- Title: KENYA: Senegalese musician Baaba Maal thrills fans and shares passion for Africa
- Date: 4th October 2010
- Summary: MORE OF PERFORMANCE
- Embargoed: 19th October 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Kenya
- Country: Kenya
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
- Reuters ID: LVAE0GHVFJ39N4UX26AI33N8NVPP
- Story Text: One of Africa's most celebrated musicians, Senegalese artist Baaba Maal recently performed in Kenya's capital Nairobi, and spoke about some of his work fighting for better living for the poor.
The 58-year-old came from a poor background himself to become one of his country's most acclaimed artists with eleven albums to his name. Maal grew up by the River Senegal, where his father was a fisherman and grew up listening to music from North and West Africa.
Maal is also internationally recognized for being able to masterfully mix West African musical styles with blues, funk, folk and even ragga.
Maal is also known to be a tireless activist, who is involved in many causes on the African continent, including his position as a UN envoy for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The UN has set eight development goals to achieve by 2015. They include action on poverty, health, HIV/Aids, empowering women, education, climate change and developing a global partnership for development.
Maal talked about why he was inspired to take up the role of MDG envoy and why these issues are important to him.
"Something made me feel very optimistic and very happy to be playing this role. It's like wherever I go, with any kind of level of people I am talking with... Africa is now ready to go into the third millennium. Maybe people don't know how to do it, and with whom to do it, but you can feel it, but you can feel it's the expectation of everyone," he said.
He also said that he is positive about the recent summit that took place in New York to review the MDGs.
"We need to have everyone to be part of the project of Africa 2015, especially the people who live not in the big cities like Nairobi, like Dakar or Bamako or Johannesburg, but most of the people who live in small villages, who are far away from whatever decisions people take. Sometime they don't get information, sometimes they are not the people who are involved in the process of all the projects that people put on to promote and to develop Africa," he said.
Maal is a strong believer in music being able to cross all borders and reach a larger audience, and says he uses his music to communicate and inform.
"I am an African and I am a musician, and these people are the ones who come to buy my music. These people, the Africans are the ones who follow all my messages, it's Africans who really understand deeply the origin of the culture that I am trying to promote all over the world. So I need to see these people happy and healthier and strong and going into the new millennium really ready to make Africa take the place that it should take in the global market," said Maal.
Maal loves to perform live and his acoustic guitar solo is always a treat for fans.
"That thing was arresting. It's the most amazing performance I have seen this year. This guy is ... is amazing. And that percussionist of his was so into it, he was so into it, you can see he is one with the music, and he's not Baaba Maal and the percussionist, they are together, they are in sync. That was a performance, that was entertainment, you understand?" said Melvin, a Maal fan.
"I thought it was an absolutely great show, I think his style is unique to Baba Maal, it's distinctly him. I think beyond that, he was very clear in articulating..." said another Maal fan, Anne Mitaru.
Maal is set to perform in Australia this month at the Bellingen Global Carnival. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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