Imagine that your ancestors are Nigerians. Imagine they were enslaved. Imagine that they were dragged by boat to Colombia. Imagine that you are their descendant. And now, assess your chances of becoming one of the most successful champions of traditional Breton music. Dare to say that this probability exceeds 1% and you will already be accused of having seriously abused the chouchen. And yet… such is the extraordinary journey of Yannick Martin, who has established himself as one of the best instrumentalists of the moment, to the point of performing with internationally renowned artists such as Ibrahim Maalouf or Carlos Nuñez – we can hear it during the next interceltic festival in Lorient, at the beginning of August.
This extraordinary destiny therefore began shortly after his birth in Colombia, in 1986. His father did not recognize him; his mother, already at the head of a large family, entrusts him to an institution. Six months later, Yvonne and Joseph Martin adopt the infant. Here is little Yannick in Lannilis, a town in northern Finistère, where he is the only black man who has ever grown up in the area. It doesn’t matter: his grandparents speak Breton; his parents regularly take him to fest-noz; he is considered a Finisterian almost like the others. And soon, it clicks. “In third grade, my recorder teacher said to my family: ‘This child has a gift for music.’ After a few years of playing the clarinet, he discovered the bombarde (a kind of oboe), was introduced to the traditional repertoire, learned to distinguish between musical genres, the infinite variety of terroirs, the rhythm of dances… The day his father offers him a record of Bagad de Quimper, he bursts into tears and swears to himself that he will one day join this ensemble which takes Breton music to the highest level.
“The emblem of Brittany”
Not only did his dream come true, but very quickly he was given solo parts. Of course, we notice it. Jean-Yves Le Drian, the former socialist boss of the Region, raises it to the rank of “emblem of Brittany”. For the regionalist environment, it is even a divine surprise. “Yannick Martin inspires respect for his great talent as well as for the consistency of his work. And he proves that the defenders of Breton culture do not fall into withdrawal or into communitarianism, as they are sometimes accused of”, sums up journalist and historian Rozenn Milin.
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It was to be expected: not everyone shares this opinion. In 2011, a sad sire by the name of Boris Le Lay (unrelated to the former boss of TF1) outright took out his bazooka. On his website, he launches: “Whether you like it or not, we have never seen black Celts and we’ll never see any.” The character embodies the worst of the extreme right, denounces the invasion of Europe “by hordes of niggers and goblins”, rails against “the Judeo-Bolshevik occupation ” and signs some of his emails with a swastika. Enough to awaken some bad memories, and in particular the compromise of certain autonomists with the Nazis during the Second World War.
Against the supporters of Celtic culture
Yannick Martin is devastated. He decides to file a complaint and condemns Le Lay in 2016. He is not the only one. In total, the man was sentenced to twelve penalties, most often for “incitement to racial hatred”, for a total of ten years in prison. To escape it, he now lives in Japan, from where he cannot be extradited.
If Boris Le Lay is obviously an extreme case, he is not the only one to disapprove of the emergence of Yannick Martin on the Breton scene. A black bombard virtuoso? This disturbs, it is true, certain proponents of Celtic culture. However, we must be right because this current, although real, remains largely in the minority. In fact, most regionalist activists are politically on the left and in the center. For them, one is not born Breton; we become. Humanist values illustrated by these 750 soners who, at the height of the controversy, wore a double black and white ribbon on the lapel of their jacketsas a sign of solidarity with Yannick Martin.
No identity at the expense of another
Moreover, it would take a certain amount of bad faith to reserve these withdrawal reactions only for lovers of cultures. regional. As far as we know, history is essentially dotted with wars provoked by identities national. “It’s an anthropological law, recalls political scientist Philippe Breton. There are supporters of an open identity – ‘I am myself and I go to others’ – and defenders of a closed identity – ‘I am myself and I distrust other people’.” Basically, it is with Brittany as with France, itself faced with the rise of the National Rally.
Reducing Breton activists to the excesses of a Le Lay makes all the less sense since, in the region, the Lepenist current obtains results far below the national average (25% in the second round of the 2017 presidential election for Marine Le Pen, against 34% in the whole of France). A paradox that is not one if we understand that identities can add up. Nothing prevents you from feeling Breton AND French AND European AND a citizen of the world. And nothing forces you to choose one of your identities to the detriment of the others
Transmission
Yannick Martin himself feels perfectly at ease on this ground. “Personally, he says, I feel at the same time Colombian, Breton and French, and I am proud of my three identities.” Better: this icon of Breton music affirms that it must mingle with other cultures to continue to evolve. This is the philosophy of the project he has just launched. baptized slavery, this one aims to interpret the history of Afro-American music, from gospel to jazz via blues or negro-spiritual, by adding traditional instruments. A way to bring together the different facets of his personality.
At 33, known and recognized, he now gives priority to transmission and devotes himself to it on a daily basis, in the college where he teaches music. Regularly arouses vocations in children of African or Arab origin, who have understood thanks to him that they were not condemned to play football. And slips, the mischievous eye: “If one day I have a daughter, I will call her Gwenn. In Breton, that means white!”
The most surprising thing about this singular story is that, six years after his birth, Yannick Martin learned that he had a twin brother and that he had also been adopted… by a Breton family. Is it really a coincidence that Tangi Josset plays the biniou? The two brothers, in any case, sometimes perform side by side. In 2012, they even got together the title of champion of Brittany. Apparently Boris Le Lay found this unbearable.