Maravillas De Mali

In 1964, the Cuban government invited ten young musicians from Mali to study in Havana. The early Sixties was a period of «Communist» friendships between the Africa of independence and the revolutionary Cuba of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. And in the middle of the Cold War, these young people spent seven years studying music in Cuba, marking the beginning of an adventure for Las Maravillas de Mali, the only group singing in Spanish, Bambara and French.

They didn’t know it then, but they would define the first broad outlines of what is today called World Music.

In 1999, the French producer Richard Minier learned of the story and decided on the renaissance of Las Maravillas de Mali. Together, Minier and the group’s remaining survivor, Boncana Maïga, retraced the group’s steps and went to Havana on several occasions, re-recording new versions of the album’s songs in the same surroundings as before, the legendary Egrem studios.