African Night Festival | Mélissa Lavergne will not be the spokesperson

Andre Duchesne
Press

“I am resigning as a spokesperson. But I want to continue collaborating with Nuits d’Afrique, “said the musician and co-host of the show. Beautiful and bum At Press. He says he is “very sensitive” to the dissatisfaction expressed on social media following his appointment.

“The purpose of Nuits d’Afrique is to accept the mandate, in fact unity, encounters, mixed breeding, inclusion on both sides. That is why it seemed to me that the mandate was legitimate, she continues. In light of all the dissatisfaction it raises, I am very sensitive to this. I verbally told Nuits d’Afrique that I had decided to withdraw.I think it was the right thing to do to pay homage to this anger I was hearing.After that, I have a deep desire to work with Nuits d’Afrique.I think it is wrong to exclude me from the discussion. Brings a response, i.e. how to participate in the conversation without offending it.

The announcement of the appointment was made on Wednesday, especially on the Nuits d’Afrique Instagram site, just before a press conference next week. In their comments, many expressed a mixture of surprise, suspicion, and anger at the announcement that a white woman would be offered the role.

“Shy.», «But nooooooo.”, “This is a joke for sure”, “Really sad”, “Of course what is racism”, we read. Others sent tomato emojis to festival leaders.

Melissa Laverkne, who has been in “crisis management” since yesterday, believes the announcement illustrates the environmental outcry over “pieces of light” shed only on “white personality.”

Nuits d’Afrique and he also told us that he would send a report at the end of the day (Friday). “Nuits d’Afrique, like me, would love to take the time to think about how to respond to all of this for the future,” he explains. At around 10:30 a.m. Friday, Nuits d’Afrique withdrew its release from its Instagram page.

In 2021, Cornell was the event’s spokesperson. Myriam Fehmiu was in 2019 and 2020.

Miriam Fehmiu, who was invited to comment on the case, wrote to us: “I understand that this kind of appointment can hurt and shock some. This murmur, in my opinion, proves that the Afro-descendants are still less listening, seeing, representing and being considered. Now, we must also look at the amazing record of Melissa Laverkne who lived in Africa. As soon as her appointment was announced, I wrote a letter of congratulations to Melissa, and I hope she can be a brilliant spokesperson for an event surrounding African, Caribbean and Latin music, which aims to unite cultures the universal language of music. What we need most now is to build bridges between us. ⁇

For his part, Cornell told us he was “not available for this interview”.