Who would have thought that the Festival International du Zouk (FIZ) of Guadeloupe would have reached the age of 20? Not many people, and certainly not the founder of this musical event! In the Caribbean, there are many festivals celebrating the musical rhythms specific to each island. Jamaica, for example, has just celebrated the 31st edition of its Reggae Sumfest, whose motto is “Our Music, Our Festival”; this major event welcomes the many reggae stars as well as thousands of Jamaican and foreign spectators.
Zouk was born in Guadeloupe, and we would also have liked to be able to say “Our Music, Our Festival”, unfortunately, the FIZ Guadeloupe takes place in a certain “confidentiality”, not having significant budget for promoting the event, inviting zouk artists or even installing a big stage for major concerts…
It seems that some people have never accepted that the founder of FIZ Guadeloupe – who is not a musician – once had the idea of launching this event. It is even said that some people have already tried to take over the FIZ and turn it into a “slot machine”…
Kassav’, who should have welcomed the existence of this festival in honor of its music, has never helped this festival, and the band (composed of Guadeloupeans and Martinicans) even asked for an astronomical sum when they were asked to perform on stage a few years ago… Perhaps a polite way of telling the FIZ founder that he is not the creator of this music, nor even a musician, and that he should leave the matter to professionals…
However, a Portuguese-speaking African country, Mozambique, launched its Festival do Zouk or Festival Tropical Zouk in Maputo in 2012. In 2013, Kassav’ headlined the 2nd edition and performed in front of thousands of spectators.
In September 2018, Kassav’ also agreed to perform in front of a huge crowd at the first edition of the Festival Zouk Angola, another Portuguese-speaking African country that incidentally has the only zouk museum and has now called zouk, “kizomba”. If this isn’t a hold-up…
More and more, current or former members of Kassav’ are taking part in FIZ debates, but we wonder where have they been in recent years? Note that they come to “talk” but not to offer a concert… Is it the death of Jacob Desvarieux (the “Boss” who was good at business and knew how to negotiate contracts) that has freed speech?
For his part, Patrick Saint-Éloi, who had left Kassav’ in 2002 to start a solo career, regularly gave advice to FIZ organizers; in 2005, the king of zouk-love wrote specially for the festival: “Zouk la sé tan nou! Sé nou ki fey! Fo nou fey viv pou nou pa jen oubliyé ki moun nou yé” (Zouk belongs to us! We made it! We must keep it alive so that we never forget who we are). So what’s the FIZ waiting for to let the music play?
As we can see, if in Guadeloupe, we drag our feet to make this music that is ours a cultural product contributing to the archipelago’s economic development, musical events devoted to zouk are springing up elsewhere. Reunion Island also organized the 8th edition of its Festival du Zouk last January in Saint-Paul, with numerous artists from Guadeloupe and Martinique.
In recent years, the FIZ organization has much “tinkered” to keep this festival alive, due to a lack of funding, particularly from the major local authorities. It must be said that in Guadeloupe, the network of cronyism often determines the success or failure of a project.
The FIZ Guadeloupe organization assures not to want to transform this event into big concerts, but is it not first a celebration of music?
Created 14 years ago, we see that the great FIZ Guadeloupe art exhibition (Expo d’Aw FIZ), held at the Centre culturel Rémy Nainsouta in Pointe-à-Pitre and in other towns more recently, has become the highlight of this musical event, and its opening ceremony looks like the official launch of the festival… which is a bit strange.
Of course, all artistic disciplines can be associated with FIZ, but the Guadeloupe audience expects to see mainly artists playing, singing and dancing zouk on stage.
In addition, at the FIZ Guadeloupe, there are conferences to talk about zouk. In 2019, on the occasion of its 5th edition, FIZ Martinique has even organized, in collaboration with the Université des Antilles, Martinique Division, a colloquium entitled “Le Zouk: Trajectoires, imaginaires et perspectives” (Zouk: Trajectories, imaginaries and perspectives). But what was the significance of the fine words spoken by these participants? Clearly, none, because in France and abroad, some people continue to take this music, sometimes in denying its name. Many people are still unaware of the origin of this music.
Recently, we witnessed a surreal scene on social networks where artists (some of whom were not from the West Indies…) got from the promoter to exclude a Martinican zouk star who had been performing for over 25 years from a zouk concert in Paris… No wonder our artists did not rush to support their colleague, since almost all our singers and musicians have left the archipelago to settle in France in the hope of making a better living from their art, which is far from being the case, so it’s best not to tangle with the few show promoters who could get them up on stage.
So it’s time for Zouk music to become the backbone of the Festival International du Zouk. A large podium is absolutely essential to welcome the many artists every year. Now that the organization benefits from the financial support of the local authorities – notably the Regional Council and the Departmental Council – their logos now appear on the flyers, the FIZ must put an end to the “tinkering” and “confidentiality” that have been going on for 20 years, and allow this music to shine in our region. This big podium with the stars of Zouk – which seems to frighten the organizers – must show the whole world that this rhythm was born here and is our pride.
There is money to do this major Zouk Festival in Guadeloupe since there is money to do, every year, festivals for young people featuring Guadeloupean dancehall artists; dancehall is a Jamaican music.
This festival must now contribute to the cultural and economic development of our territory. As for the major music festivals in the Caribbean, zouk lovers must come from France and abroad to participate in this party in July or August.
Of course, they can combine other arts (painting, photography, sculpting, etc.) in an exhibition, organize debates and various competitions, but music or the performance of singers and musicians live on stage must imperatively become the motor of the FIZ.
The FIZ Guadeloupe urgently needs to start this shift, which means that the organization must agree to add professionals to its team. For while Guadeloupe is “tinkering” with its music, others are shamelessly exploiting it, even giving it another name and enriching themselves.
