33: Francophone Pt. 1

Have You Heard George's Podcast?

BBC

Drama, History, Fiction

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2023

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The power of Western languages over African economies is undeniable, and nowhere is this more obvious than in Black music. Despite "Francophone” meaning French-speaking, across Africa, it signifies so much more. George looks at the power dynamics between the English-speaking world, the French-speaking world and the Africans forced to navigate both. How did these languages become so important? And what do they reveal about the legacy of colonialism? Written by George the Poet Produced by Benbrick & George the Poet Original score composed by Benbrick and performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts.
0:05.0	Music Radio Podcasts.
0:08.0	Hello and welcome to episode 33 of Have You Heard George's podcast. This is the fifth episode of
0:16.0	chapter 4 after empire. Let's go to the Ivory Coast. Every time that beat drops, I want to hear the whole song,
0:31.0	every time that beat drops, I want to hear the whole song. I used to think all the Africans knew about it. I was so wrong. It's in French, not French.
0:45.0	It's in French, but it's not French.
0:49.0	But I did spend 10 weeks in the French top 10th
0:52.0	and 15 weeks in Belgium's top 40. The cells took off shortly after.
0:58.4	Now it came from a country next door to Ghana,
1:01.1	Caudevois. It's about a man's ex coming back when she sees him going far and he's
1:07.0	like, Oivoua. He actually says one of my favourite lines. It's something I thought to say all the time. Here it goes.
1:13.0	Apparently it means you're mad. This is
1:25.0	This is Premier Gow by Magic System.
1:30.0	The title comes from an Ivorian warning about making bad decisions, like the lead singer's ex,
1:35.6	leaving him when he weren't cool, or him taking her back. The title literally means
1:40.3	first fool. food. Nia should be biased as a Ugandan, but even I can admit this is the African anthem.
1:52.0	It was released in 99 by a bang on 2. Africans loved it.
1:56.7	Francophone, youths and Anglophone too. Can't lie for years I thought it was from Congo. We didn't really know any Ivorian songs though.
2:07.0	Because like the journalist on Diro or Ganga said,
2:11.0	like nobody even refers to themselves as Anglophone anyway.
2:15.0	Is this Kenya?
2:16.0	It's this Nigeria.
	...

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