MEDI1TV Afrique : Littérature, Art et Jazz - 08/02/2025
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00:00It is with great pleasure that I meet you for this new Escalculture at the heart of Africa.
00:15We will talk about literature, notably the advent of the black Polar in the Wolof style.
00:21We will also talk about art with a Benin artist.
00:25But first of all, let's welcome our guest of the day.
00:30And today we are talking about music, and not just any music,
00:38because for our guest of the day, Hamza Benani Smires,
00:41music is a journey, a kind of quest, it is a passion, a vocation.
00:47He is with us. Hello Hamza.
00:50Hello Amna, thank you for the invitation.
00:54Thank you for being with us.
00:56It is a pleasure to have you here.
00:59As I said, you have a rather special musical universe,
01:04a great fervor of jazz, a lot of sensitivity, a lot of talent.
01:08We will start with that, because you also compose music for films.
01:15I have always found this a fascinating profession,
01:19because from an image we create another universe,
01:23a sound universe that will accompany this image,
01:27nourish it and sometimes even give it a completely different meaning.
01:31Where did this passion come from?
01:32Because at first you were not supposed to become a musician at all.
01:36How did this story come about in a way?
01:40Well, it's a passion that has been going on since childhood.
01:43I started music when I was 7 or 8 years old,
01:46with the piano, then with the drums.
01:48It was a little later that I discovered the trumpet, the universe of jazz.
01:52And then I started this profession out of passion.
01:57And in relation to the composition of music for films,
02:01it's really the most interesting exercise, I think.
02:05Because you have to support an image, you have to support emotions, action.
02:10And music has an exceptional power,
02:15to be used either to support images,
02:20or to make concerts, to feel people's emotions.
02:24This is a topic that interests me a lot,
02:27and so it's an exercise that I like to do a lot.
02:30And besides that, Hamza, you are an artist, of course,
02:35in its entirety, with this terrible passion, in a good way,
02:39for music, for different cultures,
02:42since your musical universe is a bit on a horseback
02:46on several musical trends,
02:51notably African music, classical music.
02:54How do you explain this desire to be in the middle of all this,
03:00and what makes you vibrate in African music, for example,
03:02or classical music?
03:06Well, it's not a particular desire to go towards a certain style.
03:10I'm used to saying that music, or the musician when he expresses himself,
03:15is a bit like a speaker,
03:17and so we tend to use the language we like,
03:20to refer to the universes we appreciate.
03:23And in my case, it's jazz, traditional Moroccan music,
03:28which are very present in my first work,
03:32which you can see in the image.
03:36And also a lot of African influence, classical music.
03:40It's a bit of a synthesis of all that.
03:43And when you start composing, I think it all comes out quite naturally,
03:47between what we like to listen to and what we like to say.
03:49That's what it's about.
03:51And in a moment, we'll talk about your EP.
03:55And a question about composition.
03:58When you're a writer, you put words together,
04:01you put sounds together.
04:04How do you get inspiration,
04:07and how does this whole process of creation go for you?
04:12Is it alone, is it with other musicians?
04:15How does this little flame that will have creativity behind it come to you?
04:23So, at the origin of the composition,
04:26it's a work that's solitary, personal.
04:29And I'm used to saying that it's not an external power
04:35that suddenly expresses itself.
04:38When we work on an instrument, we work on its scales,
04:41we work on the repertoire that we're going to play to produce it.
04:44Composition is also something that you work on.
04:47So I try to compose as often as possible.
04:50And sometimes, when I feel like I've come up with a good idea,
04:53I tell myself, well, maybe it's worth taking it a little further.
04:57So at that point, I formalize it,
04:59I give it a certain shape, a certain direction.
05:02And then comes a group work, let's say,
05:06because you have to fall into the universe of jazz.
05:09In any case, there's a lot of improvisation, there's a lot of freedom.
05:13And so once I have this composition, I'm pretty confident.
05:16I submit it to my group,
05:18at least with the very, very good musicians I have the chance to play with.
05:23And this material, it transforms again, again and again.
05:27And when we also produce in concert, we test things.
05:30And there's a lot of freedom in the music I write.
05:33So very often, we can come to several concerts,
05:36listen to the same pieces, but not at all play in the same way.
05:39That's what I find interesting.
05:42And precisely, your EP, Raqsat el Hayat,
05:46so four titles, if I'm not mistaken.
05:50How did you get the idea for this EP?
05:54How did you create it?
05:56What was the engine that gave birth to these compositions?
06:02So these compositions, in fact, I have 12 in total.
06:07For now, we've only been able to record four.
06:10And it's come over the years.
06:14There are a few pieces that are relatively recent.
06:17There are some pieces that are a bit old.
06:19And it's this desire to play.
