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(woman singing in foreign language)
♪ I'm still standing with blood on my shoe ♪
♪ I protected all the women and me ♪
♪ My bones are stronger my roots are deeper ♪
♪ I can tell you all the stories in me ♪
(funky blues music)
(singing in foreign language)
I want my continent to be a place
where people can dream and believe that their dreams are valid.
That they can realize those dreams.
My home is embattled by desertification and drought...
...migration and conflict.
The Sahel is one of the regions that suffers the most from the changing climate.
(singing)
Being from Mali, being African,
I cannot look the other way.
We need to create solutions
for the issues that we're facing.
♪ I keep on ♪
♪ Walking ♪
♪ I keep on ♪
♪ Going ♪
I heard about this ambitious idea
that aims to combat desertification
and re-green landscapes from Senegal to Djibouti,
west to east.
This 8,000-km Great Green Wall would be my roadmap.
The Great Green Wall,
it's not just about planting trees.
Restoring the land is a matter of survival.
This is a story of resilience.
This is a story of...
actively taking your destiny in your own hands.
I wonder if it's going to work in the end.
Is it going to help stop people from migrating?
I'm searching for answers.
I'm trying to understand...
...how can we create an African dream?
♪ I keep on walking ♪
♪ I keep on going ♪
♪ I keep on ♪
♪ Walking ♪
♪ I will always get up and keep on walking ♪
The Sahel is a region south of the Sahara Desert.
It's very dry and very hot.
You can see how the changing climate affects people.
We all have a responsibility to do something.
It's a shared responsibility.
(soft guitar music)
I can use my voice as an artist to share what's at stake.
So I'm on this epic journey
that I'm starting here in Senegal.
(French chatter) (laughter)
I'm going to travel all along the Sahel,
and I'm recording an album to tell the story of the Great Green Wall
and the challenges that we face.
Didier Awadi is a pioneer in West African hip-hop.
I remember seeing him with his group,
Positive Black Soul, when I was a teenager.
It was a first time for me to see hip-hop in an African language.
And with issues that I could relate to.
It was, like: "This is us. He's talking about us."
(soft guitar music) (Inna singing)
(Inna laughing)
- Thomas Sankara was Burkina Faso's revolutionary president in the 1980s,
and a leader in the Pan-African movement.
Sankara said, "We must dare to invent the future."
- And his words have become a kind of mantra for this journey.
- The Sahel is one of the most vulnerable places on Earth.
It's on the frontline of climate change.
More than 80% of people survive on some form of agriculture.
If people can't work their land...
...millions across the region will be forced to migrate.
(man singing)
I heard this saying here. It's:
(Inna laughing) (man singing)
(farmers singing)
(hip hop)
- Yeah!
The song is about migration.
How young people get pushed away by the desert.
I wanted to remind young people that...
there used to be a dream here.
- For me, the most important thing:
restore the hopes, even if it seems to be...
- Hopeless. - Sorry for my broken English, huh?
I've been colonized by the French, so... (laughter)
(snapping fingers) ♪ Unh ♪
- People are always asking themselves:
"Should I stay or should I go?"
What would you do?
For some people, there is no choice.
You have to go.
"I have nothing to eat, I cannot farm,
I have zero way to earn money. What should I do?"
- Big Makou went on this journey trying to go to Europe.
He went up to Libya.
Got caught by the Libyan government and put in jail.
When he was on this journey, he had a phone call.
He learned that he was going to have a baby,
and it shifted something in his mind.
Insh'Allah. - Insh'Allah.
- Then he came back to his village.
Salaam-Alaikum. He wanted a future for his kid.
- That's when he wrote the song that has become the anthem of the village.
- The African dream, for a long time, has been out of the continent.
A lot of people share the same experience.
By restoring the land,
maybe people will be able to create their dream here.
(playback)
(soft guitar music over beats)
(singing and clapping continue)
(Inna): In Senegal, the Great Green Wall has become a symbol of hope.
But across the Sahel, it's more a vision than a reality.
Less than 15% is underway.
With so many issues affecting the region,
I wonder if countries will be able to make this happen.
