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My life had been defined by the apartheid years. Now we were going into an era of democracy... and I believed that I didn't really have a function as a useful artist in that anymore.

It's a privilege to serve the poor, to be servants of noble Africans, but I better belong in the rehearsal room or in the studio with my band. That's where I want to be and I still wake up in the morning with melodies in my head.

When I'm in Senegal, I can't just sit in isolation making music. People need my help. And the Senegalese people helped create my music. It comes from the country itself.

In Africa, music is for everything, Music was originally used for community. That was what music was for.

When I talk about the end of apartheid, I prefer not to claim the honor that I have ended it.

We need self-confidence in our ability to build Africa. I trust in Mali and I trust in music.

Music is one of the most powerful things the world has to offer. No matter what race or religion or nationality or sexual orientation or gender that you are, it has the power to unite us.

To me, music has to be about freedom. It's the most important thing in my life.

I don't find music being less important than, like, politics.

I am consciously not trying to bring in World Music elements. The ways that I work and feel are completely different in how they sound than someone playing the Kora in Africa would play it.