0:20 oh man oh man it's the best thing I've
0:24 ever done I think saved man's life oh no
0:36 and prove my life it is some chick man
0:50 oh if you could make a documentary on
0:58 don't want to make documentary on
1:02 African music no if you could make one
1:04 for good work what do you mean exactly
1:06 well if you could make okay suppose
1:09 you're the director of a pop show on
1:11 Dutch television and you could make
1:14 documentary on African music what would
1:23 no I probably wouldn't talk for myself
1:27 at all you see it's very difficult to
1:42 answer cause my music is is it's not for
1:47 me to want to protect myself as such I
1:50 do project myself because I do play the
1:54 music but what I already want to project
2:00 is the happenings and the African
2:04 continent itself so I've never thought
2:12 about one in one is right but African
2:18 music make a history of it no I've never
2:23 thought about it because my my main my
2:27 main preoccupation right now is what is making
2:28 making
2:31 Africans retrogress so music is only a
2:33 very small part of it
2:39 exactly see but music is a small part of
2:43 it for the same time I consider music to
2:45 be effective like a weapon to inform
2:53 people you see okay like if I don't play
2:55 my music now I won't be sitting here
2:58 today to talk about the problems of
3:04 Africa so my music is like an attraction
3:09 to inform people say yeah it is an
3:10 information side of the musical is
3:14 important because I'm not really I don't
3:18 really care about history ever become
3:21 music other people will write that I
3:24 prefer other people to write that ok
3:27 let's assume you're the man who wants to
3:29 play music there has been a few years
3:31 that you couldn't play music that you've
3:35 been in prison right yes what happened
3:40 why I was in prison yeah well the prison
3:44 simply because of what I talked about
3:48 Africa we silly the African leaders we
3:51 have all over Africa today are very
3:55 preoccupied with their own personal
4:02 development as now richness you know so
4:09 it is it is a it is they're committing
4:13 crimes against African people and then
4:15 on the right persons on the right
4:32 but let's be concrete why were you put
4:34 in prison it's not because of just a
4:36 simple fact that you told the guy
4:42 upstairs that he's wrong is it a reason
4:45 but what did you say that it was wrong I
4:47 said that they're putting us into
4:50 bondage they're making us layers the
4:53 follow white man's footsteps too much
4:55 they don't want to improve Africa as
4:59 Africa should be improved they they are
5:05 not authentic and they corrupt
5:09 how does Africa have to improve our has
5:13 to improve by his own methods you see
5:19 every race has a reason to be born yeah
5:21 the white people have a reason to be
5:23 born in Europe
5:26 suena born in Europe they create their
5:29 own cultures and their own way of life
5:34 they have their own God at the worship
5:39 in Africa had a reason to be born there
5:46 so we have a God we have our gods we
5:57 have a mode of worship see when African
6:04 doesn't want to understand or
6:07 participate in the reason why he was
6:12 born and he becomes a failure see so all
6:14 the African leaders look up to Europe
6:18 for progress okay you cannot know a
6:20 white man's things better than the white
6:26 man so therefore you cannot intend to
6:30 progress at the same level with
6:34 man you see Africa has not been able to
6:35 contribute its own knowledge to this
6:44 understand yeah of course you see so all
6:53 these things need to be in the education
6:59 system of the African countries the fact
7:02 that Africa must unite as one government
7:06 must be in the education system in
7:10 African countries but these things never happen
7:11 happen
7:15 steady come to television talk English
7:19 talk but what is happening in Europe and
7:20 all this man
7:24 they talk sometimes about technological
7:28 transfer and all this shady see it can
7:32 never help Africa see we have to we have
7:35 to looking most ourselves that's what
7:36 I'm saying
7:40 it's your music kind of a tool is a weapon
7:40 weapon
7:46 yeah to say he's a weapon to say and
7:49 it's a weapon to introduce me so I can
8:29 yeah you were in you were in prison for
8:30 quite a while
8:33 18 months yeah that's quite a while and
8:35 what do I tell you it didn't change your
8:42 life it didn't change my life but it
8:46 changed my way of thinking yeah what we
8:49 do own okay change another world
8:52 really he developed my way of thinking
8:57 look I'm very spiritually inclined and
8:59 in prison gave me a lot of time to
9:02 meditate and think about what this wall
9:10 is really about it gives me knowledge
9:16 about time you see if anybody tells me
9:19 20 years is a long time I will tell him
9:23 no because prison has taught me that
9:28 time is meaningless unless you want to
9:31 understand what time is about coz one
9:34 does time what is it what times about
9:37 you have to know that there is time for
9:40 everything okay but there's 24 hours a
9:44 day and there's 31 or 30 days in a month
9:48 and there's 365 days in a year it's a
9:51 lot of spare time to concentrate on
9:52 music and when you're in prison
9:55 you can't make any music at all I didn't
9:56 think about music in prison oh maybe a
9:59 few times some sounds come to my head
10:01 but I don't write them down just kidding maybe
10:02 maybe
10:05 how many some sounds to my head or slice
10:09 one sometimes what I did in prison was
10:12 not to play games I try not to talk too
10:20 much try to remember myself and I just
10:32 Prison is supposed to get you bored so
10:35 when people go in there they try not to
10:40 get bored so I tell myself okay you want
10:42 to get bored do you want to make you
10:46 want to make me bored okay I'm gonna get
10:49 myself bored so that I will not be
10:53 afraid to go in next time so I go in