In the North of Mali, where I come from...
...there's a huge crisis.
Almost half-a-million people have been displaced.
We can see that because of desertification,
because of the consequences of climate change,
there is insecurity.
(crowd chanting)
We do have conflict.
We do have poverty. But we have much more.
(men singing)
We have culture.
We have traditions.
We have music.
I would like to share another narrative.
♪ We will keep on fighting ♪
♪ The light is coming ♪
Un, deux. Un, deux.
I really wanted to collaborate with the Songhoy Blues.
They had to flee from the north of Mali, come to Bamako.
They are the perfect example for other young people
to see that there is hope.
- When we first met, she was, like:
"We need to write something to give hope to the new African generation."
The idea of the melody and the whole text
comes from that one word: African dream.
♪ Africa yeah ♪
♪ Africa eh ♪
- We are from the north of Mali,
and when you talk about desert, you wanna talk about melody.
And the more you move from the desert to the south in the jungle,
the more you move from the melody to the percussion.
So we're trying to find that balance
between the north and the south.
(Inna singing)
(band singing)
♪ Africa yeah ♪
♪ Africa yeah... ♪
(singing) (guitar strumming) (laughter)
(singing)
- For as long as I remember,
I've always wanted to be a musician.
I've always wanted to use my voice.
I started being an activist...
because of my own story.
When I was a kid...
...I went through female genital mutilation.
A family member took me...
...and did it to me.
It really messed with everything that I believed in.
And so I decided to be vocal about the consequences.
I used my music for my activism.
(soft guitar music)
♪ I used to walk 100 miles ♪
♪ To get water for my people ♪
♪ Used to walk 100 miles ♪
♪ To get water to get water ♪
I've been an activist for almost 15 years now.
Music can educate people, it can open minds.
(cheering) Merci beaucoup!
(laughter)
With the conflicts and the crisis going on...
...it's difficult to focus on the Great Green Wall.
We have to be aware of that...
...to understand the struggle of people.
And to understand what they are overcoming.
♪ Africa yeah ♪
♪ Africa yeah... ♪
♪ Africa yeah ♪
♪ Africa yeah... ♪
(rapping in foreign language)
(song fading)
(horn blowing)
- Well, I hope that it will bring awareness
and shed a light on the stories of the people
that we had the chance to meet.
It's really important to show the world that we are doing something
and that we are really the change-makers.
- It's all connected.
(background chatter)
If people are not able to make a living where they are...
...there are going to be conflicts.
In the north of Nigeria...
...the conflicts are strongly tied
to the changing of the climate.
Thirty-million people survive on Lake Chad's ecosystem.
But in the last 50 years,
the lake has shrunk by 90%.
The armed group Boko Haram has taken advantage of the crisis.
- Hello! - Hi!
- Waje! - How are you? - I'm good!
- Oh! - Oh!
- Nice to meet you. - Nice to finally meet you. - Finally.
(laughter) Waje is one of my favourite Nigerian pop stars.
♪ I feel it in the air ♪
♪ Feel it in the air ♪
She uses her fame as a platform for good.
♪ Anywhere you dey ♪
Let them know say you be strong girl ♪
We both care about issues that affect women.
And during conflict,
women and girls are the most vulnerable people.
(children singing)
- Hi. How are you? - I'm good. How are you?
- I'm super, thank you. - Nice to see you.
(singing)
- So, Hauwa, you've been going to school for four years now.
What do you like about school?
- What about you, Fatima?
- So you're an activist against child marriage.
- Yeah, I'm against child marriage.
- How old are you? - I'm 14. - Fourteen.
And what is Hauwa's story?
- You're such brave girls.
Hauwa, I know that you like to sing.
Do you want me to sing?
(Inna laughing)
(speaking foreign language)
One, two, go.
♪ I keep on walking ♪
♪ I keep on going ♪
♪ I keep on walking ♪
♪ I will always get up and keep on walking ♪
♪ I keep on walking ♪
This is a song that I wrote,
and I didn't know that they were going to perform it. Oh, my God.
