“Loin de l’amer” by Jocelyne Béroard, Pou Zot, Pou Nou
My Maryse Condé challenge took up all my energy in 2021, so it's been more than a year since I've given you a book review. It is with pleasure that I am back to talk about “Loin de l'amer” [t/n: Away from the bitterness] by Jocelyne Béroard.
Her career as a solo artist and as the only female lead singer in Kassav’ over the past 40+ years makes her a living legend. Co-written with journalist Bertrand Dicale, her autobiography was released on March 17th. The short chapters in the form of a chronicle on a specific fact will make you reflect on important themes around the Martinican identity in the Martinican, Caribbean, French and global context.
Fanm, LIFE of a woman
Who is Jocelyne Béroard? A child of Martinique who grew up in the 50s and 60s. While cinema still struggles to provide us with our own references on this era, I always enjoy picturing how the daily life was in those days beyond the independence struggles. Through family and school anecdotes, we discover her questions about society and her determination to be herself. School, extracurricular activities, dating... We see in her story that the social, political and economic dynamics shape her without preventing her from questioning them if necessary. Her desire for freedom and fulfillment guided her life choices, which set her up as an example of the emancipated (black) woman, despite herself.
Milans, life of an artist
Who is Jocelyne Béroard? A music lover. The majority of the book is about her experience with Kassav'. As she and Jacob Desvarieux became the "faces" of the group and given the number of interviews given during their long career, it’d be easy to think that there would be nothing left to learn about their musical adventure, that everything has been said. There is even an academic book* that helped me in the preparation of my paper on "Can 21st century Zouk be an international kreyol pop music?" in 2019. But few interviews or reports allow us to appreciate Kassav' in its human dimension. With “Loin de l'amer”, Jocelyne Béroard takes us into the intimacy that they have developed over these forty-odd years. The respect with which she talks about each member of the group is felt in each anecdote illustrating the secret of their longevity. Her take reveals strong personalities who knew how to put their ego aside when it was necessary, human beings who sacrificed a lot of their personal life for the music and for us, the audience.
Kassav, Pou Nou
Who are we? I grew up with Kassav', but I think it’s only in 2019 that I started to realize the magnitude of what the group accomplished. I've already spoken about their legacy in my French podcast and I wrote about it in 2021 (1, 2) after Jacob Desvarieux passed away... But I still couldn't analyze this feeling of incompleteness or even guilt. Maybe that's why I got into this music podcast, and moreover in a format that pushes me out of my comfort zone. Maybe I was afraid of losing the landmark artists in my life again without saying how important their art is. Maybe I was frustrated with the indifference towards Guadeloupean and Martinican artists in our communities. Jocelyne Béroard takes us away from the bitterness, but these anecdotes about the attacks that she and Kassav' have endured from outside or from within their community remind us of the bitterness of artists of my generation on the rare occasions when they dare to express it.
The penultimate chapter is a cry from the heart. Jocelyne Béroard affirms her confidence in our ability to do better than what Kassav' has accomplished. The fact is, I believe it too. I thought so back in 2016 when I opened myinsaeng.com. I was convinced of it when I launched Karukerament in 2019. And, after reading this book, I hope others will be as convinced as I am because it's this paradox that has me tweeting against the current Spotify Zouk playlist or writing about Caribbean music for the past 6 years ** (1, 2). We've reached a point where Kassav' is cited as the exception instead of as the standard for the Guadeloupe/Martinique music industry.
"Kassav' made it by singing in Kréyol? Yeah, but they’re the only ones, and given the market, it would be impossible today." "Kassav' made it by doing zouk? Yeah, but they’re the only ones, and given the market, it would be impossible today." "Kassav' has sold thousands of records, even millions given the piracy"? "Yeah, but they’re the only ones, and given the market, it would be impossible today." Well technically speaking, I get the last argument, the music market has changed BUT seeing how zouk has been driving the music market worldwide for the last five years (like in the early 2000s, like in the late 1980s/early 1990s), this proves that the music genre, the language are not the problem. People have been listening to zouk for 40 years and will continue to do so because zouk is changing as long as it is accepted and marketed properly. And this is what Jocelyne Béroard reminds us with this book. The struggles, the doubts, the successes, the mistakes of business and communication, Kassav' has literally lived everything. In less than 300 pages, each artist can find a blueprint that can be adapted to their own needs and go even further. There is still much to accomplish, starting with freeing ourselves from the “nou pé pa” mental chains.
I see the raw diamonds in my generation of artists who are in their 30’s/40’s and I look forward to discovering those who will take over. When your people have never stopped adapting in a violent environment that wanted to destroy them, when your people have created so many artists in many fields for decades, it should be natural from now on to believe in ourselves to at least equal Kassav'. No one said it would be easy but it is impossible to say it is impossible. Not after all that Kassav' and other artists have done in music, film, and literature, among others.
final word
“Away from the bitterness”, but as close as possible to ourselves. We have the right to dream. I would even say that we must dream because no one will do it for us. As with Maryse Condé in her autobiographical stories, I find that Jocelyne Béroard tells her story with a dose of sincerity and humility that gives us the impression of understanding her without daring to say that we know her. We can relate without assimilating. We see the humanity behind the extraordinary. By signing this autobiography, she does what she may have been criticized for, but which makes her who she is: a woman always defining herself by herself and for herself.
*Gérald Désert, Le zouk: genèse et représentations sociales d'une musique populaire, 2018
****The other two articles were on myinsaeng.com but I took them down. The first one was comparing zouk and K-Pop from a marketing point of view, the second one was about the monster imagery by comparing Admiral T's Caribbean monster and Drunken Tiger's Korean monster.