African singers to raise money for Haiti
West and Central African singing stars will record a song in early
March in the Senegalese capital Dakar to raise money for victims of last
month’s earthquake in Haiti, the musical project’s leader said on
Wednesday.
More than 200,000 people were killed and a million left homeless when
a magnitude 7.0 quake struck the poor Caribbean country on Jan. 12.
Since then, a mass of international relief efforts have been launched.
In the most recent African aid initiative, dozens of singers, among
them internationally known names including Senegalese vocalists Youssou
Ndour and Baba Maal, Ivorian reggae artist Alpha Blondy and Congolese
musicians Lokua Kanza and Papa Wemba, will gather in Dakar from March
1-6 to record a song, all proceeds from which will go to Haitians.
“We have seen many solidarity actions from other parts of the world,
we too have to do our share,” singer and project coordinator Coumba
Gawlo Seck told Senegalese television after a meeting with Senegal’s
President Abdoulaye Wade.
Mali and Guinea will also be represented musically, while Coumba
Gawlo said a mega-concert in Dakar will be organised to raise more money
for Haitians.
Soon after the earthquake, Wade grabbed international headlines but
surprised many in his own country by proposing the creation of a new
African state to resettle homeless Haitians, comparing the idea to the
1948 birth of the state of Israel.
DAKAR, Reuters |