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Angelique Kidjo:
“My Music, My Vision”
By Linda A. Annan
The nearly perfect, colorful, traditional imageries captured in her break-through videos were beyond commanding. In inventive motions Angelique Kidjo set a tone and stage very foreign to many African women and girls at the time, releasing an enigmatic sensation that hung loose around passion better left unexplained. Behind this cinematic scene is a powerful woman who, for many years, has unreservedly demonstrated a passion for female empowerment.
“When I grew up in Benin , there was a lot of pressure on my dad not to put his girls in school. But he did it anyway and I am very grateful. It has helped me so much in my life and in my career,” Kidjo explains her intense passion for female education in Africa in an exclusive e-mail interview with Obaasema.
And she adds: “When girls are around 10 years old, in many countries they are brought back home to take care of the little ones. I am hoping that we can help the family in a way that would encourage them to let their girls learn. African women are so strong and are already involved in many informal businesses. Imagine what it would be to have highly educated women involved in the development of the continent!”
In 2007 Kidjo founded a non-governmental organization based in the U.S. called The Batonga Foundation. Determined to partake in the diminution of illiteracy among girls in Africa , the organization is acting by providing secondary and higher education to girls through scholarships, granting better teaching standards, building secondary schools, encouraging mentor programs that build platforms for young girls to maintain healthy relationships with older women who serve as “protectors,” a term used by the organization. It strives to shred gender biases and traditions that deter female empowerment and educational opportunities.
“We have been able to grant scholarships to girls in five countries. It is still a limited number of girls but we have to start somewhere,” she says of what she perceives to be the organization's biggest accomplish thus far. “I hope we will be able to pursue this effort much further.”
Equally important to this compassionate singer are advocacy projects involving the neglected, like Annie Lennox's “Sing” project, a record created with a team of 22 other female megastars to raise money and awareness for the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), an HIV/AIDS organization. The initiative involves creating awareness about transmission of the disease to unborn children in Africa .
“The medicine that prevents the mother from transmitting the virus to her baby is so inexpensive. Every HIV positive mother should be able to afford it. This is the fight that Annie Lennox is fighting and if my voice can be of any help, I am willing to join!”
Kidjo, who has served as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF since July 25 th 2002, is no alien to humanitarian work, and devotes a significant amount of her time to the causes of the organization.
“When I was a little girl, I was afraid of the UNICEF bus that brought vaccinations to us because I was scared of needles,” Kidjo recalls. “Now I realize that UNICEF has done so much for my health ad education. When they contacted me in 2002 after a big event at the United Nations and offered me the opportunity to be a Goodwill Ambassador, I was thrilled. My focal point has been girls' education. I have visited many countries and met so many mothers and kids. If we are able to properly educate the new generation of African kids, the continent will change for the better. There is no doubt in my mind about it.”
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