1. Khadja Nin (Burundi) - Sina Mali, Sina Deni (Free) - 4:10
Khadja Nin of Burundi - a small country just south of Rwanda - dreamed as a child of becoming her country's equivalent of South Africa's famed Miriam Makeba. This song is adapted from Stevie Wonder and expresses the journey to spiritual liberation. This and other fine African music can be found at Putamayo.

2. Manecas Costa (Guinea-Bissau) - Fundo di Matu - 5:31
Guinea-Bissau is a tiny country in far western Africa between Senegal to the north and Guinea to the south. Manecas Costa has been playing for audiences since he was under 10 years old. This song, "Deep in the Forest", is sung in a creole mixture with Portuguese. It is about longing, both for a love and for his country: "Bissau is sleeping but doesn't know it." From Putamayo.

3. Pa Joe (Ghana) - Nyame Somafo - 4:49
Pa Joe is one of a group of African musicians who call themselves the African Guitar Summit (Adam Solomon, track 6, is too). This song relates to Jonah: Come quickly, open the Bible, teach us so that we may be happy.

4. Tarika (Madagascar) - Retany - 2:51
The Malagasy (Madagascaran) people and language are ancestrally Indonesian. Apparently migrations along the shores of the Indian Ocean brought Indonesians here many centuries ago. Madagascar's isolation has led to unique flora, fauna and culture. Sisters Hanitra Rasoanaivo and Noro Raharimalala sing this piece, which is a man's plea to the woman he keenly desires to marry. But she refuses to marry him, and she will not say why.

5. Doctor King'esi (Kenya) - Nipeleke Kwa Baba - 2:56
Doctor's mother named him this because she had been inspired by a politician of that name shortly before childbirth. Self taught from a very early age, Doctor sings in Swahili about a child's distaste for his mother's new husband: "Mama, please take me back to my real father. This man is tormenting me because I am not his son."

6. Adam Solomon (Kenya) - Pesa Ni Unfunguo - 6:21
Music from "the Fiesta guitar of Professor Adam Solomon", who with Pa Joe (track 3) is a member of the loose-knit group known as the African Guitar Summit. This song is about money - "pesa" in Swahili - which seems to mean everything in this modern world. People like us play our music for money, and you cannot travel without it.

7. Amaduduzo (South Africa) - Intombi - 3:47
From a younger Zulu group who are building a new tradition of accompanied choral music. The Intombi River flows through South Africa.

8. Saouad Massi (Algeria) - Raoui - 3:48
Saouad began as a hard-rock singer often of anti-governmental themes. She has come back to acoustic but remains socially conscious. This song ("Storyteller") asks for a recounting of legends of old, of life before the terrible realities of today's war-torn world.

9. Tarika (Madagascar) - Sekta - 5:18
For more about the group Tarika see the notes on track 4 above. This song is about strife among religious sects in Madagascar: "Where will I go when I die? There are so many choices now. Let's calm down and respect each other. Let's go back to the beginning."

10. King Sunny Ade (Nigeria) - Suku Suku Bam Bam - 9:41
King Sunny Adé (pronounced ah-DAY) is known as the "King of Juju", a musical style that originated in Nigeria in the 1930s. For more information see here. "A song in celebration of faith in God and one's destiny. ... Anyone who is swollen with envy can blow up. ... The cat has arrived, rats disappear. ... It is my faith that enabled me to climb the mountain".