Transcripts For ALJAZAM Talk To Al Jazeera 20140621

Education. Freedom. I knew it was the right thing to do. We did it. She speaks openly about what africa. Everybody 0s something to the continent. Everything single rich country 0 us a lot. I spoke to kijo in a Recording Studio in new york. You were well educated as a child. How did your Early Education of playing a role in your future success as a person . I think that when you are educated and you learn and you read a lot about not only your own culture but other peoples differences. You see sim laverties and uniqueness of people. And i think, also, that education, what it does is that it empowers you in the way that you dont feel threatened when you go somewhere else, when you leave your comfort zone at home and you get somewhere, you feel absolutely empowered to take on any challenge that comes your way, to challenge any brand in front you of you. Therefore, what you see is human beings first before you see the color. You hear people speak to you and you relate to it what they say. That formed your entire perspective of people. Yeah. It does because thats what my father used to say to us. Read. Be curious. Your brain is your ultimate weapon. Be open to people. Dont judge people according to their skin color. Cannot define them. There are men like my father in africa. Not every man have girls think that they are a commodity. They think of them as human beings because my father always turned against any tradition, anyone that would come to his house and say it was worthless school. He said, who tell you that the brain of a girl is not as important as a mans brain. Are you saying that your father went against tradition by emphasizing education in his daughters lives. Right. And again, tradition that could have harmed us physically or our brain because he always said, the tradition has to move according to the time we live in. The society that we are in today is moving forward. So, therefore, we cant go back. So how do we adjust those traditions to the reality of today . If you let anyone do wrong to your child, it doesnt matter the sex of that child. So you then you are not doing your job as a parent. There are other traditions that are harmful to girls in african nations still practice genital mutilation, child marriage. How much are the problems we see persistent on that continent due to tradition, toco customs . I think that once again, all of those issues that you raise will step by step disappear if we educate more people. I always say tradition exists but the way we approach it, thats what makes the difference. If we, in africa, we africans with our leaders, we come to understand that investing in Girls Education will now raise our gdp, pandemic sexual abuses, going to make our economy wiser rocket to the sky. We put the law in place, which is absolutely compulsory for every child, boys or girls, to go to school for secondary education, the problem we are having today is that girls in some current trees, in some traditions are seen as a co commodi commodity. Therefore, they can be kidnapped. They can be married. The only thing that i know as an african person that can education. Lets talk about your foundation, batonga which deals with some of the practical issues as it pertains to Girls Education shoes, you know, bicycles, having them have a means to go to school. Are sometimes these problems more simple than we realize in the sense that, like, if we could just get enough girls shoes and by silks to get to schools and bathrooms when they get there, many more girls would go to school . Its true. Its simple but complicated. My take on this is you cannot have the African People by pat tronizing and pitying them. Then it becomes obsolete because no one wants to feel like that. The one thing that has been lacking for years of people that come with good will to help African People is the human and emotional connection to the people. If you see the people of africa as statistics, as numbers, as inferior beings, dont have the same right as you have in your country, then you cant help us. I think a lot of people acknowledge today that educating girls and women does hold the key to solving so many of societys ailments around the world, which brings me to the kidnapping of nearly 300 girls by boka haram in nigeria. What are your thoughts on the that . I think that the Extremist Group comes more from frustration, not being able to participate in this world economy. Religion is just an excuse. I dont believe that all of theu all of those extreme accidents really believe in what they are saying about god and relunigioreligion. Its just a matter of thinking they are getting some power by horror, by kidnapping, and i think it questions, also, for me how we do business with one another. May what do you mean . I think there is enough wealth for every single human being on this planet to live. I am not saying everybody is going to be a billionaire or millionaire but the problem we are having is how do we distribute the wealth. You are saying if members of boka haram had jobs, they girls . If they had perspective of future, do you think they will throw that away and get a gun and kidnap girls . I dont think so. Most of them have never been to school probably and sit around and frustrated. I mean thats the problem we have in not only in africa but even in the rich countries today. So how do we rehab a society that is more balanced . This issue about schools and he h education in africa, its not just nigeria in the septembcent African Republic two things of the schools have been closed for most of the year. What do you think the responsibility of great powers like the United States should be to places like that . I think that what we should do, the United States should do, is work with government in africa to help them build sus stanleyable schools, to help them build their own smoke, because the problem in africa is that after the era, lots of countries never had had a chance to reach their full potential because the interest of the rich country always come before continent. So in that way, do they have a responsibility . Do they owe something to the continent . I think everybody 0s something to the continent. Every single rich lot. Make that starting some people here would say the United States government doesnt do enough to invest in education in this country. Make the argument why should the United States do more to fortify education in . Because the security of the United States is at stake as much as the democrats in the world. If we