understand who we are and can help us how to overcome barriers. Some of them provide creative outlets to those who would otherwise have none. Some create work that forces us to reevaluate the subjects of the work or the people that create the work. All provide creative focal points where our common humanity is manifest. Recognition of that commonality is our crucial first step. It cannot be our last.

About Georges Collinet, Keynote Speaker

Georges Collinet, born in Cameroon, is one of the best-known and best-loved broadcasters on the African continent. Known to his fans as “Maxi Voom Voom,” Georges’ French and English language music programs on the Voice of America have attracted millions of listeners. Throughout his career, Georges has played a key role in connecting the U.S., Europe and Africa. Georges worked with African musicians in Paris during the ‘70s and early ‘80s, supporting their efforts to retain African roots in the music and to develop a distinctive, professional sound.

Since 1988, he has hosted Afropop and Afropop Worldwide, the award-winning series heard on public radio throughout the U.S., Europe and Africa. Georges is currently hosting and directing a television series filmed around the continent focusing on conflict resolution in Africa. He is also developing a television newsmagazine of news and features from Africa.