Mali: Salif Keita retires, his Golden Voice falls silent

This tribute to Salif Keita is long overdue. I first met this great Malian musician in Ségou, a regional capital city in south-central Mali in the early 1980s. With a big band of more than 20 musicians, Salif Keita performed in the open air court of a second-rate hotel in the outskirts of this modest city. It was a hot, humid Saturday night in August, 1984. We were in the middle of the rainy season. I was struck by the versatility of his music: African, Caribbean, Latin American, jazzy. He captivated the audience, all music lovers from Mali. I was the only white person in the crowd. From that day on, I was a passionate fan of this allround musician and singer.

I was also very much impressed by Salif Keita’s modesty. Greeting ceremonies in Mali are complicated and lengthy. One day, in the late 1980s, I was standing next to the reception desk in the lobby of (then) one of Mali’s most luxurious hotels – Hotel de l’Amitié in Bamako, the country’s capital – waiting for an appointment who was late.  It was around 7:30 a.m. I saw Salif Keita stepping out of the elevator, walking towards the reception desk and greeting everyone behind the desk . When he was done he continued greeting the by-standers, including me. He took his time, he greeted everybody as if they were his brothers and sisters. Maybe they were, because in Mali many people are related – somehow, somewhere.  

The third time I came face to face with Salif Keita was at the Africa festival in Hertme, the Netherlands, in 2013. Salif had become a middle-aged gentleman in his sixties, slightly corpulent, but his music was as brilliant as ever!

Salif Keita’s star will continue to shine, also after this retirement.  As a person with albinism he has realized one of the most envied goals one can imagine. Millions have enjoyed his music – and still do. He is world famous. In the future he will continue to raise his voice against the discrimination of people living with albinism, against the murder and mutilation of innocent people, men, women, children, even babies who are being victimized because of their albinism.  His last public performance was at a free concert on November 17 in Fana, in Mali, dedicated to the memory of Ramata Diarra, a five-year-old girl with albinism who was brutally murdered then mutilated in a ritual killing in May of this year. It will certainly not be the last time we’ve heard of Salif Keita. His struggle is our struggle. A luta continua!
(webmaster FVDK)

Salif Keita retires, his Golden Voice falls silent

Published: November 24, 2018
By: Charles Onyango-Obbo

Malian afro-pop singer-songwriter Salif Keita. He is unique not only because of his reputation as the “Golden Voice of Africa” but because he has albinism and is a direct descendant of the founder of the Mali Empire, Sundiata Keita. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

The great Malian musician Salif Keita, dubbed the “Golden Voice of Africa,” has announced his retirement from performing.

The 69-year-old Keita made the announcement after the release of, supposedly, the last album of his storied career. Titled Another White, it is a cry for the protection of people with albinism, a cause he has championed all his life.

Born into a local royal house, Keita was rejected by his family because of his albinism, considered either a sign of bad luck in many African cultures – or mysterious power, which drives the ritual killing of people with albinism.

In East Africa, Tanzania and Burundi are notoriously dangerous places to be a person with albinism.

Appropriately, Keita gave what could be his last major public performance at a free concert on November 17 in the town of Fana, in Mali, dedicated to the memory of Ramata Diarra, a five-year-old boy living with albinism who brutally murdered then mutilated in a ritual killing early in the year.

I am one of those Africans for whom Keita offered one of the defining sounds of our youthful years. There is something unique about Keita’s generation of musicians, along with other luminaries like Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango, and Guinea’s Mory Kante, and on the more youthful end, Senegal’s Youssou N’dour, to name a few.

First, their music isn’t always overtly political, though it is. They sing in their native tongues, and draw heavily from folk imagery, local culture, history, and communal stories.

Probably as a result of that, they function like mediums, so bring a great ease to their art. It is almost annoying.

Some years ago, at an Africa arts festival in Copenhagen, over the course of a week I watched performances by Keita, N’dour, and Malian kora player Toumani Diabate one after another.

They mesmerised the crowds but Keita and Diabate especially barely broke a sweat. It was as if they could have still have pulled it off even if they were half asleep.

That was in stark contrast to watching the performances of Hugh Masekela or Fela Kuti, some of the most political musicians to have come out of Africa.

They laid into their music and its politics with incredible energy and fury that left you giddy with revolutionary spirit. Going to the street to protest oppression or the bush to join the rebellion, seemed to be the next logical step.

But it’s in that contrast that the music of Keita and others in his musical tribe reveals their relationship to the broader African liberation experience.

In the Cold War era, when music often ran into ideological walls, and the troubled 1970s and 1980s in Africa, Masekela and Kuti played to an internationalist solidarity crowd that had bought into the anti-apartheid and anti-imperialist movements, were angry at the World Order, and wanted to overthrow it.

People like Keita won over the fence-sitters, the ignorant, the soccer moms, and people of goodwill. They didn’t fit the stereotype of flame-throwing radicals, and thus lowered the cost of embracing progressive African causes in a polarised world.