♪ I keep on walking ♪
(soft music)
♪ I keep on walking ♪ (harmonizing)
♪ I keep on going ♪
♪ I keep on ♪
♪ Walking ♪
♪ I will always get up and keep on walking ♪
(laughter)
What... (vocalizing)
- Every message has its melody, has its vibe.
I think this one is very blues.
It has a ballad feel to it. It's rich.
(French chatter)
My message is inclusion.
That's why some of the words I'm writing, I'm writing in Pidgin.
It's like our local English.
Like, when I say: ♪ Oh sister ♪ that's very Nigerian.
In that way, I sort of bring the Afro beat vibe to it.
♪ Oh sister ♪
♪ Why are you crying ♪
How do we make sure that,
even as the message is hope,
we shine the light on the problem as well?
- It's easier for them to recruit among the young people.
But Bintu and Modu,
who are here with us, were not recruited.
They were abducted.
How did you both get involved in this?
(gunfire)
- What age?
(gunfire)
- You said that smiling.
- I couldn't sleep last night.
I was just...
The beautiful girls that we saw who lost their parents,
killed by Boko Haram.
And then knowing that I was going in to speak
with an ex-fighter and the wife of three of them.
But this was something that I've heard about, but it was so far.
But seeing these two young people in front of me, it made it real.
And I was just trying hard not to shake,
because he told me that he killed so many people,
but he was smiling while saying that.
But at the same time, what these kids were asking for is:
"Do not stigmatize us.
We are also victims and we want a second chance."
- One of the things that has...
challenged me in this whole project
is the fact that...
me coming from Lagos,
our realities are totally different.
These regions are still very part of the country that I live in.
- Yeah.
- And I'm uncomfortable with the fact that...
I will probably go back tomorrow and live my life as I've always.
- It's all of us,
because when you see that the lake has receded,
that's not the villagers' responsibility.
- Responsibility. - The consequences...
are here for us to see.
- Whatever I do now is gonna affect you, one way or the other.
- In French, we call it:
♪ Yeah hey ♪
♪ Oh sister ♪
♪ Why are you crying ♪
♪ My brother ♪
♪ Why are you scared and blue ♪
♪ I know it's not that easy ♪ ♪ Easy ♪
♪ The world can be deceiving ♪
♪ Deceiving ♪
♪ Today now you wear a crown of shame ♪
♪ But through your eyes I see sunshine and rain ♪
♪ When the world has turned its back on you ♪
♪ I got you I got you ♪
♪ When you feel it's all said and done ♪
♪ I got you I got you ♪
♪ When it's time for you to stand your ground ♪
♪ I got you I got you ♪
(music fading)
(drumming)
- Sometimes I can't help but wonder
if we are ever going to succeed in this, because it's bold.
(singing)
(spirited singing)
- Africa is home to the youngest population in the world.
By 2050, there will be more than a billion young people
under the age of 25 on the continent.
With a growing population...
...and the negative impact of the changing climate...
...the number of youth expected to leave the continent...
...will only increase.
In Niger, women have an average of more than seven children.
It's the highest birth rate on the planet.
- Wow.
(laughter)
(baby crying)
- For the youth across Africa...
...Niger is the crossroads on the way to Europe.
Sixty-million people are expected to leave by 2050.
What else can you do...
...than try to find a better life?
Bonjour, mon frère.
(soft guitar music)
(crying)
(soft flute and guitar music)
Being able to provide for your family
is the duty of a lot of young people.
A lot of them decide to go
and find the opportunities somewhere else.
They will go through hell.
When you really don't have the choice, you take that risk.
I thought that I really knew Africa,
because of the different experience that I've been through in my life.
But during this journey, I realized that I know nothing.
I am not that brave, I'm not that resilient.
Because I was far, far, far...
from what I've seen.
When most people think about Ethiopia...
...they think of the famine in the 1980s.
More than 400,000 people died.
The country was devastated by major drought.
What most people don't know...
...is that today...
...they have another story to tell.
Oh, hi, Betty! - Hello.
- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you, too.
