DEMOCRACY NOW
Fatoumata Diawara band performing at the World Beat Music festival. Austin, Texas, 2013 PHOTO/Wikipedia
“In a world of seven billion people, one billion are migrants.” Those are the words that appear at the start of the new music video by our guest, the great Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara. She sings, “My love has gone far away and may never come back. He has left his family and friends behind and gone away / He may never come back / What am I to do? He was my friend and my confidant.” The song “Nterini” appears on her new record “Fenfo.” In 2013, she gathered 40 of the best-known Malian musicians to come together to record a song calling for peace in the war-torn country. Diawara joins us in our Democracy Now! studio for a performance and an interview about her life and career, the importance of women in Malian society and the migrant crisis in Europe.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. In a world of 7 billion people, 1 billion are migrants. Those are the words that appear at the start of the new music video by our guest, the great Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara. She sings, “My love has gone far away and may never come back. He has left his family and friends behind and gone away. He may never come back. What am I to do? He was my friend and my confidant.” The song, “Nterini,” it appears on her new record, Fenfo. Here is Fatoumata Diawara performing in the Democracy Now! studios.
AMY GOODMAN: “Nterini” by the Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara. She was born in the Ivory Coast to Malian parents in 1982 but raised in Mali. In 2013, she gathered 40 of the best-known Malian musicians to come together to record a song calling for peace in the war-torn country. The track was called “Mali-ko,” or “Peace.” Fatoumata joins in our New York studio.
Welcome to Democracy Now!
FATOUMATA DIAWARA: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: It’s wonderful to have you with us. So, you’ve written this song, “Nterini,” about migrants.
FATOUMATA DIAWARA: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about migrants and why you feel the world must know.
FATOUMATA DIAWARA: You know, so, it was so hard in those few last days, you know, because it’s like people were talking only about migrations, which is the reality, but the way it was doing, it was really bad, a little bit bad, for the images of this new generation in Africa who wants to change things. We are dreaming to the new Africa. We are dreaming a new—to think how we can make better this continent, how we can introduce Africa in the best way. So I was telling myself, “OK, you can keep telling about this kind of subject, but in which way? In the bad way? Just young people crying, children still asking for help and all those things?”
You said, “OK”—I said, “OK, don’t do this. Try to approach this subject, but in a different way, introducing this young generation, who are trying to travel, but they are not traveling because they are poor only.” The only reason is not because of poverty or war or famine. It’s also because this young generation needs to know about what’s going on outside of their country. They need to learn. They can’t learn everything at school. Some of experiences, you can get them only by traveling.
And I said, “OK, let’s try to start from the beginning,” which means who—you know, you don’t born as a migrant. You become a migrant, you know. And in the beginning, you get a family. If they are a normal person, they can take a coffee in the morning. They have love stories. They breathe like you and me. They have red blood as you and me. So, just open the door to those normal people. They are just normal, you know. They can feel love. They are just a little bit different to you. But this difference doesn’t must be a problem. It should be welcome. It should be appreciated, you know. So it’s through this—you know, through this song, I tried to—you know, I’m trying to introduce my generation, to introduce this new Africa to the rest of the world in my way.
AMY GOODMAN: “Nterini,” explain what that word means.
FATOUMATA DIAWARA: “Nterini” means “My Friend,” you know. Migrants can be a friend of anyone, you know. You should not lose your dignity because you’ve been trying to travel. And when people refuse you the visa, then you become a migrant. And this doesn’t fair, because it’s a normal guy. They are normal guys as everyone. They could be your friend. That’s why I say “My Friend.” You know, just open the door. You know, make things sweeter, more love, you know, if people can bring back a little bit more love to all those young guys trying to travel just to know about—to know more about this world, you know.
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