Rokia Traoré is one of the most extraordinary artists I have ever come across. The track I share here, Laidu (dear RSS subscribers, you’ll need to listen to this track on the tumblr itself), has accompanied me for the last couple of years. It is one of the most extraordinary things my ears have ever been blessed with, literally.
I’m heading to the Sines World Music Festival today - where she will perform tomorrow. To my absolute dismay, I have to leave the Festival just hours before her concert. I had been waiting for her concert for over a year. You see, a friend of mine organized our “final dinner” (since we’re finishing our uni studies) at precisely the same time… And “final dinners” are not something you can miss.
I might, meanwhile, have the joy of meeting Rokia Traoré today or tomorrow, since I have a friend who knows some of the organizers. It would be one of the highlights of my year.
Either way, I am sure my path will cross hers, sooner or later. You see, Rokia Traoré is from Mali - a country home to an abundant amount of hauntingly beautiful music (Ali Farka Touré, whose track “Ai Du” I shared with you a few days ago, is also from Mali). Because of this, it is my intention to go to Mali - and try to discover what it has that is able to produce one of the most divine of all created things: divine music.
Barack Obama is currently in Germany. Today, in a speech fraught with references to the Berlin Wall, he said the following:
“Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity.
That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another.
The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.”
Inspiring!
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It reminded me of the following quote by Bahá’u’lláh, a persian Exile, 150 years ago:
My object is none other than the betterment of the world and the tranquillity of its peoples. The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.
These are indeed quite extraordinary times we are living.
I have launched sahbatuga, a tumblr destined to all my fellow Portuguese.
Acabei de lançar o sahbatuga, um tumblr destinado a todos os meus co-Portugueses.
