Mali is a beautiful, dusty and old country named after the Mali Empire that was once part of a powerful triad of Sahel kingdoms that controlled the trans-Saharan trade route. It is on my bucket list of places to visit and I am hoping to make it to the Festival au Désert in 2011 and drop in on Timbuktu while I am at it. Mali is home to some of West Africa's most celebrated musicians such as the kora maestro Toumani Diabaté, Vieux Farka Touré the son of the late Ali Farka Touré who was a noted blues guitarist, Amadou and Mariam and the surprisingly rocking Tuareg band Tinariwen. If you have a love for traditional African instruments you want to go to Mali. The Mali Empire was founded by Sundiata Keita whose direct descendant Salif Keita is an accomplished musician widely referred to as the "Golden Voice of Africa."
On the 9th of October 2010 I went on a roadtrip to Bloemfontein in the Free State province of South Africa. It's a straight shot down the N1 South from Johannesburg and hours and hours and hours of flat farmland. It is not a scenic route but with tickets to the Macufe Jazz Festival we endured it in good spirits. You see, the Golden Voice was the headlining act this year. That's right. Salif Keita was in the sleepy town of Bloem and I would have happily driven all the way to the Cape of Good Hope to see him performing live. Seriously. He's that big a deal to me.
Salif Keita is "an albino". This is a sign of bad luck to the Mandinka people and he was cast out by his family, ending up as a musician. This in itself further alienated him as being of royal heritage, he should not have been doing the work of a griot. Griots are a caste of West African entertainers tasked with recording oral history through poetry, stories and music.
So he appeared on the stage like an apparition, a radiant, benevolent spirit here to share great wisdom with us. His band looked quite young, calabash, balafon and kora players amongst the instrumentalists on stage. Salif's movement on the stage is minimal. To experience him live on stage is nothing short of humbling. You almost get the feeling that "performing" is beneath him. He is smiling but he certainly not here to entertain you. You are here to be schooled at the feet of a musical sage. Humbling.
He has a new album out this year but his repertoire at the concert was mostly comprised of older songs that the audience was familiar with. Come to think of it, the new album has quite a few previously released tracks that he has re-interpreted so he certainly didn't cop out. The title track of his 2010 album is La Différence and I must say it's a very catchy song and my favorite on the album. So we were all singing along and loving it but I wonder how many people in the audience knew what it was about. Salif champions the cause of those affected by albinism in Africa through an organisation he founded that raises awareness about the atrocities committed against people with albinism and provides them with support. People born with albinism are victims of superstition, ignorance and intolerance in Africa. Babies and children are abducted, dismembered and their body parts sold for use in animistic rituals. The stories are shocking and shameful.
Earlier this year I saw the hip hop emcee Zubz at the Blues Room in Johannesburg. His backing vocalist was a very stylish, stunning girl who happened to have albinism. She had long blond hair extensions, was made up and dressed to the nines and the men in the room were drooling. For this girl, music has served as an inlet for acceptance as it did for the Salif Keita as well as Hansen's fictional character Takadini. That is the transformational power of music. It's great. But here's my thing. A person with albinism should not have to do party tricks to win people over. Being a human being should be enough. So it is a crying shame and a tragedy that it isn't and shame on us for treating our own so very badly. La Différence is about the beauty of being different and it is a call for tolerance in which he reminds us that everyone deserves dignity and love.
On the 9th of October 2010 I went on a roadtrip to Bloemfontein in the Free State province of South Africa. It's a straight shot down the N1 South from Johannesburg and hours and hours and hours of flat farmland. It is not a scenic route but with tickets to the Macufe Jazz Festival we endured it in good spirits. You see, the Golden Voice was the headlining act this year. That's right. Salif Keita was in the sleepy town of Bloem and I would have happily driven all the way to the Cape of Good Hope to see him performing live. Seriously. He's that big a deal to me.
Salif Keita is "an albino". This is a sign of bad luck to the Mandinka people and he was cast out by his family, ending up as a musician. This in itself further alienated him as being of royal heritage, he should not have been doing the work of a griot. Griots are a caste of West African entertainers tasked with recording oral history through poetry, stories and music.
So he appeared on the stage like an apparition, a radiant, benevolent spirit here to share great wisdom with us. His band looked quite young, calabash, balafon and kora players amongst the instrumentalists on stage. Salif's movement on the stage is minimal. To experience him live on stage is nothing short of humbling. You almost get the feeling that "performing" is beneath him. He is smiling but he certainly not here to entertain you. You are here to be schooled at the feet of a musical sage. Humbling.
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| Image courtesy of E.Z Tshuma |
Earlier this year I saw the hip hop emcee Zubz at the Blues Room in Johannesburg. His backing vocalist was a very stylish, stunning girl who happened to have albinism. She had long blond hair extensions, was made up and dressed to the nines and the men in the room were drooling. For this girl, music has served as an inlet for acceptance as it did for the Salif Keita as well as Hansen's fictional character Takadini. That is the transformational power of music. It's great. But here's my thing. A person with albinism should not have to do party tricks to win people over. Being a human being should be enough. So it is a crying shame and a tragedy that it isn't and shame on us for treating our own so very badly. La Différence is about the beauty of being different and it is a call for tolerance in which he reminds us that everyone deserves dignity and love.
The proceeds from his album sales will go to the work of his organisation to protect the rights of people with albinism. Check out these sites for more information:je suis un noir
ma peau est blanche
et moi j'aime bien ça
c'est la différence qui est jolie
je suis un blanc
mon sang est noir
et moi j'adore ça
c'est la différence qui est jolie
je voudrais
que nous nous entendions dans l'amour
que nous nous comprenions dans l'amour et dans la paix
la vie sera belle
chacun à son tour aura son amour
la vie sera belle
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