He is known around the globe as ‘The Golden Voice of Africa’ but as legendary singer Salif Keita winds down an illustrious trail-blazing music career ‘White Knight’ might be a more fitting sobriquet.
At the age of 70, and after a half-century of gigging and recording and four decades of international touring, the first of the fledgling 1980s’ World Music scene’s superstars is contemplating retirement.
The farmer’s son from the former French colony of Mali has decided to significantly scale down his involvement with the music business to spend more time on an island home in the Niger River that affords him “peace and tranquillity in the midst of the crazy hustle and bustle that’s Bamako”.
Perhaps more pertinently, though, Keita is creating more time to consolidate a lifelong commitment to ease the suffering of those, like himself, who were born albinos.
If that’s not implicit in the title of what seems certain to be his last full album release, 2019’s Un Autre Blanc (Another White), Keita spells it out in his deeds and in his public statements.
“The main purpose of the album was to record and release a number of titles I had been working on for some time, and to do so in collaboration with a number of close friends, musically speaking – Angelique Kidjo, Alpha Blondy and Ladysmith Black Mambazo especially. But, of course, it was important to make another statement on behalf of all those affected by and living with albinism. I will continue this struggle for as long as I am able.”
The ‘White Knight’ of West African music currently oversees two foundations — one local, the other global — in his campaign to help stamp out prejudice about albinism in the land of his birth and in Africa in general. “We have to speak out,” he declared recently on a French website. “People with albinism are killed because of old beliefs.” Folklore and superstitions have led to albino people throughout Africa being shunned, beaten, murdered and even dismembered for their body parts, which are said to have magical powers.
It is easy to understand why this legendary musician feels compelled to continue promoting acceptance and understanding of people born with albinism. “I’m black with black blood, although I have white skin. I’m proud to be an albino and I’m proud to be who I am.
“Although prejudices are deep-seated, and killings and mutilations still take place today, decades later, I feel that we’ve made some progress. I’m hopeful that the prejudices and superstitions that enable the crimes against albinos will be eradicated in my lifetime.”
Growing up as an albino in Mali wasn’t easy for Keita. On the upside, it ultimately led him to music, though it wasn’t exactly a smooth path. His original ambition to be a teacher was dashed when he was told he couldn’t teach because schoolchildren would be frightened by his appearance. Initially, he didn’t want to be a musician. As he explains: “I’m from a family of nobles. In Mali, nobles don’t make music — that’s for the griots.” Salif says he was left with no choice: “I could either be a musician or I could be a delinquent, a criminal, a thief, a bandit.”
Keita’s family tried to stop him becoming a musician, so he left home in the late 1960s for Mali’s capital city, Bamako, where he began singing in cafes and restaurants. At the time, he thought music was just something to do until he found another profession. He never imagined himself becoming a professional musician, but after teaching himself to play guitar he joined the original Super Rail Band. He performed with that famous collective in the hotel restaurant at Bamako station from 1969 to around 1976. Thereafter he joined Les Ambassadeurs, whose residency at a Bamako hotel exposed Keita to an international clientele.
Political unrest eventually saw him move to Mali’s southern neighbour, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), and a desire to reach a wider audience led him in the mid-1980s to Paris — then the epicentre of the burgeoning phenomenon known as ‘world music’. He quickly established a following as a solo artist in the French capital.
Keita’s 1987 debut album, Soro, was an international revelation, combining the musician’s strikingly soulful and soaring singing with traditional Mandinka music, cutting-edge production and an A-team of expatriate musicians, to create a sleek Afro-pop melange. Apart from a few tweaks and the odd excursion towards acoustic instrumentation and jazz-funk, Keita’s sound has not fundamentally changed over the years.
“I’ve maintained my style throughout,” he concurs, “though, of course, it’s been shaped by different producers over the years.” A wide range of musicians has influenced his style. “I love the 1950s/60s R&B soul music of Wilson Pickett and Etta James, for example, but also mainstream rock bands such as Santana and Pink Floyd, and of course African music, ranging from Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba to Oliver Mtukudzi and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.”
Keita dismisses those reviewers who’ve criticised the slick production of some of his albums and the reliance on synthesizers as naïve and ill-informed. As he retorts: “Working with producers such as Joe Zawinul and Jean-Philippe Rykiel, for example, it’s inevitable that keyboards and synthesizers would be used extensively.”
Reportedly, Keïta took a while to accept the fact that he was a vocalist out of the ordinary. “I started singing hoping for the best. Today, when people tell me I have an exceptional voice, I have come to believe it.” Being classified as ‘The Golden Voice of Africa’ now makes him feel honoured and flattered, though, as he points out, “I do not really have control over the names and titles that the media come up with.”
While Salif thinks his voice may have grown deeper over the years, he says that when he recently recorded a new version of ‘Soro’ with Michael League of Snarky Puppy, he sang it in the original key of 25 years earlier. “So I don’t think my range has changed that much.”
The artist’s biographer, Dr Cherif Keita, a professor in the US, put his cousin’s accomplishments in perspective when he said: “When some people sing, they create social change. Salif changed the old ways in Mali, our relationship to musicianship, to classifying people. Because of his condition, he had to latch on to what he could do to survive in a harsh environment in Bamako. Music became his salvation.”
In 2004, Salif Keita returned to Mali on a permanent basis, following several decades of living in Paris. Despite the instability and threat posed by terrorist activity during the Tuareg rebellion in the north, a military coup and the government’s chequered record, he has stayed put in his homeland. “Mali is the land of my ancestors … I love this country, no matter what. I could move a thousand times, but I will still belong to only one land on earth, Mali.”
Keita reports that the political situation is still an area of great concern to him and fellow Malians. “It is clear that the current strategy is not working, and in fact, the situation has worsened dramatically in 2018 and 2019. I believe that we need to see a Malian army that is well trained and equipped in order to take care of this problem, and eliminate foreign interference in Malian internal politics.”
Musically, the outlook is brighter for Mali. As Keita indicates: “We have an incredibly rich cultural heritage here, and we have had many very talented musicians. Artists such as Tidiane Kone, Ali Farka Touré, Oumou Sangare, Amadou & Miriam, Cheick Tidiane Seck and Habib Koité have contributed significantly to the stature of Malian music internationally. There are a number of talented musicians in my band pursuing solo careers, including kora player Mamadou Diabaté, vocalist Bah Kouyaté and percussionist Molobaly Kone. At home in Mali, there are many talented young artists coming up, including rappers Mylmo and Ami Yerewolo.”
• The above interview first appeared in Rhythms, Australia’s only dedicated roots music magazine.
More about Salif Keita
Author: Tony Hillier
Tony Hillier is an Australia-based freelance music writer, broadcaster, musician, MC and band leader. He writes album and concert reviews and feature articles for The Australian (the country’s only bona fide national newspaper) and Rhythms (Australia’s only dedicated national roots music magazine) and prepares/presents weekly programs for the national broadcaster (ABC) and community radio. He is also a member of the Transglobal World Music Chart (TWMC) panel.