do not invest in the education in this country and all of the people are i dont meaning up, we are giving power to alqaeda, all of the extremest groups that are going to struggling. If it becomes the responsibility of places like the United States and European Countries to, to intervene in africa, where is the agency more . I am not saying they have to intervene. What i am saying is that they have to form a different relationship with leaders in africa. We owe our people to have plans and social plan for our people. Not the american to come and do that but the thing is if you have that plan inplace, not did be no one elses agenda should come before you complete that plan. But over and over again, the system that is in place does not allow us to move forward. Still has to be changed. Women . Absolutely. Women are going to take over africa. Thats a thread of boka haram. Thats what is seen as a threat. If they let those girls go to school, they will lose their power because we will not allow we were not allowed with we come to power for our chirp to be harmed by no one. We will have more guts to take the decision for us to be a safe continent. Coming up on talk to Al Jazeera Angelique talks about how power, politics and music clyde. I am stiff knee sy. We are peeking with gammy Award Winning artist angelique kidjo. Many of the songs you write are about the strength of women that inspired you in africa. I have been raised by my mother, my two grandmothers that were widowed early. My moms mother said to me and my sisters your first husband is your job. You dont have any relationship and you become a weight on the shoulder of your husband. And i always said, because i love you, that doesnt a man who doesnt respect your body and your brain, run away. Everybody can say, i love you that means they love the whole person that you are entirely without trying to carve you to be somebody else. So, i grew up like that. Your mother was actually the inspiration behind one of the singles on your new album which, by the way, debuted at number 1 on the billboard world music chart. What inspired that album . What inspired that album is many things throughout the years in africa with oxam, unicef, different organizations. In 2005, i took a trip to go to chad at a refugee camp from the women from darfur. And that has impact my sleep until today. Your sleep . I swear to god, i came back, continue sleep anymore. I had the voice in my head. What happened to them, i cant even start telling it here. But one thing said before we left that kept me going is do not victimize us another time. We do not want to hear the word victim. All we want is to get out of this camp, go back home in safety and security to raise our daughters and little boy that we have still and to keep on going on. We want to get on our life. And when i thought about this album, i started writing the end of 2011 and the inspiration was women, their strength and the beauty, to smile that you encounter in moment of despair. Smile coming like a beam of light and then, you go, well, love. But youre sometimes singing about very difficult topics, and i cant be sure because 95 of english. Okay. Are these songs most people enjoy meant to be heard for both . Well, you know what . One thing that i know for sure is that the fact that we dont understand what i sing about doesnt make any difference in delivered because music is a universal language. When you touch somebodys soul, you touch the persons soul. It doesnt matter what skin color the person has. One thing i learned from the traditional music in my country is you have the gift of singing, of writing music. It doesnt matter how heavy the subject is. Make music enjoyable because when people start feeling guilty, you turn them away because guilt dont make people move forward. I understand one of the first songs you wrote was a song about apartheid and you describe it in your memoire as being a violent song that your daddy then told you to rewrite. When i was growing up, my father used to say to us there are no day where you will repeat that. A human being is not a matter of color. Dont come back here and tell me you failed because you were black. Thats the first time i will raise my hand to you. When i was 9, i discovered jimi hendrix with his afro and i heard the world slave descendant and i couldnt put it together because when my grandmother started telling me about slave, i thought she is losing it. Its impossible. And then i turned 15 and we smuggled the t. V. , nigerian news and heard talk about Nelson Mandela and i was sitting in the living room with my parents watching the news and its like a bomb was dropped on me because suddenly, those words that my father used to say to us make no sense to me anymore. If you are the same human family, how can we do this to one another . I was so anning re. You wrote i was so angry. The first track was, if they dont like us, we kill them. You said it was violent and thats violence. My father said, no. Not under my roof. I always told you that violence will never have any place in this house. I understand how you feel, but you as an artist, you are the one that builds a bridge among people. You are the one who holds the key when every doors are closed for dialogue to become an option for everyone to sit at the same table and discuss. You will go back and write this song. I want this song. Not only to hear your pain but to heal, also, your answerer. Think about it. Where do you go from here with that anger . What is created . What is going to create . How do you feel right now . I said, i feel so bad dad. He said, go back and write it, the way you feel. So that song has become an anthem of peace where i said, one day my dream is to see the world in which there will be no more op ressors and more opinion pressed people, that we all live free to achieve our dreams. I said that is acceptable. Does that mean you never wrote an angry song again . Never. Songs . I dont. I dont have time for that. I dont have space in my heart for that. I dont have time and i dont want i dont have any desire to listen to somebody singing about hate of women, hate. I cant. You can be angry. I understand that. But if you just are negative about it, what good does it make . What does it change . You turn people away and if you are in that bubble of hate, you dont see the light because you dont allow yourself to see the possibilities that are out there. And you are stuck in your own narrow world. And you are miserable. So music, hiphop, rap, whatever is out there, you can say what