10:55 there to understand what boredom is
10:59 about so it gives me knowledge about
11:04 patience those are the kind of things
11:06 prisoners taught me they prepared to go
11:07 back again
11:10 yeah I'm prepared that's why I'm talking
11:11 to you lilies oh yeah I'm really
11:14 prepared that's why I'm talking to you
11:17 like this if I wasn't prepared I won't
11:18 be talking to you either
11:22 I'll say I don't want any interviews so
11:24 this is a well so-called political
11:26 statement as well it is about the
11:28 Constitution and this interview is
11:30 dangerous for you in Nigeria it is
11:36 okay I understand it but I don't feel it
11:39 I understand it sure but I I can't feel it
11:40 it
11:43 yeah I don't know what prison is yes you
11:48 can't feel it because you see the
11:52 European public I've been deceived a lot
12:02 of what is happen in Africa see because
12:08 the citizens who really understand where
12:18 when they tell me see you have to be
12:23 there to know because the situation in
12:27 Europe is not a situation in Nigeria in
12:33 my country for instance see you have the
12:39 European system that you clearly
12:44 understand and you walk out but we have
12:50 an alien system that guides our minds
12:54 which is the European system and our
12:59 minds African so that the total
13:01 confusion in that country we can
13:06 everything so expensive have as foreign
13:07 currency for that matter
13:11 you know foreign currency problems that
13:15 matter in some African countries one
13:19 unit dollar is 200 units of that
13:22 country's money one to two hundred and ridiculous
13:23 ridiculous
13:25 that's like in Ghana but do you hate
13:27 Europe or do you hate America
13:30 no I don't if I hate America you'll only
13:34 here you see it is the culture it's it
13:37 is not it is it Israel it is European
13:40 leadership that causes these things the
13:41 citizens don't know really what is
13:45 happening in Africa you see for instance
13:50 now citizens of Europe should be
13:54 informed that British Tatas democracy
13:59 America introduced democracy into Africa
14:02 it can never be a military rule in
14:05 Britain America never they will not
14:09 accept it because in their culture they
14:11 know that the soldier has his place in
14:15 society and everybody understands that
14:17 now they bring the same culture to my
14:20 people and the soldiers are now ruling
14:21 many African countries
14:26 and America and Britain mix to toss
14:28 business with his governments what this
14:30 government cannot be legal governments
14:32 because the military governments which
14:34 they cannot accept in their countries so
14:39 that cannot be fair these are the kind
14:41 of things were fighting about Scotia
14:46 greatest hero acai for common Karuma no
14:49 aside for Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and
14:50 who's dead
14:53 he was the first president of Ghana
14:55 he was the first to talk the way I'm
14:59 talking Africa Africa can be great we're
15:01 actually talking a lot about politics
15:03 but I'd like to go back to him music
15:16 same pop music is the kind of see the
15:19 way I started to write my music is like
15:23 I was born a colonial boy I went to
15:26 colonial school I went to England to
15:30 study music and everything then
15:34 something changed me completely to see
15:38 that I was not playing African music by
15:40 the time I started selected work as a
15:45 professional as a professional now so he
15:48 had to take I to take myself back to my
15:51 culture started to read fine books to
15:54 read so I started to listen to a lot of
15:59 traditional African music try to know
16:04 the real history of African music you
16:11 know this is my music and after study
16:13 that one and I was truly I was play music
16:14 music
16:16 music just comes to me yeah a lot of
16:19 people mentioned you as the number one
16:22 African who grew into being an African
16:25 rock star and paving a way for artists
16:26 such as salif keita
16:30 or accountant and lots of others exactly
16:32 that's what it is
16:34 other way it is I'm still the number one
16:43 man in Africa I was true I made a little
16:46 sacrifice for that but that is what I
16:49 wanted to happen because by the time I
16:51 started to play my music I was telling
16:55 the press of that time that I become
16:57 music was going to be the music of the
17:01 future even in Europe yeah you see so I
17:04 didn't I don't want to participate in
17:08 the madness of commercialism I'd wonder
17:11 I didn't want to participate in - of
17:14 gimmicks I do not want African music to
17:19 belong to the fashion where music comes
17:22 and goes because where African music
17:27 goes it stays see so I don't know we
17:28 don't want to involve ourselves in come
17:30 at least I don't want to involve myself
17:35 in commercialism so that is what it is
17:37 about my music you can't avoid it I
17:39 think I can't avoid it
17:43 No being a part of I'm avoiding it I
17:46 don't get an OK look at this working on
17:48 this stuff for instance I didn't have
17:52 any toe support all the TEL deals
17:56 everything is paid from our fields from
17:59 here on that toe hmm you see it's a big
18:01 sacrifice for me I would have to bring
18:02 my music for information for people to
18:05 know because the record companies don't
18:14 want to support me ok we made a few
18:16 recordings of one of your fellow
18:19 musicians such as more accountant what
18:20 do you think of him
18:24 Oh obviously never come music I'd be any
18:28 good work he's good and you Sandor it's
18:32 fine and what's your favorite African
18:37 band together blasters no they are my favorites
18:39 favorites
18:42 you see ready in my own kind of
18:46 situation I don't comment on musicians
18:51 in general see comments about musicians
18:54 should come from listener but from the
18:57 artist especially Sophie thank you very
19:00 much thank you goodbye