Closer home, The Man, Congolese great Franco Luambo Makiadi, had a similar effortless genius.

One of the most accomplished musicians Africa will ever produce, on stage his massive figure seemed a strangely reluctant presence – until he opened his mouth and moved his guitar fingers.

Charles Onyango-Obbo is publisher of data visualiser Africapaedia and Rogue Chiefs. Twitter@cobbo3

Source: Salif Keita retires, his Golden Voice falls silent

Mali: Salif Keïta gives a live concert in honor of a murdered albino girl

Picture shows famous Malian singer Salif Keïta (center) and members of his foundation giving a live concert in protest against the ritualistic murdering of albinos in Africa – Fana, Mali, on November 17, 2018. AFP | MICHELE CATTANI
Le chanteur malien Salif Keita (au centre) et les membres de sa fondation durant un concert destiné à dénoncer les meurtres rituels d’albinos en Afrique, le 17 novembre 2018 à Fana, au Mali | AFP | MICHELE CATTANI

Au Mali, un concert événement de Salif Keïta rend hommage à une fillette albinos assassinée

Mali: Salif Keïta gives a live concert in honor of a murdered young girl with albinism

Published: November 18, 2018
By: Kassim Traoré – Fana (Mali) (AFP)

Saturday night, legendary Malian singer Salif Keïta gave a live concert, presenting his latest album, in Fana, a small town in the south of Mali, where a 5-year old girl with albinism was found dead – murdered – in May of this year. The live concert was in honor of all murdered albinos in Africa and in protest against these horrible crimes.

In a football stadium packed to capacity in this small town of some 20,000 inhabitants – 120 km from the capital Bamako – 69-year old Salif Keïta, himself albino, was accompanied by Ismaël Lô (from Senegal), Bera, an albino artist from Georgia, Malian comedian Yao and singers Safi Diabaté (Mali) and Maah Koudia Keït (Senegal), all fighting for the noble cause of people living with albinism in Africa.

On May 13, a five-year old girl, Ramata Diarra, was kidnapped by armed men while sleeping at her parents’ place. Her dead body was found a few hours later, beheaded, next to a mosque. People immediately linked her death to a ritual killing in view of the forthcoming elections in the country. (….)

Translated by the webmaster FVDK

For more information see ‘Albino girl abducted and killed in Mali’, dated May 16, 2018 and related articles – on the present website.

The original article, in French, is much longer and reads as follows:

La légende de la musique africaine Salif Keïta a présenté samedi soir son nouvel album à Fana, petite ville du Mali où une fillette albinos de cinq ans a été assassinée en mai, lors d’un concert hommage destiné également à dénoncer les meurtres rituels d’albinos en Afrique.

Dans un stade de football archi-comble, un événement jamais vu dans cette localité de quelque 20.000 habitants située à 120 km de Bamako, le musicien de 69 ans, atteint lui-même d’albinisme, s’était entouré du Sénégalais Ismaël Lô, de l’artiste géorgien albinos Bera, de l’humoriste malien Yaro ou encore des chanteuses malienne Safi Diabaté et sénégalaise Maah Koudia Keït, militante elle aussi de la cause des personnes albinos.

Le 13 mai, la petite Ramata Diarra, cinq ans, avait été enlevée en pleine nuit par des hommes armés alors qu’elle dormait dans la cour de la concession familiale. Son corps décapité avait été retrouvé quelques heures plus tard à côté d’une mosquée. Des associations avaient alors dénoncé un “crime rituel” à l’approche de l’élection présidentielle.

“Pourquoi ôter la vie d’une innocente, d’une fillette de cinq ans? Pourquoi s’attaquer aux albinos? Nous sommes comme tous les autres humains. Nous ne voulons plus voir ça au Mali. Il faut que nos autorités prennent des dispositions, parce que désormais, nous n’allons plus nous taire”, a dit sur scène Salif Keïta.

Chaque année, des dizaines d’albinos sont victimes en Afrique d’attaques, tués et amputés de leurs membres qui sont ensuite utilisés pour des rituels censés apporter richesse et chance.

“Aujourd’hui, tout le monde sait qu’une fillette de cinq ans a été assassinée à Fana parce qu’elle est albinos. Le monde s’est mobilisé pour la cause de ma fille, que ce monde ne baisse plus les bras afin que les albinos puissent vivre en paix partout dans le monde”, a confié à l’AFP, en marge du concert, la mère de la fillette, Diarra Awa Touré.

“Au début je me sentais seule, mais avec ce grand concert et les condamnations faites devant le monde, je ne me sens plus seule”, a-t-elle ajouté.

– ‘Dernier album’ –

Dans l’espace réservé aux invités, juste devant la scène, Ousmane Wélé Diallo, tout de blanc vêtu, explique être venu de Bamako avec sa femme et ses enfants pour “suivre le concert et soutenir notre cause en rendant hommage à Ramata Diarra”. “Je n’aime pas quand il y a trop de lumières, surtout les ampoules géantes de la scène, mais ce soir j’accepte pour notre cause”, ajoute le père de famille, qui comme de nombreux albinos souffre de problèmes de vue.