06:22I think when you have the opportunity to be able to play your own music,
06:27I think it's very interesting.
06:29If we go back to the analogy with the discourse,
06:33it's still a great privilege to have the opportunity to be able to express yourself,
06:39musically speaking, and to show your ideas.
06:43And what I want to show is precisely what I call modern Moroccan music.
06:49Which is original, which is composed and played by Moroccans.
06:54We have a group with piano, bass, drums, trumpet, double,
06:59the instrument I play, and the oud, which also brings the Moroccan touch.
07:03In the rhythms, we find a little more African influences.
07:07In the composition, in the chord progressions, it's more the jazz universe.
07:12And I try to compose melodies that I like first.
07:17And I think it's a good start.
07:19And I have to express them later, hoping that the audience will like it too.
07:26Are there any dates planned to come and discover this EP live?
07:34Soon, after Ramadan, we're going to do a little tour.
07:37I don't have the exact dates yet, but I can tell you as soon as it's released.
07:44In any case, thank you for being with us.
07:47It was a pleasure to receive you, especially to talk about your work.
07:51Thank you very much and see you soon.
07:55See you soon, thank you.
08:03And after talking about music, he places a flagship artist in contemporary African art.
08:08Born in 1957 in Porto Novo, at the Benin Cetol Lyceum,
08:12his vocation for art will be born.
08:15Julien Sinzokan attends a painting workshop.
08:18Le Coup de Foudre takes place.
08:20The painting of Julien Sinzokan represents scenes of the traditional everyday life.
08:26Everyone meets in a large-format universe.
08:30His sensitivity is also about slavery and the diaspora.
08:34The paintings of burnt-out ships carrying slaves and their sails stretched by the wind
08:39form a recurring subject in his work.
08:42He questions men's relationship with their gods and their worship.
08:46Thus, Julien Sinzokan also honors the god of the coming back, Egun,
08:51who shelters the souls of the deported.
08:53A whole questioning that adorns his works.
08:56Let's listen right away.
08:59It's very eclectic and very varied.
09:10I like the material.
09:12All the materials, by the way.
09:14The earth, the sawdust, the papyrus.
09:18It depends on the subject.
09:20Personally, I ask myself if I can express a certain diversity.
09:25That's why I use different techniques of drawing,
09:29of the naïve, of the effect of the material,
09:32so that from one work to another, the eye that looks is amazed.
09:37First of all, I work a lot around the slave trade, around the Vodou.
09:42The Vodou itself, like all cultures, like all philosophies, evolves.
09:49And it's remarkable at the level of urban explosion
09:53to associate modern expressions with the title of the Vodou.
09:59And at the same time, it's very good for the universe of the Vodou
10:02to realize that they are not trapped in a tradition.
10:06Contemporaries, at the level of art, can also grasp it.
10:10And this exchange is extraordinary.
10:13Urban explosion, by touching this aspect,
10:16is in an absolutely constructive image.
10:20Julien Saint-Saugan nourishes his art with Benin culture,
10:24his images with the universe and history of Benin,
10:27and more broadly, of Africa.
10:29Julien Saint-Saugan gives life in his very figurative work,
10:33with themes that are dear to him,
10:36like the Vodou, the slave trade, the secret society.
10:39A little behind the world of contemporary African art,
10:43this one uses supports and materials,
10:45borrowing as much from the comic as from the Vodou,
10:48for a work full of stories, symbols,
10:51and always rooted in the history of his country, Benin.
10:56It's a kind of perception of art,
11:00in relation to the artist I am.
11:03It's a vision of the slave trade.
11:06How an artist, what is his sensitivity,
11:09what is his approach to a rather historical subject.
11:12There are some landmarks,
11:14and from some very important landmarks,
11:17I tried to furnish around,
11:19and to create, to make a kind of itinerary of the slave trade,
11:23with a spiritual purpose,
11:26because the goal, in the end,
11:29seems to me to be much more in the evocation,
11:36of all those who have left, who have not returned.
11:41Through this approach, it is easier to sensitize,
11:46rather than persist in presenting chained slaves,
11:50to present the whip through spiritual means,
11:54it's much easier.
11:56It must be said that Julien Saint-Saugan
11:58is painted with a precision of Orpheus.
12:01Orpheus is one of the techniques used by the artist,
12:04and the ink drawing of China on paper,
12:06then he will color the part of the work,
12:09which is at the center of his pictorial work,
12:11to open a door to the message,
12:13the idea, the sign, or the symbol,
12:15to which he intends to lead us.
12:17Julien Saint-Saugan, the creator, is also a researcher.
12:20He conducts meticulous investigations
12:22on the subjects of his inspiration,
12:24such as the work he undertook
12:26on the secret society of the Abukwes in Cuba.
