La Différence

A once hidden but now exposed delight that emerged from my visit to Senegal and the Festival Mundial das Artes & Culturas Negras in December/January 2010-2011 was an appreciation for the music of Salif Keita. Listening to his recent CD, La Différence, with the exception of one or two songs- sends me on a hypnotic voyage to calm creative spaces in my own living room. According to the Amazon.com website, the profits of his newest album will go to a charity for albinos in Africa. I found this excerpt from a story about Keita's album on NPR worth re-posting.

NPR, July 6, 2010: Salif Keita Savors 'La Difference'

Mali's best-known singer, Salif Keita, is an albino and, as such, generally viewed with condescension — if not superstition and fear — in much of Africa. Keita has long spoken out on behalf of albinos, but on his new album, he sings about the subject for the first time. The title track of La Difference encapsulates the African legend's career and biography.

Keita sings, "My skin is white ... My blood is black," but that difference is beautiful, something to celebrate. Keita descends from a noble line in Mali, and when he became a singer in the late '60s it was a serious violation of protocol in his traditional society. Singers entertained nobles. Nobles did not sing. But facing life as an albino in Africa, Keita decided early on that he was going to make his own rules. And that's exactly what he's done ever since.

The stigma of albinism has always been part of Keita's biography, one of the things he overcame on his way to international stardom. But then he began hearing grisly stories of massacres in other parts of Africa — albinos being sacrificed so that their blood, hair and body parts could be sold for use in rituals. A few years back, Keita started a foundation to counter superstition about albinism. But with this song he makes it personal, saying not only that albinism is beautiful, but that the very fact of being different is beautiful.