Juan Manuel Pardellas

First, I came to Africa through music. At just 19, I saw Bob Geldof and the Live Aid festival. Soon after, I devoured every groove of Paul Simon's Graceland album and learned of Mandela's South Africa in prison. I fell in love with artists like albino Malian Salif Keita, South African Miriam Makeba, barefoot lady Cesaria Evora, Yeke Yeke's Guinean Mory Kanté, or Senegalese businessman and politician and mbalax king Yossou NDour. In 2001, my life was turned upside down. Fragile wooden boats full of women, men, children, children's rights activists and...