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This is the BBC. This

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outside the UK.

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Hello and welcome to episode 33 of

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Have You Heard George's Podcast.

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This is the fifth episode of chapter

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four, After Empire.

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Let's go to the Ivory Coast.

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Every time that beat drops I want to hear the whole song. I

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used to think only Africans knew about it. I was

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so wrong. It's in

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French, but it's not French.

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But it did spend ten weeks in the French top

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ten and 15 weeks in

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Belgium's top 40. The

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sales took off shortly after. Now

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it came from a country next door to Ghana,

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Cote d'Ivoire. It's

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about a man's ex coming back when she sees him

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going far and he's like, au revoir. He

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actually says one of my favourite lines. It's

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something I thought to say all the time. Here it goes. Apparently

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it means you're mad.

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This is Premier Garou by Magic System. The

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title comes from an Ivorian warning

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about making bad decisions. Like

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the lead singer's ex leaving him when

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he weren't cool or him taking her back. The

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title literally means first fool.

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Mia should be biased as a Ugandan,

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but even I can admit this is the African anthem.

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released in 99 by abandoned

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O2. Africans loved it. Francophone

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use and Anglophone too. Can't

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lie for years I thought it was from Congo.

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We didn't really know any Ivorian songs

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though. It

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was like the journalist on Dero Organga

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said. Like nobody

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even refers to themselves as Anglophone anymore.

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Is this Kenya? Is this Nigeria? Then we have

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Francophone.

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See even though Africans share a continent,

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in a lot of ways we're kept apart.

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Colonization wasn't meant to unite us,

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if anything it sells off on separate

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paths.

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Now if you need an illustration of this, you

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ain't gotta look far. Check the art.

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Mainstream

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African music as an overall standard

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tends to feature colonial language. Couple

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of episodes ago, I walked you through

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some Congolese music history. Those

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guys were pioneers and why they're not

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at the forefront of Afrobeats now is a

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mystery. Congo played

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a huge role in making Afrobeats itself

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very popular because they came with fashion

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and certain dances and the hip movements and stuff

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like this, but they just didn't speak English. Hmm,

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so the commercial performance of our music depends

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on our ability to speak the right

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European language. It's almost

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as if capitalism is tied up in colonialism.

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When they started speaking English, coming

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from Ghana and Nigeria, they

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can kind of

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understand what they were saying so it was

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easier to adapt in places

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like London or Canada and now

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in the United States and globally. The biggest records

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have always been English speaking.

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That's coming from Akon, an African

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icon. Akon ain't new to

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the game he's been around. He

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found fame as a singer in America, but

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he was born in former French colony Senegal.

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Y'all, get your aint

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low. My name

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is A-Con. Home

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on the Red Island. I'm from Senegal, West

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Side.

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I'm gonna share with you what I'm from and

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how I was coming up. A-Con's

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an interesting reflection of

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the African and Western intersection.

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From the start he described himself as African

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but that wasn't the packaging that took him to

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plan. He

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came across like a black American, the

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most prominent singer with that much melanin.

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When his first album dropped I lapped up

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everything. And from what I remember

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it didn't take long to

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learn about where the singer came from.

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More

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African was as big as A-Con. One

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minute he could be in the

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club with women.

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Next minute he could be in the streets with warriors.

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I have

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a way his run in the industry was glorious

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but he made his money off an English speaking

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audience. Globally

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the biggest records have always been English

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speaking.

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No judgement, I'm the same.

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Capitalism is a numbers game.

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And if the numbers

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favor Western languages, are

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diaspora artists really the ones to blame?

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It's

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something to contemplate. Colonialism

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made us the wrong template. African

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markets can limit African artists even

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when they're growing at a constant rate. So

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we sing in these Western dialects, in

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whatever genre will impress the buyers next,

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in the hope execs and investors might

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invest. And that's how we end up on

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a gentrifying flex.

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I was in Uganda when I first heard this song. I

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loved the chorus and thought every verse was strong.

