The singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka visits New York this week to help campaign for the voices of Africa's women and children to be heard at the opening of the new session of the United Nations General Assembly, and for the leaders of the G20 countries not to forget their commitments to the continent. Chaka Chaka serves as a goodwill ambassador for the UN Children's Fund, for the Roll Back Malaria campaign and for 46664 (Nelson Mandela's global HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention campaign). She recently sat down to talk to AllAfrica in our Washington, DC offices. Excerpts:
You are here after participating in the Mandela Day Concert, but we also wanted to talk to you about your charity work and helping fight malaria.
Well I think coming for the concert is charity work as well because none of the musicians got paid for that… Mandela's charities is something that one had to do and you cannot say "no" to a man who was incarcerated for 27 years, who came out and said, "Let's all live together, let's all work together, let's all do things together despite color or creed."
For him to take a stand and say, "AIDS kills people and AIDS is a human rights issue," is just so commendable… He took it upon himself to say that people are dying, there's poverty out there, there's AIDS, there's malaria, there's TB and said [he would use his] name to combat malaria or AIDS or whatever.
So for me to do this, it all links to wanting to do better for other people. Coming here and doing the concert was an eye-opener – seeing that there is love and that people are willing to do better…
Why did you choose fighting malaria as cause?
I wanted to do malaria because one of my musicians died from malaria. We went to Gabon to do a show and coming back she contracted malaria. She was misdiagnosed by doctors in South Africa. They thought it was a fever and she died of cerebral malaria….
It was an eye-opener. I needed also to be educated; I needed to know more and I starting saying, Ok, yeah, I'll start to give … all the effort that I have to make sure no one dies of malaria.
That's wishful thinking, but you know for me to go out there educating women and talking to ordinary people who may have just been sitting there or not having any knowledge about malaria… doing lots of advocacy… asking for more money, asking for transparency and political will from governments, has made me a better person, because I know there are other countries where you see positive reactions.
And people know what is supposed to be done and some of them just don't have resources to help themselves…. Phumzile's death was not something that was very good, but it's going to help other people out there.
I saw you last in western Kenya during distribution of malaria nets and water filters. Can you talk about some of the groups you are currently working with?
Working with UNICEF and Roll Back Malaria and Goodwill With Voices for me is so good – just to see that there are other [corporations] and companies who want to do their social responsibility, and want to go down to the people to help them and don't worry just about the bottom line …
Going down to Kenya, making this whole integrated program, was really very good because you just can't do one thing and say that we are concentrating on AIDS, we are concentrating on malaria, we are concentrating on TB. [There is a] synergy in all of those things. And I think what Vestiguard did was very commendable… We had so many people volunteering to test for AIDS … People cannot take their treatment if they don't know their status, but once you are aware of your status you will know to start your treatment ...
But I think the most important thing for me is to empower women, because I think they are the ones who are sort of disenfranchised, who are segregated and who are being pushed aside. But you know if you empower a woman you empower the whole nation because they know what to do with the nets. And even with the small grants … it is a good thing because whatever they have they will use it appropriately for their families and their children.
And the little that they can have [they] may use it to generate some income for themselves. But I don't think we have to leave [out] men. We also have to take them with us because I think they really have to learn that if they are not doing what they are supposed to do the whole family gets disenfranchised and they are the ones who suffer. So I think it is time to teach even our boys to be responsible so that they can be better men.
I had a quick question about eradicating malaria - what do you think is the biggest obstacle?
Well the very same effort that they put in eradicating polio, I think the same should be done with AIDS and malaria. Obviously funding is a huge obstacle. Political will – that's what we need as well. The funds should go to where they are supposed to as well … And I think it is important to have a civil society there and having their voices and …I think it is important that ordinary people know that the government received the money, where they received it, and how it should be used … If the money is not used well people will still suffer. So I think that there should be some accountability …
We don't have to despair because I know sometimes I actually feel disgruntled and say, "Why am I doing this?" because I don't see any results. But when you go to places like Zanzibar, you see that there was so much malaria and you see tourism is booming now… Nobody wants to get to get sick, so we need to get these leaders to show their counterparts that we did it this way and it can be done… and its good for the economy and its good for development as well.