12:29It is this approach to his subject,
12:31which gives him the key to give his work
12:34all its dimension, above all spiritual.
12:37I am in an approach...
12:39No, no, no.
12:41I am in a calmed approach to the slave trade.
12:45But calmed does not mean that the page is turned.
12:49No, calmed, we can speak freely.
12:54Why?
12:55Because every time we approach the subject,
12:57generally, it is uncomfortable.
12:59Everyone is a little embarrassed.
13:01Well, you sold your brothers.
13:03We, yes, that's it.
13:05And try to make sure that we go beyond this debate,
13:08that we really look at what happened,
13:10especially since the consequences are still vivid.
13:13At that moment, how to create the debate?
13:16I tried, precisely by what I said earlier,
13:19a calmed approach.
13:21Spirituality, there were still 15 million deported.
13:25That is to say that there are about 15 million families
13:28who have lost their home and do not know where to go.
13:37And we continue this cultural step
13:39with cinema in the company of Pocas Pascual,
13:42one of the pioneers of Angolan cinema.
13:45It must be said that she is reputed for her knowledge
13:47of imaging the traces and sequels of colonialism,
13:50a story that she herself underwent through her own family.
13:53Moreover, in Clermont-Ferrand, in the section
13:55« Regards d'Afrique »,
13:56the great international short film festival in the world,
13:58she presented « Time to Change »,
14:00this experimental documentary
14:02that makes visible the continuity of the destructive force
14:05of the colonial era on humans, fauna and flora.
14:08Let's watch a little excerpt from the trailer.
14:13The eyes are not here.
14:16Their eyes are not here.
14:19In this valley of dying stars,
14:21in this hollow valley,
14:24this broken jaw of our lost kingdoms.
14:28In this dust of meeting places,
14:32we croak together and avoid speech.
14:37We croak together and avoid speech.
14:39Gathered on this beach of the two-metre sphere.
14:47« Time to Change »,
14:48it is time to change, according to Pocas Pascual,
14:51in relation to colonizers, to colonization.
14:54And as she says, there is a real problem.
14:57Colonizations have created stigmas
14:59and it does not change.
15:00So we continue to have a very negative look
15:02on black people.
15:04I will not quote all the difficulties
15:06that we are going through.
15:07For me, it is indeed time to change.
15:09It must be said that she was 9 years old
15:11when the Portuguese left Angola.
15:13As a member of this memory,
15:14she saw these things
15:16and her family also continues to tell their story.
15:20« Time to Change »,
15:21it is a story that has been passed down from generation to generation.
15:24The Angolan director says,
15:25I had family who were enslaved,
15:27who were deported.
15:28I have a lot of suffering from this colonial history.
15:31The Portuguese, it was terrible
15:33because not only did they stay too long,
15:36500 years,
15:37but they also completely destroyed the Angolan culture.
15:41They even forbade people to speak their language.
15:45I do not speak an Angolan language.
15:47My mother, for example,
15:48she spoke an Angolan language,
15:49but she did not want us to speak it
15:51because we had to adapt more easily
15:54than she did in this society.
15:56« Time to Change » is an exuberant film
15:58that acts as an exorcism,
16:00but it is a question of suffering,
16:01of a plebiscite,
16:02a physical wound as well as a memory.
16:04An important film.
16:05« Time to Change »
16:14And we close this escalation
16:17with literature,
16:19with a young man born in Dakar in 1991,
16:22Makodou Atolodé.
16:23He came to France,
16:24first of all for engineering studies.
16:26He works as a web application developer,
16:29but literature quickly takes over
16:32and then his inspiration in his many readings
16:34and his personal link with Senegal.
16:36He gives us « Étincelle Rebelle »
16:38which takes place largely in the region of Casamance.
16:42It is his first novel in Senegal.
16:44Inspector Gabriel Latir Failly
16:46has just succeeded,
16:47after two years of investigation,
16:49to trap one of the largest drug traffickers in the country,
16:52but immediately arrested.
16:54He is released to be rebelled
16:57against his decisions coming from his hierarchy.
16:59Latir is therefore mutated in Casamance,
17:01in an area under high tension
17:03where three enemy groups are fighting.
17:05The young man, who knows nothing of his country,
17:07beyond the capital,
17:08meets again a local journalist
17:10who will help him understand
17:12the issues of this territory
17:14and accompany him in his crusade against corruption.
17:16In the heart of the turmoil,
17:18the army, the secessionists,
17:19a secret clan called « Les Chasseurs »
17:21and a curious panther,
17:23« Les Étincelles Rebelles Polares Noires »
17:26signed by this extremely talented author.
17:29A very beautiful talent to follow urgently.
17:31We are coming to the end of Africa en Culture.
17:33Thank you again for being with us
17:35and we will meet again next week.
17:37Until then, take care.