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It's called Touch It by Kitty, an

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artist from Ghana. Back

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in 2021, you could hear this at every bar

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in Kampala. That's

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proof of the song's excess. East

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Africa loved it and it came from the wind. It

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had sweet melodies and a hell of a beat,

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but someone thought it needed

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an American feature. Did

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Tiger add value to this song? Maybe.

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His verse wasn't crazy, but it wasn't

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crazy. Guess

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which one I hear over here more often? Yup,

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the remix. Is

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that a problem? Peru

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came out in the same year and it made

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Fireboy DML change gear. He'd

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been doing well. He was already a star, but

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this one put him in a different lane. Clear.

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you need me to confirm your assign The

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second birth was my favorite

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and would you believe they replaced it?

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When Ed Sheeran

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jumped on this song, a

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whole lot more people learned Yoruba. It

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didn't just blow up in North America. This

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remix turned the horror part. Now

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if you're gonna get a pop star from an Afro song,

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you wanna make sure that it's worth the while. Black

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people love Ed Sheeran cause he values our

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singing and he's musically versatile. Did

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he make the song better? I'm

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sure Fireboy would say Ed helped the young brother.

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But when another remix came later than this,

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I started feeling like they were kinda taking a piss.

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I don't know what Fireboy's relationship

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is with Blast and 21 Savage. But

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both of these verses were very average.

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And ever since then, the

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same things happened again and again.

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You

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get the idea. Does

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every feature improve the song or

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just help the music industry? to move along.

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The moment America found

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out about Afro beats. When

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Justin Bieber hopped on Essence, I

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don't understand. And

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then Selena happened. When

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Rema did Calm Down, Loved the Song.

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Featuring Selena Gomez, I'm

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done with these remixes, right?

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The truth is, Western

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capital expanding into emerging

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markets only really

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benefits certain artists. Sometimes

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it benefits the ones who work the hardest, but

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rarely those in the harshest circumstances.

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So why don't African youth in the street

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just rise up and pattern a new industry?

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That was the basis of my PhD, which

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I explained at the end of season 3. The

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answer is, aside from the

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poverty, collective industry

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building takes a certain type of economy.

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The type of economy that isn't kind to

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monopolies, where riots

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aren't contingent on finance and property. That

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kind of economy isn't available on

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the most African systems.

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And to understand why that's the case, we

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got to look at Africa's entry into capitalism.

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African to African

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trade was well established

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way back in the day.

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But that trade saw an unfortunate

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change when explorers from Portugal

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came. They'd

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heard of a king called Mansa Musa and

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wanted to find the source of his property. fortune and fame.

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So they saw reach in Africa as a great

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accomplishment, but they couldn't penetrate

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the continent. So

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the Portuguese established a post

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right on the edge of West Africa's coast,

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instead of trying to venture out into Africa

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proper. They met locals

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but didn't have much to offer. So

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they configured a plan to play the middleman between

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kingdoms like Benin and Akan. The

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Portuguese captured African markets.

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They had the advantage of having advanced

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ships.

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These ships went around the top of the continent,

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moving foreign goods along the coast.

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African trade by contrast moved

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behind the coast,

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growing the strongest

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as African trade routes were gradually

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neglected, the regional economy

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was tragically affected. Instead

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of evolving independently, it

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went down the road of dependency.

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Now European demand for African

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slaves was another obstacle

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to enter African trade. Ecosystems

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of diplomacy and cooperation descended

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into clashes and raids. As

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more of the Africans saw what was

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happening, they realized the mistake

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that they'd made started

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pushing back against the slave trade, all

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the way from modern Angola to Ghana. But

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the Europeans weren't taken no for an answer.

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Eventually the continent paid the cost after

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centuries of population loss, centuries

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of neighbor attacking the neighbor and

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Europe getting rich off of African labor. In

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the 1870s, a couple

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of European explorers finally

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found

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the way into the continent, exciting

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the major powers in the West. See,

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Europe had already secured the Western coast,

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now they made plans for devouring

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the rest. They

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held a meeting in Berlin, 1882,

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take a wild guess how the thing progressed. After

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centuries of drain in Africa's population,

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the Westerners indulged in massive

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expropriation. The

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plan was to create a continent of workers.

