Daily Discovery: Yeko – Maliba

Daily Discoveries

“Maliba”, translated as The Great Mali, is the new single from Yeko, the project led by French composer and guitarist Yohann Le Ferrand. Sung by Socha Socha and written by Salimata Traoré with Le Ferrand, it arrives ahead of the group’s album due on 30 January 2026. The track pushes back against Western mainstream media’s misrepresentation of Africa by centring joy, brotherhood, dance, and the coexistence of Mali’s multiple ethnic groups.

Le Ferrand describes “Maliba” as being more in the spirit of northern Mali, with a rhythmic feel he links to Songhai wedding music. That pattern sits inside a rock and world-facing band arrangement, with electric guitar leading the charge. An earlier plan would have brought Nterike Aliou Touré of Songhoy Blues onto the same backing track, before the 2020 situation stopped the session from reaching a finished recording.

Le Ferrand began in traditional Breton music before developing a musical identity through Afro-American music that eventually brought him to Africa. He has worked as guitarist with Ivorian singer Dobet Gnahoré, collaborated with Baaba Maal and DaaraJ Family in Senegal, and performed with Tiken Jah Fakoly in Mali. He served as musical director for Rokia Traoré and travelled Europe in choreographer Serge Aimé Coulibaly‘s piece “Kirina”. After collaborating with Koko Dembélé on the film “N’gunu N’gunu Kan” by Soussaba Cissé, he was invited by singer Inna Modja to perform in duet at United Nations headquarters in New York. He has since provided artistic direction for Trio Bacana‘s latest album and arranged the first album by Burkinabé artist Rasma.

Yeko works differently to those collaborative projects. Where Le Ferrand’s earlier EP — also titled Yeko, meaning “a way of seeing” — featured six different West African artists across six tracks, “Maliba” centres the band itself. The group describes the track as “a subsaharan rock ballad in which Mali’s different ethnic groups resonate like a peaceful, unifying anthem.” Acoustic textures sit underneath electric drive; the rhythm section locks into a groove that borrows from desert blues without settling there.

The band puts it plainly. “Africa is also joy, fraternity, dance, sharing and rich cultures living in harmony.” “Maliba” is their answer to what they call “the miserablist angle too often chosen by Western mainstream media“, and they make that answer loud.

Stream and listen to the single HERE