150-200 years ago...

(Excerpts from an interview in the South African Guardian and Mail newspaper, September 27, 1996)

Born in northern Senegal, and "approaching 40", [Baaba Maal] is profoundly attached to his Toucouleur heritage, but at the same time he's progressive, a reformer who speaks English as well as French. "I've fought the caste system at home," he explains, "like the griot thing. In my society you're born into the griot line and you only make music if that is your heritage." Griots not only have a hereditary calling, they're also society's commentators, critics, praise singers, keepers of oral history and settlers of disputes. So, strictly speaking, he has no traditional right to make music.

But Maal, the son of a musical mother -- who sang traditional songs and wrote her own music and a muezzin -- a prayer leader, rebelled and chose a musical career while he was studying law, moving on to study music at the conservatoire in Dakar.

"It was especially difficult for me as I had not only graduated from school but was studying at university. People just couldn't understand -- particularly as musicians had such a hard time making a living."

The music of his tradition is called yela and you can quite clearly hear it's an ancient form. "It came from the [medieval] empire of Ghana, north up to Senegal," he says. Part of Maal's skill is in combining the music with modern elements, without sacrificing the source.

"There are good things and bad things in tradition," says Maal, who takes his role as musician and messenger very seriously. In Senegal, he is seen as an intellectual and a progressive ready to question values he feels hold the country back. He is, in fact, an honorary griot.

"I'm an African, I belong to a universal civilization, and I grew up in music even though I'm not a griot. I know I have a responsibility to help society to take choices."

Baaba Maal is a musician from Senegal who combines ancient musical forms like yela with modern music. Music is one major contribution of Africa to world culture.

Music was one of the few elements of native culture the African slaves were able to preserve in the Caribbean and North America. Reggae and rap grew out of the

yela rhythms brought to Jamaica by West African slaves. Other African musical traditions blended together and led to the calypso and soca music of Trinidad, the latin beats of Brazil and Cuba. In North America, gospel music and the blues grew from African roots. In the southern Appalachian mountains in the United States, African music mixed with the rhythms of Celtic traditions brought over by Scottish and Irish settlers, and out of this grew blue grass music and finally, rock and roll. Most

contemporary popular music we listen to today, in one way or another, has its roots in Africa.

150 years ago, what is called the Victorian Era was underway. It is called this after the British Queen Victoria. At this time, Britain was the most powerful country in

the world. It had the biggest fleet, the most highly advanced industry, the best technology. The British empire was expanding rapidly, using the new technologies made possible by steam power and coal-buring energy. The traditional empires of Turkey and China were weakening. All of India had fallen under British control, and the complete conquest of Africa was underway. In the Americas, the United States was expanding westward. Mexico and South America revolted against colonial rule.

However, in Europe, new ideas were arising that challenged the dominance of the free market economy, the idea that business people had the right to make profits no

matter what the cost. The image of the Victorian era is one of shining confidence, but beneath this calm surface, serious problems were growing.