Africa Live, Documentary of 2005 Roll Back Malaria Festival

On April 4th, CD and DVD distributor Naxos of America will release Africa Live: The Roll Back Malaria Concert, a documentary DVD from British director Mick Csáky of the concert festival held by Roll Back Malaria at the Iba Mar Diop Stadium in Dakar, Senegal on March 12th-13th 2005 to raise awareness of the problem of malaria in Africa.

Organized with the assistance of Youssou N’Dour, Unicef, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Foundation, the Africa Live concert festival brought together top African musicians.  The DVD contains the documentary by Mr. Csáky, which includes complete live performance footage, a Roll Back Malaria advocacy film presented by Angélique Kidjo, and a bonus of 10 additional live songs, directed by Martin Meissonnier.

Musicians included are Youssou N’Dour (Senegal) performing with the Grand Orchestre du Caire (Egypt) and Le Super Etoile de Dakar (Senegal), Baaba Maal (Senegal), Orchestra Baobab (Senegal), Awadi (Senegal), Oumou Sangare (Mali), Salif Keita (Mali), Angélique Kidjo (Benin), Tinariwen (Mali), Seun Kuti (Nigeria), Tony Allen (Nigeria), Manu Dibango (Cameroon), Awilo Longomba (Congo-Kinshasa ), Tiken Jah Fakoly (Ivory Coast) and Corneille (Rwanda).

The spread of malaria is a devastating health problem in developing nations and has hit Africa particularly hard: according to an article by Lydia Polgreen in The New York Times, 90% of all malaria deaths occur in the continent.  Roll Back Malaria aims to cut the number of malaria cases in Africa in half by 2010 through distribution of mosquito nets and antimalarial drugs.

Africa Live was part of the organization’s plan to raise global awareness of malaria and their efforts to fight the disease; the DVD release coincides with a PBS broadcast on April 6th (check local listings) and events surrounding Africa Malaria Day on April 25th.