National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

Youssou N'Dour, Angelique Kidjo, the United Nations Foundation, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, and other project partners premiered the powerful film Africa Live: The Roll Back Malaria Concert at the United Nations Wednesday evening March 29th. The film features rousing performances a year ago in Dakar Senegal by an all star Afropop lineup—Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal, Angelique Kidjo, Seun Kuti (son of Fela) with Egypt 80 and guest artists Tony Allen and Manu Dibango, Tinariwen, Corneille, Tiken Jah Fakoly with fearless Senegalese rapper Didier Awadi. The nationwide broadcast premiere on PBS is set for Thursday, April 6th at 8 pm.

Before the screening, a brief panel discussion addressed the film's underlying theme of tackling the deadly scourge of malaria, the primary cause of child mortality in Africa. Malaria kills over 3,000 children every day in Africa. More than HIV/AIDS which gets a lot more attention. Every year up to 500 million cases of malaria are being reported with more than two million deaths.

Panelist Jeffery Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, said, "Malaria is a tragedy that has to end now. This is the number one solvable public health problem on the continent." He noted that the three billion dollars needed to battle malaria in Africa is the bill for just two days of the war in Iraq (gobbling up 1.5 billion dollars a day.) Sachs and other panelists said that the solution is already known--chemically treated bed nets for kids to sleep under for protection against malaria bearing mosquitos. The problem is in raising adequate funds to purchase and distribute the nets (about $5 each.)

At the New York premiere, Youssou N'Dour spoke for all musicians who participated in the Roll Back Malaria concert when he said that the huge numbers of deaths due to malaria make him think of more than being a musician and entertainer. He feels compelled to do something. It was his brainchild to create the concert. The film itself, produced and directed by Mick Czáky, opens with a foreboding image. A lone baobab tree stands in sandy orange soil against a cobalt blue sky with gleaming white houses in the distance. Above circle a flock of large vultures, croaking their ugly sound. Vultures reappear throughout the film, a haunting symbol of malaria preying on African children. The vulture cries crossfade to the soulful sound of Angelique Kidjo singing the classic African anthem "Malaika." And the film rolls on from there.

Highlights of the concert film include Youssou walking on stage with his arm around the back of Baaba Maal for mutual praise before Baaba Maal launches into a spine-tingling performance of "Mbaye." Seun Kuti evokes the spirit of his father Fela as he fronts a band with many of the same musicians as Fela's Egypt 80. Seun wrote a special song for the concert "Mosquito Song" which he acted out on stage, swatting all over his body. Tiken Jah Fokoly, Ivorian reggae star, laid the groove for Didier Awadi, one of the original driving forces of the Senegalese rap movement in the early 1990s (Dakar now boasts some 5,000 rap groups). Didier rapped "Quitte Le Pouvoir/Get out of Office" castigating the presidents in Africa who he says are corrupt and "steal from the people." The crowd roared their approval. Angelique Kidjo returned at the end of the film to pick up from the beginning with an intimate close up of her performance of "Malaika."

As Youssou said at the New York premiere, the "Africa Live: Roll Back Malaria Concert" and film was an historic team effort with celebrity artists, NGOs and corporate sponsors all working together. Youssou thanked the sponsors--Sumitomo Chemicals (which makes the bed nets), Exxon Mobile, Novartis and the United Nations Foundation. — Courtesy Afropop.org