Hi, it's Nicola Cochlin. Young people have been making history for years, but we don't often hear about them. My brand new series on BBC Sounds sets out to put this right. In history's youngest heroes, I'll be revealing the fascinating stories of 12 young people who've played a major role in history and who've helped shape our world. Like Audrey Hepburn, Nelson Mandela, Louis Braille and Lady Jane Grey,

history's youngest heroes with me, Nicola Cochlin.

Listen on BBC Sounds.

Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 2009.

Music My castaway this week is the musician Baba Mal. He possesses what's been called one of the finest, most distinctive voices to come out of Africa. Yet as a child, he was told

he couldn't sing because he hadn't been born into the right kind of family. Yet as a child, he was told he couldn't sing, because he hadn't been born into

the right kind of family. Now, he's among the best known African artists in the West,

wowing audiences from the Glastonbury Festival to the proms. But in his homeland of Senegal,

he is a superstar, not simply a singer, more a prophet. Someone treated with such respect that his views are sought on education, health and even international politics.

In our society, we use songs to express what people are feeling, he says. Musicians are closer to society in Africa. We use our voice to say what the people expect from their leaders.

I'm wondering then, Baba Mal, if that's key for you, that you're able to give voice to people who are not normally, usually heard in the run of things politically.

I come from a cultural background where the history play a big role.

And we know about history listening to these storytellers who use the music to tell these stories.

We learn about our responsibility from the music.

If you want to be really well-recognized in your society, like a musician, even you have a very beautiful voice and people love you, everywhere you come.

You have to have something into your lyrics because music, it's not just the melodies and the harmonies, it's also the words. You know, this is what

stay in the mind of people. We'll talk in more detail about the central role of music in your

indigenous culture a little later. Before we go into the first of your musical choices, I want to

ask you, as a musician, I think it's always particularly difficult to boil down the music that's important to just eight tracks.

Did you find it difficult to choose just eight tracks?

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