’Africa’s premier diva’ makes her music theater debut in ’Yemandja’

Angélique Kidjo, Cal Performances' 2021-22 artist-in-residence, stars in Yemandja, a music theater production that explores, through magical realism, the horrors of the slave trade in 19th-century Dahomey, then a West African kingdom that is now Benin. (Photo by Douglas Mason) Born into a family of performers in Ouidah, a city on the coast of Benin in West Africa, Angélique Kidjo first heard the world "slave" when she was 9 years old - and wanted to know more. Now, more than five decades later, Kidjo, a four-time Grammy winner, is exploring the topic in Yemandja, a new music theater production co-commissioned by UC Berkeley's Cal Performances that tells stories of the horrors and injustices of the slave trade in 19th-century Dahomey, then a West African kingdom that is now Benin. On Saturday, April 23, Cal Performances will present Yemandja in its Bay Area premiere at Zellerbach Hall on campus as part of Illuminations: Place and Displacement , a season-long series that explores the effects of migration and gentrification on individuals and communities through performances, public programs and academic encounters. Kidjo, called "Africa's premier diva" by Time magazine, creates and performs music deeply inspired by West African traditions of her childhood in Benin with elements of R&B, funk and jazz and other international influences. Time named Kidjo one of its 100 Most Influential People of 2021; the British Broadcasting Corporation included her in its list of the continent's 50 most iconic figures; and The Guardian newspaper listed her as one of its Top 100 Most Inspiring Women in the World in 2011.