you have to say, but dont say negatively. Open the door to possibilities. Say the thing. Tell the story as it. Stories. Time magazine called you africas premier d i have a. Bill clinton said the only thing bigger than angelique kidjos voice is her heart. Success . I dont think about it. Do you believe you are changing the world . Me alone, i cant. Its impossible. We together, we all the things that are going to be better for this world, for people to go to bed thinking i have done my share today and i am happy with what i have. 1 said you have done more than your share. Probably. I dont think i am done yet. Because as long as there is going to be suffering on this planet, as long as there is going to be a child in this world that will go to bed with tears in his or her eyes because she doesnt have three meals a day or she doesnt have three meals a day and parents are gone, nobody is there to care for him and he has no access to school, the basic needs of children, as long as those basic needs will be in jeopardy, i cannot go to bed and sleep quietly because we create the situation. No one should be sleeping quietly when the children that we bring to this world are our wrong doing is impacting the future. Coming up, angelique talks about why she hates the term world music. Were here in the vortex. Only on al jazeera america. I am stephanie sy, my guest, grammy Award Winning musition, angelique kidjo, you dont like the term world beat or world music. Why is that . Well, i thought it was a conversation a couple of years ago, where she was furious, she said what is it about the rest of the world that anything that comes from africa has to be put a label on . Why should music from africa be called world music. Music of africa is the bedrock of hiphop, rock role, pop music. Name it, but now they want to single it out because we from africa are doing it and the rest of the world with do anything with african beat. They dont call it world music. She has a point there . She was one of your early inflew enances i crack up laughing around midnight, i was on the couch. I laughed so hard my belly hurt. One of your most famous concerts was in zimbabwe when he rallied against mugabe on stage. Do you ever selfsensor . Country . I was not kicked out. I was supposed to leave. When that concert comes and i wanted to go to zimbabwe because i had never been before and right before i left, i received an email from an activist saying you cant come here because one of those voices that we can rely on to tell the truth out there. I never thought about it because for me, music has to go everywhere even where there is no freedom. We have to bring music there for people to be able to think and to be kept together and figure out how they are going to live together. Right . So, i reach out to unicef, to amnesty have national and all of the organizations i work with. What is the situation out there . What am i going to do . I went there and they tell me, well, you can make a statement if you want. Thats what i did. What you did . Thats what i did. I said, we cannot blame everybody for our problems. Thats exactly what i said. When we are the problem, ourself, when we hijacked our own population for one reason or the other, we cant just sit here and think that thats going to go away if we dont face the problem that we create. So when you decide where to perform and youve got several concert dates coming up in the summer, you really dont Pay Attention to the political situation because you want everyone to hear your music . Absolutely. Everywhere. Good or bad. But if the public is there, i will play the show. You had some really stellar collaborations with artists quite varied, everyone from santana to josh groban. Is there any that stands out in your mind as one that was particularly meaningful to you. All of them are meaningful because for me, we are all at the service of the song, and every artist i work with, thats what we have done. Thats why the songs are what they are because we believe all of us of the universalty of the music. We believe that music transforms lives of people. Definitely is i believe deep down in my soul that without the gathering together that we all have in the 90s to free Nelson Mandel a, south africa would not be the place it is today. Music has the power to get people together to believe in the goodness that we hold in us. Freeing Nelson Mandel a was the right thing to do. We did it as musicians. Music has so much power that when you have a regime, a new politician that wants to take over and doesnt want to follow democracy, the first thing they cut off is art, is music. You have the pussy riot example. So we have such a power that we power. Just going back because you actually experienced that firsthand when you were still in banine before you left. In fact, isnt that what forced you to seek exile. Absolutely. In france . Absolutely. You felt constrained, you felt that the communist regime wanted you to be a mouthpiece for the government. I refused because my father always used to say to us, especially to me as a singer do not write music for any Political Party because they come and they go. Once they are gone, you go with it. Write your music with your opinion be free writing your music. Dont be sold to somebody because, therefore, you dont become the voice of the people anymore. You become the voice of the power and when that power shift, you are out the window. The thing that i always say to people that live in the western world that have had freedom for all of those years is that you take it for granted and you sit quietly and you are comfortable in it. You know, in a heart beat it can be taken away from you. And if it has never been taken away from you, you dont know how it feels. So freedom, when freedom is endangered anywhere, we all, as citizens of this world should not be silence because it can come back and bite us. Angelique kidjo thank you so much for talking to al jazeera. You are welcome. I am thomas drayden. Fran drescher bad things happen to good people an incredible fight there was like a perfect storm. An ability to overcome. I was able to turn my pain into purpose. Her inspirational story you pull yourself up, and you start all over again. Every saturday join us for exclusive, revealing, and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. Talk to al jazeera only on al jazeera america. Im a morgan radford, and these are the stories were following just for you. A group marchs for the iraqi government, and th white house in the bottle of illegal immigration