00:04traditional music is blowing up again not because it stayed the same but because a
00:10new generation across africa is reinventing it from malawi to mauritius to kenya these
00:18three artists are transforming heritage into something global and totally unexpected coming
00:24in at number three where we start in malawi home to ethnomusician and instrument maker patrick
00:30chimbewa his mission keep traditional music alive by evolving it the best way to keep the
00:36traditional music alive we should actually teach the younger ones but patrick does more than teach
00:42he pulls the instruments themselves from scratch traditional instruments uh for me i do feel like
00:50uh they are very important because they help to keep the history of what uh we are done by our
01:01assistants for these traditional instruments yeah it's easy to play together with modern music
01:09because if they the scale are the same you can do it without any problem that philosophy led him to
01:16one of his wildest ideas yet designing a hybrid instrument no one had seen before so that's why
01:22i came up with the uh this double instrument just combining the the two instruments birds and the
01:30and when he brought the sound to the world people couldn't believe what they were hearing people
01:36cannot believe that this is the traditional instrument was played
01:43from handmade keys hammered in east village to festivals like lake of stars into maybe
01:49patrick proves the tradition can evolve without losing its soul thousands of kilometers away on the
01:55island of mauritius sega music carries centuries of history and at number two lanakita is one of its
02:02loudest voices it's our identity we need to do it if we don't do it who will do it
02:08we need to do it and from the word to the word to the world
02:10sega was born out of struggle a rhythm created by enslaved people as an expression of freedom
02:17you know sega music town the stories of our people our struggle and our joy also you know our
02:23ancestors when they created the sega they created the rhythm and the moves like an expression
02:28of of freedom and today la makita keeps sega alive not only by freezing it in time but
02:35by opening it to the world.
02:36SEGA can unite we, all the Mauritian people
02:40from so many diverse communities,
02:42so SEGA can also unite the whole world together.
02:47She blends ravine, drums, maravine,
02:50electro, jazz, afrobeats,
02:53turning SEGA into a genre that Gen Z can dance to.
02:58And the youngsters nowadays in Mauritius
03:00are also doing some SEGA with some Chata music,
03:02a little bit some Caribbean vibes.
03:04We have also some Afro music.
03:07All of this keeps our SEGA alike.
03:10As a singer, educator and cultural guardian,
03:14she carries the strength of the women who sang SEGA before her,
03:18even when society judged them.
03:21And in Kenya, one artist is pushing tradition the furthest.
03:25Our number one is Labdi Oms,
03:28who started by picking up an instrument
03:29she wasn't supposed to touch.
03:31When I learned that Orutu was only played by men,
03:34I said, you know what, this is a great idea.
03:37This is the instrument that I want to play.
03:39As one of the only female Orutu players,
03:42she's faced pushback and even hostility.
03:45I got insulted one at a show and I had to pack up.
03:47But her artistry is undeniable,
03:50blending composition, identity, and the deep cultural function
03:53of traditional instruments.
03:55The thing about traditional instruments is that they were all functional.
03:58We did not sit down and write songs about flowers growing.
04:02There was always a purpose and most likely a social purpose.
04:06For Labdi, the Orutu is not just an instrument, it's a voice.
04:10And she plays it the only way she can.
04:13What I love about Orutu is that I play it the way I want.
04:17How a woman, I feel, would play it, you know.
04:19She wants the next generation, especially girls,
04:22to pick up these instruments too.
04:24I hope at the end of it all, I inspire enough people
04:28to take up traditional instruments.
04:31That is very key to what I'm doing now.
04:34More so girls, but in general, the younger people
04:37to take up these instruments because the craft is dying.
04:40Three artists, three countries,
04:42three completely different ways of reinventing tradition.
04:46From Patrick's handmade hybrids in Malawi,
04:48to Lanakita's global Sega in Mauritius,
04:51to Labdi rewriting gender rules in Kenya,
04:54one message is clear.
04:56Tradition doesn't survive by staying the same.
04:58It survives by evolving.
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