Abstract
This paper emphasizes the international anticolonial politics of the history of salsa music. I focus on how the music provided a space for liberatory politics but also faced different disbanding of groups due to political strife. I focus on the Malian salsa band Las Maravillas de Mali, comprised of students studying music in Cuba. In the 1960s and 70s, salsa and Afro-Cuban music were This study considers the ensemble Las Maravillas de Mali (“The Delight of Mali”), their disbandment due to political pressures in West Africa, and their eventual reunion at the hands of a documentarian. The life of the ensemble, both in the documentary and previous recordings, reinforces a history of politicized salsa. The documentary counters Americanized narratives of salsa by describing the development of the group of Malian music students in Cuba in the 1960s and the later reformation of the band with the original bandleader as the last living member. While the film of Buena Vista Social Club became part of what Alex Vazquez has called the region’s “musical time freeze,” the Maravillas de Mali documentary is distinct by its acknowledgment of the group’s sociopolitical stakes. The eventual performances alongside working musicians in Habana resist a prerevolutionary nostalgia. I conclude with remixes produced in tandem with the 2020 re-recordings that emphasize the band’s current investment in appealing to a broad spectrum of listeners. The band’s sounds become timeless, both tied to history and the present but without nostalgia for Cuba before the Revolution or Special Period.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Civic, Political, and Community Studies
KEYWORDS
Cuba, West Africa, Salsa, Afro-Cuban, Pan-Africanism