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Resource extraction was a complementary service

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that ended up becoming the main

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event, but undermined development

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to the same extent. Most

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of Africa went to Britain and France, and

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most of most colonies didn't

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advance. See

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colonization was always a racist project,

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Anglophone, Francophone it really doesn't matter,

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nothing can change this basic logic,

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it's mad to me that some people still debate this

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topic. For

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this episode and the next, we're

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going to focus on the French, and

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to anyone who's still on the fence, I

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hope you come round to common sense. Out

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of all of France's colonies, the Ivory

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Coast had one of the most advanced economies.

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When it came to independence in 1958, France

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didn't want to let go, and the leader of Cote

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d'Ivoire didn't want to leave. His

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name was Felix Uffuit-Bwanyi,

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but allow me, I'm calling him

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FHB. By

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the 50s, Europe's empires were

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falling apart, so France gave its colonies

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an ultimatum. Work with us

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and we'll take care of you, but we

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do the manufacturing you stick

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to cultivation The

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people of Guinea led by Sekuture

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rejected the deal But

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most other leaders accepted it still No

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one is willing near FHB He

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was super compliant So

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France let him be But

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eventually the people of Cote

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d'Ivoire figured out they could only

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go as far as France would allow

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Every former colony would learn the same

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as the dream of independence burned

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in flames African

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independence highlights the bigger frame

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Behind

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the former colonies, picture

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fruits is still away You

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know the pattern, I'm sure you've

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seen it by now

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Africa's blessings were used

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to boost the European lifestyle

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I

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mean like I said, 1882 European

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leaders had a conference about Africa

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Decided to snatch it off Through

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lines on a map and uprooted the lives of

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the masses and if Africans challenged their designs

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it was a massacre

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The

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core countries in today's

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global world were extremely

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poorly endowed when it comes

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to agricultural production but

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also the production of other primary

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materials like

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Now that Algerians

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had a very traumatic

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colonial experience.

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So when France rejected their cause for

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independence, they strapped off and showed

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them they were serious. Same

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in Indochina.

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France was shocked.

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It didn't want to have a cut and he's taking the pass

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they took.

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Have you ever seen a divorce

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where the balance of power isn't equal?

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Where one side gets away with everything,

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whether or not it's legal, deceitful

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or evil? That's

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how this breakup was bound to go.

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But it wasn't clear till further down the road.

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See in comparison to the

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Africans, despite the

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impact of the Second World War on France,

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France still held all the cards. Didn't

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want to give up their place in the region so

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they offered Africans cooperation

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agreements. What's

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a cooperation agreement? In

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spite of their formal political

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independence, the new states

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are obliged to entrust to the French state

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the management of foreign policy, defense,

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trade, and peace. raw

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materials, finance,

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higher education, shipping,

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aviation, the economy,

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the currency.

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This episode was written by myself, George

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the Poet, produced by me

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and my guy Bembrick, with

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original composition by Bembrick

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himself. Guys,

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I know a lot of this material is quite dense,

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it's quite heavy, it can be quite taxing

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but I really appreciate you coming on this journey.

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If you remember last chapter, I had

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ideas about black music and how

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it relates to black liberation. Well,

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this chapter is the result of all the

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research that came out of that question. So

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it really means a lot that

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I'm able to share it with you. Thank

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you for listening. I

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want to give a shout out to the BBC Concert Orchestra,

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to Abbey Road Studios. Also

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I want to shout out African Diaspora News.

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I definitely want to shout out Myoa's

21:21

World on YouTube. Love your

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content sis. I

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want to give a big thanks to Ndongo

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Samba Sila, whose work has

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really influenced my view of the former

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French colonies. And

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I want to honour the memory of Walter Rodney. Rest

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in peace.