Cross-cultural understanding
On "Bowmboi," the title song of her spellbinding new album, Rokia Traore takes the melody of a lullaby she first heard as a child in her native Mali and applies it to the story of a poor man's joy in being a father. "You could have chosen riches and honor, but you preferred me, a poor man," Traore sings on the solemn song, accompanied by the Kronos Quartet. "You are the most beautiful thing I have, the most cherished in this world."
"I liked the idea of a poor person thanking God for giving him a baby, and thanking the baby for choosing him," Traore says during a telephone interview from her home near Paris. "I wanted to write a song that could make people understand that in Africa, even though many people are poor, they do not love their children any less than parents in Europe. If poor African families waited for a better economical situation before having a child, many children would not be born. But here is a father grateful that this child has chosen him, and he prays that he can do his best for this child. I want to teach people about my country through my music."
Traore is scheduled to perform Oct. 15 at Somerville Theatre.
Since her 1998 debut, "Mouneissa," Traore has been one of the rising stars of Malian music. Her 2000 album, "Wanita" was honored on many critics' Top 10 lists, and with "Bowmboi" she has again proved to be a premier singer and songwriter, broadening perceptions about African music. Accompanied by traditional instruments such as the n'goni (lute) and balafon (wooden xylophone), Traore sings in her native Bambanan about love, strength found in unity, and being a modern woman finding her place in the world.
The daughter of a diplomat, Traore, 29, spent much of her childhood moving around Europe and Africa. In addition to Mali, she and her family lived in Algeria, Saudi Arabia, France, and Belgium. Such instability made it difficult for Traore to establish lasting friendships, but she found companionship and permanence in a world of music.
"I was a very solitary child, one who was often alone," she recalled. "Music was therapy for me. I was writing lyrics even before I realized I wanted to be a professional singer."
Her father played saxophone, and in addition to traditional African music, Traore listened to his jazz albums, especially those by Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald. She also discovered classical music, and learned about American and British rock from her brother. Such exposure gave her a wider appreciation of music and the world, but it also made conforming to the cultural demands of the various countries she lived in more complicated. Traore was sometimes criticized by African kids for "not being African enough," and also shunned by European kids because she was African.
"It was very difficult for me as a teenager because I felt like I didn't fit in anywhere," she recalls. "When you're a teenager you want to look like the people around you, and everything was confused for me. But music helped me find who I am and to accept who I am."
All of those experiences, musical and otherwise, she said, are now distilled through her music.
"Now that I'm older, I realized that being able to travel when I was so young was fantastic," Traore says. "People can hear everything I learned in my music, and I'm proud that that's me. Wherever I go, I'm Malian, I'm African. I know about my country, my continent and my culture, and I don't feel ashamed about it." 