In the early 1990s, the wind of multiparty politics was blowing across West Africa and Aïcha Koné filled venues to the tune of “Africa Liberté”. In 2024, the Ivorian “diva” sang the praises of the military regimes of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger on Tik Tok.
Her latest opus, posted on August 26 on the Chinese online video platform – where she has more than half a million subscribers – begins with these words: “AES, the march towards freedom! AES, you are right!”
AES is the acronym for the Alliance of Sahel States: the union of the putschist regimes of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which came to power in 2020, 2022 and 2023 respectively, in these countries facing recurring jihadist violence.
The three juntas that turned their backs on the former French colonial power have tumultuous relations with some of their neighbors, including Ivory Coast, accused of being too close to Paris.
In a song written in 2022 in praise of the Malian leader, Colonel Assimi Goïta, Aïcha Koné also celebrates Russian President Vladimir Putin, who in a few years became the main supporter of the Sahelian juntas, as France, the United States and other Western countries were pushed out.
“The Fama (Malian Armed Forces), strength to you”, hums the Ivorian star on the same title, after the first bars that sound like a military march.
“Mama Africa”, as many of her fans call her, made her debut more than 45 years ago on the sets of RTI, the Ivorian state television, where the star presenter of the time, George Taï Benson, was touched by her timbre of voice, “pure, limpid” and her “diction”.
First a chorister, then a solo singer, she rubbed shoulders with the greatest African artists of the time: her “model” the South African Miriam Makeba, the Cameroonian Manu Dibango, the Congolese Tabu Ley Rochereau, the Senegalese Youssou N’Dour and Ismaël Lô…
The voice of the hits “Aminata” and “Africa Liberté” is particularly recognizable for its softness and lyricism. Her pieces from Mandingo music – a people of West Africa – use a language, Dioula, but abandon traditional instruments such as balafons for guitars, piano and brass.
“She was a modern singer” at the beginning, who “amazed”, and “a musical personality who did not go unnoticed”, whose success touched “the whole continent”, analyses Boncana Maïga, her very famous arranger.
– “I say bravo to them” –
From the beginning of her career, Aïcha Koné was close to heads of state, well before the return of military regimes in West Africa.
In the 67-year-old artist’s house, numerous framed photos show her alongside Ivorian presidents – Félix Houphouët Boigny (1960-1993), Henri Konan Bédié (1993-1999) who both helped her financially, she assures us, or Laurent Gbagbo (2000-2010).
Thirty years later, no more suits or ties: it is men in uniform, who have become heads of state by force, who receive her.
In August, it was the Nigerien general Abdourahamane Tiani who welcomed him to Niamey, after having given a series of concerts in the capital.
A few weeks earlier, the president of Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traoré – whom she affectionately calls “my son” – kissed her in Ouagadougou.
The sequence, filmed and posted on Tik Tok by the singer, had exceeded a million views by the end of August.
“They were all happy to receive me, I gave them my support,” she explained to AFP during an interview at her home in Abidjan.
“We all want our independence,” she justifies, praising the “noble fight” of the juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, three former French colonies which have “loudly stated that they want to take their destiny into their own hands.”
“I say bravo to them. They need support and I am one of those supporters,” she adds.
Another Ivorian artist, reggae star Tiken Jah Fakoly, standard-bearer of anti-colonial and pan-Africanist struggles, had shown his support for the AES before denouncing this summer the brutal repression of discordant voices.
In recent years, dozens of opponents, journalists, magistrates and human rights defenders have disappeared, been detained or have been forcibly recruited in Burkina Faso to be sent to the front lines against armed jihadist groups, while in Mali, the army is accused by the UN, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International of abuses against civilians.
“I have always sung for peace,” assures Aïcha Koné.
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