#ReadAroundTheWorld. #Benin

“Don’t let other people draw you away from your own path.”

This is an autobiography of Grammy award-winning musician Angélique Kidjo. It begins with her childhood in the West African nation of Benin in a loving family that encouraged independent speech and ideas, with a father who worked hard to ensure his daughters received an education in a time when it was not popular to do so. Her father was Fon and her mother Yoruba, giving her access to a range of traditions, rhythms and music.

Life became difficult in Benin under a dictatorship and communism when life was very controlled, suspicion reigned and musicians were expected to compose songs in honour of the leader. Kidjo’s family helped her escape to France to further career.

In France she studied music, met and married fellow musician Jean, and generally defied people’s desire to put her into the World Music box.

The book probably gives far too much detail about the various musicians she played with and the different styles and rhythms she experimented with, but I enjoyed some of her thoughts on her music, and her passion for it.

“The thing is, when you sing, you know that the public is there, but you are with yourself, with the intimacy of the song. So for you to touch people’s souls you have to open up yourself. It’s like giving people a mirror to see into your soul. That’s what it is. When you’re singing, even when you’re dancing or smiling, there’s something about you at that moment that you don’t control. It is something holy. It is something deep down.”

“When you feel the music, you forget your worries and discover truths about yourself. Music transcends in a way that makes all negative things seem to disappear. Everything is possible. Everything is revealed.”

“Your voice doesn’t belong to you. You have the responsibility to care for it and use it for those who are voiceless.”

She is also intrigued with the export of African music to the rest of the world, and loved her discoveries of African rhythms in South America and the Caribbean. In Cuba she found an African song passed down for generations with the meaning having been lost, and was able to translate it.

Later in the book Kidjo describes her involvement with UNICEF as an ambassador, her creation of the Batonga foundation and her passion to see African girls given an education.

This book gives the sense of Angélique as a passionate, dynamic woman with a powerful vision for music and to help her people. Sadly the book itself is not quite as dynamic as the author herself. ( )