Nana Benz du Togo

There are five of them, five, like the fingers of one hand, a hand ready to form a fist, to slam down hard on a table but also to gently caress the planet. They all grew up in Togo, only a few frontiers away from Benin and Nigeria, several decades separating them from the great Fela, the man who turned a Yoruba proverb into a hit: Water No Get Enemy. The members of Nana Benz also grew up with the knowledge that water was so precious it had no price, and that Mother Nature was a figure to be celebrated. In fact, respect of the planet and its inhabitants lies at the very heart of their catalogue of songs, songs firmly anchored in the richness of voodoo heritage, songs extolling the value of freedom in English, French and Mina. The band's name is a tribute to the impressive wax print retailers of Lomé central market who liked to drive a Mercedes Benz, women the powerful confided in as they knew better than anyone how to thread together the many strains of money and power, with feminist strength ....