The organizers of the Ivorian concert by Malian Salif Keïta have just announced the “postponement” of the event. © Damien Glez
Damien Glez
Franco-Burkinabe cartoonist and editorialist.
Published on October 26, 2023 Reading: 2 minutes.
The press release of October 25 leaves its readers wanting more. In a text which is however not laconic, the managers of the company FCS Events inform that “the Salif Keïta concert scheduled for November 17”, in Ivory Coast, is postponed “to a later date”. Anxious to clear customs, the signatories specify twice that the decision is due to “circumstances independent of [leur] will “.
If artists sometimes pose rabbits, the interpreter of Four was delighted to come to Ivory Coast: “Two years since I performed on Ivorian soil. It took a long time! It is therefore with great joy that I announce my next show in Abidjan. Live at the Palais de la culture in Treichville. »
Report sine the
The organizers’ press release mentions “problems” the nature of which is not specified. He still outlines the difficulty in “guaranteeing the safety and satisfaction” of the public. What security issue could therefore threaten the singer’s performance? Since nature abhors a communication vacuum, Internet users do not hesitate to extrapolate on a political register. A call to boycott the concert had begun to circulate.
If Salif Keïta intended to celebrate “the brotherhood and friendship between the brother peoples of Côte d’Ivoire and Mali”, some recall, on social networks, the episode of the 49 Ivorian soldiers detained for a long time in Bamako and the support of singer to the current Malian authorities. On August 11, after a few months on the National Transitional Council, Keïta was appointed special advisor to Colonel Assimi Goïta. Do the singer’s ideological choices make him undesirable on the banks of the Ébrié lagoon? In 2015, however, in Grand Bassam, the griot sang in chorus with Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara.
To read: Salif Keïta, the star at war against the “enemies” of Mali
“Coerced” into its decision, did the company FCS Events receive injunctions? While presenting apologies and thanks to the artist, the public, the partners and all the institutions for their understanding, the organizers insist that this is only a postponement. Without precise timetable…
Be careful that in the meantime, Salif Keïta does not end his career. Even if he has not formally announced his retirement, it was in 2018 that the artist, now 74 years old, published what he still presents as the final album in his long discography. And doesn’t what appears to be an episode of bad musical diplomacy risk triggering an equivalent sports diplomacy? The Ivorian African Cup of Nations known as “2023” is in fact scheduled for next January. Will those who whistled the Salif Keïta concert boo the Malian footballers?
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2023-10-26 15:08:12
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