Star Metro - Singer Angelique Kidjo urges Africans to 'create together'

Speaking at a Spotify gathering in Johannesburg, 66-year-old Kidjo wore a red headwrap, glasses and a printed blazer as she lauded the power and potential of Africa's youth.

"We are the only continent where we are fighting with each other and within ourselves," said the Beninese singer and activist who was in the city for a jazz festival.

"The youth today is hungry for new things," she said. "We need to come together and set aside our differences and create together, tell our story together."

Kidjo urged Africans to take ownership of how the continent is represented.

"We have so much culture in Africa. It's frightening. It's scary. It is so big that even we are overwhelmed, but we have to be strategic. We have to be focused," she said.

The "Agoro" and "Afirika" hitmaker -- whose career spans more than four decades, 18 albums and countless international collaborations -- became the first Black African to receive the Hollywood star in August.

Kidjo danced in her seat at the event to songs from her latest album "Hope", which features artists Pharrell Williams and Ayra Starr -- crediting social media and "DMs" for forging her relationships with them.

"Art is a form of resistance, and we do that so well in Africa, in painting, in storytelling, books, theatre, whatever form of art we have, we always transcend it," said the humanitarian, named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people.

Kidjo strives to empower girls and young women in Africa through her Batonga Foundation and has been a UNICEF Goodwill ambassador since 2002.

"I'm going to empower everybody on the continent to tell their own story," she said.

A.Desjardins--SMC