Mali Becomes Touchstone for World Music

If you have listened to non-commercial radio at all lately: the BBC, National Public Radio, APR, and more, you will no doubt agree that music from Mali seems to garner more attention than its modest size would indicate.

Oumou Sangare (born February 25, 1968, in Bamako, Mali) is a Malian Wassoulou musician, sometimes referred to as "The Songbird of Wassoulou." Wassoulou is a historic region south of the Niger River, and the music there is descended from traditional hunting songs, and is accompanied by a calabash. Her mother was the singer Aminata Diakité.

Mali has produced some of the great superstars of modern African music: kora player Toumani Diabaté, golden voiced singers Salif Keita and Oumou Sangare, dancebands like the Super Rail Band, and the great river-bluesman Ali Farka Touré. Lucy Duran, presenter of Radio 3's World Routes, has spent years in Mali researching the music of its flamboyant divas, and has worked as a producer with some of Mali's leading musicians.
Oumou Sangare

Radio 3 Guide to World Music - Mali
Wikipedia - Oumou Sangare

3407 Flight Crash Stills Vital Voices

The crash of Flight 3407 on the evening of February 12, 2009 has stilled 50 voices, all of them important, all of them loved. Four of those voices are among the many who have used their lives in areas that have affected me personally.

For those who, like myself, find themselves inexorably drawn to the joy and tragedy of the African experience, the death of Dr. Alison Des Forges is a terrible blow. Des Forges was a leading authority on the Rwanda genocide and has been a Senior Advisor to, and board member of, the world's foremost human right organization, Human Rights Watch, for nearly twenty years. Dr. Des Forges' example and wisdom have served to help us to better understand the triumphs and failing of the human condition and to see broadly the complexities of relationships between countries and ethnic groups. More


"A Sea of Boys"


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