Pamela Badjogo, a voice and music against domestic violence

Do not trust the apparent good humor that emanates from the clip Respect us by Pamela Badjogo. These images filmed in camera echo the context of confinement experienced by the majority of the world’s population due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “We shot the video just three days before confinement in France, when we had to shoot it outdoors. But we sensed the house arrest. I immediately thought of all these women who were going to find themselves locked up with their violent partners, ”admits the artist from Libreville, now confined to Lyon while waiting to be able to return to Bamako, her adopted city.

Africa-Europe, same fight

Behind the festive afro-pop and the azonto dance steps hide lyrics to bitter reality. “If Fatoumata gets banged in the kitchen at dinner time, didn’t she really deserve it?” The evening dish was poorly cooked, ”Pamela Badjogo immediately attacked this title released on May 8. A premonitory scenario that the feminist singer delivers in this manifesto against domestic violence then exacerbated in this period of confinement, in Europe as in Africa. If, since confinement, France has recorded five times more reports of this kind on the Stop the Violence platform, it is difficult to quantify the abuses made against women in African countries since the confinement measures and other curfews. But that would be forgetting the strike force of the denunciations shared on social networks.

New methods of denunciation

On April 17, a video of unbearable violence filmed in Abidjan circulated on Facebook. The images, now viral, reveal a woman hanging from her balcony, held at arm’s length by her spouse yelling at her. The scene, which was filmed by a neighbor, then shows the woman falling from the 3^e floor. Luckily, the fall was cushioned by a lower canvas awning. But the images create the effect of a bomb among African feminists and do not fail to react the Gabonese activist. “I was deeply shocked by this video, which pushed me to anticipate the release of the clip and to conduct an investigation in collaboration with Bintou Mariam Traoré, the Ivorian journalist behind the hashtag #VraieFemmeAfricaine, to find the man of video, ”explains the co-founder of the Malian artists’ collective Moussoyayé Koba yé, fighting against gender-based violence. The searches are successful and the man ends up in police custody.

But the woman, for her part, backs up, admitting in front of the Ivorian cameras to have tipped over to the other side of the balcony under the influence of alcohol. “I absolutely do not believe in this admission, which is the consequence of the social and family pressure that this woman had to undergo in the face of the fear of being socially damned”, estimates Paloma Badjogo. The artist was already denouncing the oppressions and discrimination suffered by African women in the song “Ngoka”, unveiled at the end of 2019, which will appear on her second album Rude, whose release was postponed to the end of the year due to the health crisis. “We are being educated to be role models, no matter what the consequences. This is what this patriarchal society expects from us ”, regrets the founding member of the feminist“ super group ”Les Amazones d’Afrique, which includes Angélique Kidjo and Mamani Keïta, clearly invested in the defense of women’s rights

New tones

The one who has been a chorister for the biggest names in the African music scene, from Salif Keïta to Oumou Sangaré, had accustomed us to pouring out her chants in Bakaningui, her mother tongue, on Afro-jazz notes surfing between Mandingo and Bantu traditions. But with Respect us, the musician sings this time in French. And bet on afrobeat and high life by surrounding himself with the Ghanaian guitarist Kwame Yeboah to reach as many people as possible. “Few women are represented in this music scene which remains mainly linked to entertainment. It therefore seemed necessary to join this movement so that my message had an impact on the younger generations ”, considers the artist also initiator of an awareness program on gender equality via the Malian association Karama, working with bozo children.

On the sidelines of educational and civic engagement remains the commercial argument. Difficult for this independent artist to survive the cancellations of concerts and festivals imposed by the health crisis. “I had to perform all summer. So I am counting on the strength of the Internet and hope to see my titles integrate the influential playlists of streaming platforms. The only way for the moment to monetize my music “, notes the apprentice technician, who offers live concerts -” the confined cabaret “- on social networks thanks to her small home studio improvised from the confinement. “I took advantage of this period to equip myself. It is also a good way to go against the clichés which would like a woman artist to be dependent on a man to arrange her productions, ”she says. Because the most important for Pamela Badjogo is to continue to fight for the cause of women by showing that African models exist. “Young African girls often take Western feminists for example. But they quickly become disillusioned because the fights do not correspond to their reality. Today, they can also count on African artists to represent them and bring the MeToo movement to the continent. ”