“Nous sommes ici pour que ce qui est arrivé à Ramata ne se reproduise plus jamais, et cela doit être le combat de nous tous. Plus jamais ça à Fana, au Mali, en Afrique et dans le monde”, a lancé depuis la scène Ismaël Lô. “Personne ne doit sacrifier un albinos pour son pouvoir, personne ne doit vendre les cheveux ou les organes d’un albinos”, a exhorté Safi Diabaté. “Je suis Fana, je suis Ramata, je suis toutes les victimes des ignominies de certains assoiffés de pouvoir”, a ajouté le slameur malien Karim Diallo.

Alors que la soirée est déjà bien avancée, Salif Keïta monte sur scène pour un show de 45 minutes au cours duquel il défend son album “L’autre blanc”, son dernier selon lui, pour lequel il a fait appel à de vieux complices comme l’Ivoirien Alpha Blondy ou la Béninoise Angélique Kidjo, tout en multipliant les clins d’oeil à la jeune génération.

“Je voulais dire au revoir à tous mes fans, parce que si je vais peut-être encore faire de la musique par-ci par-là, je ne prendrai plus le temps de faire un album”, a-t-il confié à l’AFP, estimant avoir “droit à un repos” après 50 ans de carrière.

Source:
Au Mali, un concert événement de Salif Keïta rend hommage à une fillette albinos assassinée

Related article:

Mali: Salif Keïta rend hommage à une fillette albinos assassinée

Malian singer Salif Keïta performing at a live concert in Fana, Mali, on November 17, 2018. Le chanteur malien Salif Keita lors d’un concert de sensibilisation aux violences contre les albinos, le 17 novembre 2018 à Fana (Mali), où une fillette albinos âgée de 5 ans a récemment été assassinée.
© MICHELE CATTANI / AFP

Published: November 19, 2018 – 14:35 PM
By: Géopolis (avec AFP )

Saturday night, legendary Malian singer Salif Keïta gave a live concert, presenting his latest album, in Fana, a small town in the south of Mali, where a 5-year old girl with albinism was found dead – murdered – in May of this year. The live concert was in honor of all murdered albinos in Africa and in protest against these horrible crimes. (…)

A young Malian woman holds her albino baby at a concert given by famous Malien singer Salif Keïta. Une Malienne tient son bébé albinos alors qu’elle assiste au concert de Salif Keita visant à sensibiliser le public aux violences contre les albinos le 17 novembre 2018 à Fana. © MICHELE CATTANI / AFP

“We are here to prevent that what happened to Ramata will ever happen again. This is our common struggle. Never again in Fana, in Mali, in Africa, in the world.”, Ismaël Lô shouted on stage. “Nobody should sacrifice a person with albinism to become richer or stronger; nobody should sell the hair or organs of an albino”, Safi Diabaté cried. “I am Fana, I am Ramata, I am the victim of all these atrocities committed by power-hungry people”, Karim Diallo added.

Translated by the webmaster FVDK

«Nous sommes ici pour que ce qui est arrivé à Ramata ne se reproduise plus jamais, et cela doit être le combat de nous tous. Plus jamais ça à Fana, au Mali, en Afrique et dans le monde», a lancé depuis la scène Ismaël Lô. «Personne ne doit sacrifier un albinos pour son pouvoir, personne ne doit vendre les cheveux ou les organes d’un albinos», a exhorté Safi Diabaté. «Je suis Fana, je suis Ramata, je suis toutes les victimes des ignominies de certains assoiffés de pouvoir», a ajouté le slameur malien Karim Diallo.

Alors que la soirée est déjà bien avancée, Salif Keïta monte sur scène pour un show de 45 minutes au cours duquel il défend son album L’autre blanc,son dernier selon lui, pour lequel il a fait appel à de vieux complices comme l’Ivoirien Alpha Blondy ou la Béninoise Angélique Kidjo, tout en multipliant les clins d’œil à la jeune génération.

«Je voulais dire au revoir à tous mes fans, parce que si je vais peut-être encore faire de la musique par-ci par-là, je ne prendrai plus le temps de faire un album», a-t-il confié à l’AFP, estimant avoir «droit à un repos» après 50 ans de carrière.

A young woman with albinism dances at a live concert given by famous Malian singer Salif Keïta in Fana (Mali) where recently a 5-year old girl with albinism was murdered. Une jeune femme malienne albinos danse lors du concert du chanteur malien Salif Keita, le 17 novembre 2018 à Fana, où une fillette albinos âgée de 5 ans a récemment été assassinée. © MICHELE CATTANI / AFP

Source: Mali: Salif Keïta rend hommage à une fillette albinos assassinée

In Fana, Mali, a five-year old girl with albinism was murdered in May 2018.