In Africa, I think a huge problem is [bed net] distribution because of the infrastructure, but if we use ordinary people to do that I think it will be great thing to do. Tourists, they make means to go to the remote areas, and really if you work with people on the ground in those areas to distribute the nets … that would be absolutely great…
There are consistently things preventing them from using the nets, but if you go out there and say, "Here are the nails and we give you the nails, we will show you how to hang the nets and please once you see how it is done, help your neighbor do that," it really helps.
This would be different from the broad, massive net distribution – get more personal but get functional as well.
Exactly, do it correctly and you know that it's done. You know because by the time we left Ethiopia we had gone to different places and hung all those nets and some of the people that we had done it for had to go to their neighbors, to go and help them. So at least there was a lot of progress that we [saw] that the nets were going to be used and [people] will be sleeping under them because everything was done.
[Explaining how she insisted on women getting nets] My worry was that are they [the men] coming back to collect all those nets so that they can sleep under them or will they give them to their pregnant wives and their children under five? … I was happy to see them and I insisted to them to make sure that they give [the nets] to their wives to sleep under but … I knew. I am an African woman, I knew their women are never going to see those nets so it was very good to have women have their own nets...
Back to the HIV testing campaign …
It was very good when we were in Kenya. Obviously, men were sort of resisting. We had lots of women coming and … [eventually] men just came as well. I think another huge problem that we have is stigma. People are scared to be known to be having HIV. You know, if you have it and you just sit there and deteriorate, it's bad. Rather, know you have it and you're going to take precautions and take treatment and get better and you can start functioning – it's good for you and your family as well… I don't know how we're going to get around the stigma part…
So you were using your fame for this purpose – and how is your career doing?
It's doing ok, but my humanitarian [work] comes first for me. Twenty-four years in the music industry it's just been very good, but if I can use my face, my stage name, going out there to help people. I can sit down and say I can make all these records, but if people are dying whose going to buy them anyway? So let's entertain them as well as educate them.
It is related because if you keep your celebrity high then you have more influence.
This is exactly what I am saying. I always say it's good to entertain people… you still have to educate them as well and there is no better way to do it [than] with your voice … If you don't go down to the people you will never know what their needs are and what their problems are …
What are your thoughts on the art and music industries in South Africa, especially considering the young people who are trying to walk in your footsteps?
I think it is very good; people are not immortal. Music has to evolve … I think we've got to encourage them. I collaborate with young musicians. I worked with my son who is a producer. I gave him the platform to be able to air his views, to showcase his talents and things like that. Obviously, we have to channel them and show them - it is not about fame ... It's about responsibility; it's about caring for your people as well.
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Obviously, not all of us want to do things for others. Others are just happy to enrich [themselves] but others are quite mindful of the state of our status. … What I always say to young musicians is it's all good and well to be famous but use your fame correctly and use it positively.
We were talking about AIDS and getting down to the people. Do you think something culturally needs to change among Africans for them to want to get tested and know their status?
I think it is cultural. I think sometimes we just hide behind our cultures. Education is the most important because if people are not educated, its like they are walking in the dark … We have to really empower those people, women and young girls … We have to empower them and say to them, "Put your foot down and say 'I want to use a condom or I want to check for both our statuses to see if we are still ok'."
And some women are not able to do that because they are scared they are going to be thrown out of the house and won't have a place to stay or [their] children will suffer and things like that. So they would rather just stay and say everything is ok when it is not.
Any thoughts on the new leadership in South Africa?
Things have to change; life has to go on … Madiba [Nelson Mandela] was a great leader and Thabo Mbeki as well … And [now] we've got President Jacob Zuma. I think really it's we ordinary people who breed dictators because if you have a leader sitting in position for five years he will sit there comfortably and not think he has to do things correctly. And I think three or four years is good for a leader and you have other new management or leadership…
Jacob Zuma... says the right things and I'm sure his going to do the right things because he puts himself in people's shoes and he goes there to the grassroots. People who are middle class or the rich people can look well after themselves. They can go to America. They can go to England to go and get treatment. People who are [impoverished], they need good facilities whether it's health or education or things like that and those are the people that we have to consistently fight for to get things done correctly for themselves.