Welcome to Ethiopia. - Thank you. (laughter)
- So this is actually the end of your journey.
Do you think your experience is fuelling this last song?
- That will definitely have an impact,
and that's the exciting part of the challenge
of coming to a country and collaborating.
We still have the images of the famine in the '80s.
What I wish, with the music that we're doing,
is that the world can see another side.
- In this country, we have 82 different ethnics,
with different language and different culture.
(singing) (drumming)
On top of it, we have different religions.
For all of us to live together,
we harmonize in some sort of way.
And it creates this Little Africa...
...within Africa.
- Betty G makes these traditional Ethiopian sounds with pop music.
(crowd cheering) We both want to incorporate the idea of unity into the song.
My hope is that all the musicians coming together...
...can be a reflection of the spirit of the Great Green Wall.
- This is an amazing project that you guys are working on.
What kind of change would you want to see with the audiences,
or with the people who are gonna get a hold of this album, this song?
- It's about people being inspired by these stories.
Knowing that in Africa,
it's not just about disease and poverty.
Hopefully, it will change the idea that people have of Africa.
- That image needs to be different,
not just for the rest of the world, but even for ourselves.
- The Great Green Wall has brought hope.
The first step to achieving anything is--
- Is you have to dream it first. - Yeah, and you have to believe that you can do it.
♪ I will rise with you I will stand with you ♪
If I have to I will fight for you ♪
We need to change the mind-sets.
Empowering all these young people
will assure us that the future will be brighter.
I started this journey travelling from west to east,
and the Great Green Wall has been a roadmap for me to create an album.
And the main goal for this album is to bring awareness
to this region of the Sahel.
The initiative started here in the African Union,
but I would like to know how we're going to achieve the goal.
- If you see something as just a problem...
...you're not going to find a solution.
To achieve anything ambitious...
...it starts with a change of mind-set.
Thank you for meeting me in your home.
- Yes, uh... (laughter)
- And this one?
- Avocado. Ah. - Avocado.
- You were here in 1984 when the famine happened.
How did that personally impact you?
- All of this?
- Incredible.
- Yes.
(singing)
- I never expected that the region of Tigray would be so green.
The work that the communities have done in 30 years
is just... mind-blowing.
It's a perfect example for the rest of the Sahel...
...to see that...
we can make a change.
(music) (crowd cheering)
♪ If the world thinks that you're not enough ♪
♪ They cannot feel the fire in your bones ♪
♪ Here you stand in your truth and your flaws ♪
♪ Who are they to throw you their stones ♪
♪ I will rise with you I will stand with you ♪
♪ If I have to I will fight for you ♪
♪ We will stand as one ♪
♪ We will lead as one ♪
♪ If we have to we will fight as one ♪
♪ I will rise with you I will stand with you ♪
♪ If I have to I will fight for you ♪
(drumming and singing)
Being from the Sahel,
I knew that...
the change in climate affects people.
But now that I've been on this journey...
...now I know what kind of race we are in.
We need to make this happen now.
I want to believe that we are going to do enough
to protect the next generation.
Communities, they cannot make this change alone.
It has to become a movement.
From the whole continent, from the whole world.
- Please welcome Inna Modja.
(applause)
- Ladies and gentlemen,
Your Excellency,
I stand before you
after making a great journey across the Sahel.
This vibrant and vulnerable region that I love...
...is embattledby desertification and drought,
migration and conflict.
With the acceleration of our changing climate,
we are now in a race against time.
It won't be easy...
...but we all know
there is massive human potential to rise to the challenge.
I set out of my journey to record an album
that captured the spirit of an African dream.
And in that quest,
I was inspired by the resilience and the resolve of people.
I might probably never see the end of this project...
...but we sow the seeds in our lifetime
so other hands may harvest.
I cannot say we're going to be alright.
It's up to us to write that story.
We need to be vigilant every day.
It's up to us to...
create an African dream.
In the words of Thomas Sankara...
"We must dare to invent the future."
As a daughter of the Sahel...
...I ask you...
...to please join me.
(singing in foreign language)
(rapping)
(singing)
(man rapping)
(music)