We returned from the French island of Mayotte last week, having tour managed a South African contingent of top artists at a cultural 7-day music festival sponsored by the French government. Everyone was looking forward to days spent on an Indian Ocean paradise island, but we were sadly horrified at the treatment the South African’s received from the festival organization.

With South African icons Mandoza, Busi Mhlongo, Thandiswa Mazwai, Amampondo, and new-comer DJ Castro with one of Africa’s top percussionists Mabi Thobejane, our group was subjected to a mini-riot, transport and accommodation issues, bad flight planning, very little English being spoken, and worst of all lies about payments. This is a nightmare story that should be read as a warning to all in the music industry!

It was very strange driving around on this little piece of Europe, with all road-signs and advertising in French, while the local population still lives in a poverty-determined lifestyle that can’t have changed much in generations. We were invited by the Conseil Generale’s cultural section to take part in the F.I.M. (Festival Intermizik de Mayotte) cultural music festival that had artists from Australia, Mozambique, France, and S.A. who would headline each night after many local bands had warmed up the crowds.

We’d had a terrible time communicating with the client in Mayotte over the 6-months prior to leaving, but were eventually reassured that everything was going to be on track when they sent a very competent manger to tie-up final issues just before we left. And there were many!

The local government appointed travel agency just couldn’t get the artists names in the correct order, while they obviously have no idea of the size of this country, having booked everyone to leave from Cape Town. The French Consulate in Johannesburg also didn’t help by insisting that all artists had to apply for visa in person and then turned away our group of 30 artists, including Busi’s group who had flown in from Durban!

The island was a very hot and sweaty place, and as it doesn’t yet feature on the English tourist map, so it is a pretty unfriendly and un-communicative place for anyone who doesn’t speak French.

We were fortunate that M.E.L.T. owner Robert Trunz was there to act as interpreter and tour manager as his French was vital in much of our negotiations – although to festival director Mr. Alain Kamal Martial it didn’t really matter what language he spoke, as he was never in control of a festival that was just far to big for this tiny island. They’d never had one with so many international artists, and as the total population is only around 180 000, they should definitely stick to shorter and more local festivals.

When an island shows the decay, poverty and racial tension that Mayotte displays openly, you can imagine that the local artists and musicians need local support to be able to make an impact in any way, and survive from their art. But the way the Conseil General treated even the foreign stars, it makes me feel even more pity for very talented artists such as Mikdache, M’Toro Chamou, Jimmy and Lima Wild.

We are still owed much money, both in artist fees and of course the vaccination and medication fees as the island is in a Malaria area of the world. We are still waiting for apologies that Mandoza and this group were subjected to racial and youth violence that placed many of the South African group in danger. The security and safety of international ambassadors should have been of the highest priority, but this was found to be lacking when it was really needed, and it was never acknowledged sufficiently.

Robert Trunz said ” I’d like to thank Mandoza, who despite being injured, helped protect a number of us fellow spectators who were threatened to become involved in the growing fight. Mandoza diverted the attention away from us unto himself, allowing us to retreat to a safer area.” But this is only a small piece of the big story!

We stayed behind after making sure that all the 5-groups left the island safely and with all their luggage. This was very necessary because MZ from Amampondo, and Sifiso Shabalala from Mandoza’s group, didn’t have their luggage for almost the entire trip, while the Aussie group Koomurri only got their 16-pieces of luggage the day before they left, having been there for some 8-days in which they even performed two shows! MZ was only provided with one t-shirt and a pair of shorts by the festival for the 4 days he was luggage-less! So after all the artists had left, we were then totally discarded by the organization, being left to find our own transport, accommodation, and even being denied the use of a telephone at the client’s offices to be in contact with our embassy and to make arrangements for our extended stay.

After being asked for the final documentation and invoices to round off the tour, the deputy to the director general, a Mr. Didier Mercier, kept us waiting in his office for over 3hrs, only to chase us out when he arrived there, accusing us of camping there without an appointment. We notified both the South African embassy in Paris, and the French Embassy in Pretoria, as well as our contacts at Alliances Francaise and EFAS, but at the end of the day, we were on our own! We eventually had to leave the island, as Robert, Lenny and I have children and we could not stay there indefinitely!

Its taken us 13-years to build up a solid reputation of taking care of our artists, and ensuring that both clients and performers are well looked after, but this reputation has now taken a terrible knock. A couple of the performers were refusing to get on stage unless they received guarantees from the client that their fees were going to be paid, and after we had received them from the festival director, they ignored their agreements. It gives us a bad name, and that we do not accept!

All the artists saw how we fought for them, and most of them came to personally thank us for all the effort that we put in to make sure that their stay was as comfortable, and safe, as possible in the circumstances. It involved long meetings on a daily basis, as artists performing times, the venue of performances, and even performance days were constantly changing leading to much huffing and puffing by our creative ones. Unfortunately Busi Mhlongo had the most to say and verbally attacked Robert Trunz and Lenny for a multitude of irrational reasons out of frustration I can only presume, but I was always able to bring calm to her mind by explaining her misconceptions.

I will be following this post with individual articles on each of the performers that represented South Africa at the festival, as well as discussing many of the issues we encountered as a warning to not only South African performers contacted by this festival, but to other African artists can also benefit from some of the ‘skoolgeld’ (school fees) we had to pay.

Evan Milton, who joined us to report back both on the festival and on the island has been struggling to find positive messages for his publications, so this blog will tell all from our side!

Thus far the Australians and artists from Mozambique have not received any performance fees, while the South Africans have yet to receive the remainder of their artist’s fees. We as an agency further have tour, accommodation, visa and hotel fees that need to be paid, and face possible ruin if we don’t receive it!

We even had to book transit accommodation for the Australians in Johannesburg on their 38-hour trip to Perth, as they were expected to look after themselves once they’d left the island! It’s a situation of out of sight, out of mind! But we are taking this fight to the highest halls of justice, and will not be kicked when down!

What it did remind me of, was how wonderful South Africa is! That paradise is on our doorstep! How well so many people have integrated and how impressive our infrastructure is in relation to many other parts of the world. Mayotte felt like this country in the 1980’s, and that means that although it was just as beautiful then as it is now, there is an ugliness that is frightening when you’re confronted by it.

More posts on this experience will follow – some positive, some negative. The press has already given a few tit-bits of information, but they only focus on the sensationalist angle – here you will find the hard cold facts, as well as my personal opinion, as witnessed first-hand. I normally try to stay positive in my posts, but in this instance, we will just call a Frenchman, a Frenchman.