Michael Jackson IS King Sani!

He had come to the land of his ancestors to participate in a historic ceremony conducted beneath a sacred tree in the gold-mining village of Krindjabo, populated by the Agni tribe and located near Abidjan, Ivory Coast. As the village people stood in admiration, Amon N’ Djaolk, the traditional tribal chief of Krindjabo, placed a crown of gold upon the head of the musical monarch and pronounced him “king of Sani..

Almost overcome by emotions, the shy, sensitive son of Joseph and Katherine Jackson smiled and said, “Merci beaucoup,” to the French-speaking people and repeated in English, ‘Thank you very much.”

He then joined elders of the king’s court, signed official documents and sat on a throne of gold as women dancers, clad in white gowns, gave a dazzling performance of ritual dances. These elderly women are the guardians of the village, and their ceremonial dances gave their blessings to the crowning of”King Sani” and asked God for protection at a tree that symbolized the essence of power.

In French-speaking, oil- and mineralrich Gabon, he received the West African nations Medal of Honor from President Omar Bongo, who was the official host of the performer’s “Come Back To Eden” tour.

 

President Bongo told Jackson that he was the first entertainer to ever receive the medal, which until then has been given only to heads of states and highranking diplomats and dignitaries–including Nelson Mandela.

As host of the tour, President Bongo appointed his daughter, Pasoaline Bongo, the nation’s foreign Minister, and his son, Ali Bongo, to coordinate the tour along with Charles Bobbit, a consultant to the president, who initiated the idea for Jacksons visit.

Jackson agreed to go on the non-performing tour with the stipulation that his priority was his “desire to visit orphanages, childrens’ hospitals, churches, schools and playgrounds.

During his visits to Gabon, the Ivory Coast, Tanzania and Egypt, he encountered “Michael mania” everywhere. His image was on posters, T-shirts, billboards, a postage stamp (in Tanzania), and street banners. His music was played on the radio, piped into hotels– Okume Palace in Libreville, Gabon; Hotel Ivoire in Abidjan, Ivory Coast; and the Kilimanjaro Hotel in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Energetic and intensely interested in his fans, he logged 30,000 miles in 11 days; passed through 11 time zones, slept in five time zones and landed on four continents–South America, Africa, Europe and North America. His 26-porson entourage traveled in a Boeing 707 Executive plane with stateroom, private bath, open bar, lounges, dining areas, video and audio equipment, telephones and fax machines.

And when it was over, the entertainer, contrary to false rumors, had given a new Michael Jackson twist to person-toperson diplomacy and had touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of proud Africans.

” ~

Ebony, May, 1992 by Robert E. Johnson

MICHAEL SPEAKS

EBONY/JET: What was the concept for the Dangerous album?

JACKSON: I wanted to do an album that was like Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. So that in a thousand years from now, people would still be listening to it. Something that would live forever. I would like to see children and teenagers and parents and all races all over the world, hundreds and hundreds of years from now, still pulling out songs from that album and dissecting it. I want it to live.

EBONY/JET: I notice on this trip that you made a special effort to visit children.

JACKSON: I love children, as you can see. And babies.

EBONY/JET: And animals.

JACKSON: Well, there’s a certain sense that animals and children have that gives me a certain creative juice, a certain force that later on in adulthood is kind of lost because of the conditioning that happens in the world. A great poet said once. “When I see children, I see that God has not yet given up on man.” An Indian poet from India said that, and his name is Tagore. The innocence of children represents to me the source of infinite creativity. That is the potential of every human being. But by the time you are an adult, you’re conditioned; you’re so conditioned by the things about you–and it goes. Love. Children are loving, they don’t gossip, they don’t complain, they’re just open-hearted. They’re ready for you. They don’t judge. They don’t see things by way of color. They’re very child-like. That’s the problem with adults: they lose that child-like quality. And that’s the level of inspiration that’s so needed and is so important for creating and writing songs and for a sculptor, a poet or a novelist. It’s that same kind of innocence, that same level of consciousness, that you create from. And kids have it. I feel it right away from animals and children and nature. Of course. And when I’m on stage. I can’t perform if I don’t have that kind of ping pong with the crowd. You know the kind of cause and effect action, reaction. Because I play off of them. They’re really feeding me and I’m just acting from their energy.

EBONY/JET: Where is all this heading?

“Life songs of ages, throbbing in my blood, have danced the rhythm of the tide and flood.” This is a very literal statement, because the same new miracle intervals and biological rhythms that sound out the architecture of my DNA also governs the movement of the stars. The same music governs the rhythm of the seasons, the pulse of our heartbeats, the migration of birds, the ebb and flow of ocean tides, the cycles of growth, evolution and dissolution. It’s music, it’s rhythm. And my goal in life is to give to the world what I was lucky to receive: the ecstasy of divine union through my music and my dance. It’s like, my purpose, it’s what I’m here for.

EBONY/JET: What about politics?

JACKSON: I never get into politics. But I think music soothes the savage beast. If you put cells under a microscope and you put music on, you’ll see them move and start to dance. It affects the soul…. I hear music in everything. [Pauses] You know, that is the most I’ve said in eight years ….. You know I don’t give interviews. That because I know you, and I trust you. You’re the only person I trust to give interviews to.

Africa, 1992