The extraordinary biography of Salif Keïta, a Malian singer born with albinism, who overcame all odds to become a musical and social justice icon reminding all who hear his voice, they can accomplish anything.
Salif Keïta was born in the Malian village Djoliba in West Africa. While his parents were as dark as the night sky, Salif was born with skin as white as lamb’s wool. Some of his family’s neighbors were frightened by Salif’s albinism. Others questioned whether Salif was fit to live, making his mother hold him close.
But as Salif grew, trying to keep him safe from harm was like trying to hold the harmattan wind in his mother’s hands. Even though the sun would make Salif’s skin blister painfully, he always went back for more. The life outside his family’s hut called to him.
Music called to Salif, too, and helped him forget the pain of being different. He was captivated by the griots who would come to serenade his family. But when Salif once spied an unattended balafon, tempted to strike its keys, Salif’s father admonished him: “Remember who you are,” he said. “We Keïtas do not play music.”
The Keïta family were warriors, hunters and farmers. They were not musicians. But still Salif could not forget how music made him feel, how when he sang, his voice pierced through his pain allowing him to wail triumphantly at everyone and everything that made him feel powerless and ugly.
So, at age eighteen Salif decided to hitch a ride to the city to see if he could make a living through song.
Karen Ehrhardt’s lyrical, affecting words paired with Colin Bootman’s dynamic, lush art meld effortlessly to chronicle the untold story of a legend whose music and resilience has influenced and inspired generations.
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