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IFC Managing Director Makhtar Diop sits down with Sauti Sol

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) Managing Director Makhtar Diop is passionate about music. It may not be his profession, but he sees the importance of it. Music is a “social builder and influences people much more than anything else, because this is touching your emotion” he shared. Who better than to have a conversation about music than one of Kenya’s most well-known and beloved afro-pop groups, Sauti Sol.

On the 4th episode of the Creative Development Podcast with IFC, Diop and the four-member band: Bien-Aimé Baraza, Savara Mudigi, Polycarp Otieno and Willis Chimano, discussed the evolution of music education and copyrights in Africa, music as a form of storytelling, and how artists can share the complexity of their sounds with the world.

Bien-Aimé Baraza, Savara Mudigi, Polycarp Otieno and Willis Chimano were a group of good friends who were classmates in high school who then decided they can become life-mates. They’ve played music together for 15 years; and state that the journey sharing their musical gifts has been fun. Sauti Sol has grown together and made beautiful music and though they’ve experienced their ups and downs, they call it part of life’s process.

The Evolution of Music Education and Copyrights in Africa

“African music is not written to be expressed in Western ways”, Bien states. The more we educate on our artists, because information is power, the more you’ll realize that now, artists are going to become more and more independent, there’s going to be very many more art millionaires, and Bien believes Kenya is on the right path.

While he was Minister of Finance, Diop was pushing for copyrights in music because it was clear to him that the youth in the industry relied on the source of income. He worked on the copyright laws and the changing of governance of the copyright body to ensure that not only was it public, but it was in the hands of the musicians. “We are facing copyright problems right now, or we’ve been facing for many years. It’s kind of showing people the value of music as a career”, Polycarp told Diop, “it transcends across generations, and it’s our kids and our kids’ kids that will really suffer if we don’t sort this out now.” It’s Polycarp’s hope that musicians can get to be the policymakers because the way things are right now, the policymakers do not see value of music as a career.

Music as a Form of Storytelling and Sharing the Complexity of their Sounds

Savara posits that since time immemorial, our forefathers passed the information of music to children in the simplest form; a lullaby. We’d listen and sing along, and you’d get the information. He feels, in terms of skill and education, we’ve always done this informal sharing of music and information. Now that the world is a digital space, there’s music online, and with distribution online. It’s such that you can track how well your music is doing and see other artists as well. With “digital sales being the dominant way of us guys getting revenues from our music, at least, you can assure yourself that every artist who is working hard, and has s good contract, is getting paid” shared Bien.

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We can share the African sound all around the globe thanks to all the platforms that we have today. Kenya may not have grade 12 piano players, but in Kenya, there’s ohangla music. Ohangla music has a keyboard that only plays three chords, “but those three chords are used to express a certain emotion that blends with the drums, that blends with everything around there. And that’s what builds the beauty about it,’ he continued.

African societies use and consume music differently, and we can always share the beauty and complexity with each other and the world.

Lastly, Savara urges young creatives or any young person out there who thinks they can be in the creative economy not to be afraid to choose art. Chimano did journalism, he is a graduate with honors, Polycarp did actuarial science, Bien-Aimé did broadcast journalism, and he did business finance. They chose art, art is not for failures.

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