Among the countless festivals that enliven and enchant the city of Montreal, there is one quite special and absolutely not commercial that is celebrating its thirty-seventh anniversary. “Nuits d’Afrique”, this veteran, was born from the will of a Guinean Lamine Touré, who immigrated to Canada, a music lover and, after having been a dancer, became an entrepreneur. Owner of a clothing factory located rue Casgrain, on the heights of Montreal, with its 150 employees, he worked mainly for the French brand New man. This activity allowed him to finance his passion, and especially his Creole Café created lower in the city, rue Sainte Catherine.
This place was the first “tropical club” in Montreal. He invited the ban and the back ban of this music which has its roots in Africa – whether Brazilian, Haitian or, of course, Guinean. And when in 1985 they put up for sale a cabaret that was doing poorly, located in the heart of what was then the Jewish quarter, Lamine Touré, with the help of Lise and Suzanne, launched the Balattou. And what an unexpected success! Even the baker opposite had advised him against the adventure. This club, he had warned him, was going from failure to bankruptcy. But Touré, under his nonchalant air, is the determined type, and he does not budge: “I don’t like ghettos, he explains to us, behind a black coffee on the terrace of the troquet which adjoins the Balattou . In Montreal, yet a city of successive immigrations and which has seen the arrival of Somalis, Ethiopians, Ghanaians, the communities do not mix with each other. Everyone stays in between. But music proves the opposite: the influences of each other are changing genres and styles but also mentalities. This is how each week at Balattou, this fine team of three people “who did everything, from reception to cleaning”, takes pleasure in mixing genres and therefore audiences. When summer comes, it pushes the melodies and rhythms to Saint-Laurent Street, which the city has agreed to close on certain evenings. It is this investment in public space that will give wings to the festival and hence to Balattou.
Their success prompted the city to suggest that they organize a larger festival, to be held every summer on the quiet Esplanade, a very central location. With the first years of a single stage, which it will quickly double, the festival remains faithful to the Balattou recipe: the mixture of genres. With great success, which is amplified by the obligation of free admission that Montreal imposes on everything that happens in the public space. The concerts are linked on one stage or the other from the end of the afternoon until late in the evening. This year, nearly a hundred concerts were offered which attracted some 200,000 people.
We come to Nuits d’Afrique to applaud headliners like Kandy Guira, Ilam, Rusdell Nunez or Dicko Fils…, to discover more intimate artists such as Iba Diabaté, Rebecca Jean, but also to stroll through the African market which offers fabrics , trinkets, colorful baskets, shirts or hats – at prices that have nothing to do with Africa! – to taste the flavors of Mauritius or those of the Caribbean, or lend an ear to a concert encountered by chance. All in a friendly atmosphere. To close the festival, it was Meiway and the Zo Gang who worked with their usual banter, in front of 10,000 totally captivated people. In short, thirty-seven years of success that owes nothing to anyone, except the talents offered by this festival: although it has a role as much cultural as political, it is one of the least subsidized by the city. Even the new and small festival “Complètement cirque” is now better endowed. Next meeting in July 2024.
