The stories of these women, who remain vulnerable, can now be heard on an album called "I've forgotten now who I used to be."
The Malawi Mouse Boys grew up in deep poverty, selling their namesake rodents to make money. But despite being cut off from outside music, with self-taught skills and self-made instruments, they created a unique sound that now has them performing around the world.
The genre "world music" is hard to define: It covers a broad range of styles and is constantly evolving. Take, for instance, the Gambian-English band JuJu — they derive equal inspiration from traditional West African music as they do from classic punk.
Nigerian musician Tony Allen is not a young man anymore. But the former drummer for bandleader Fela Kuti is a fresh voice trying to draw attention to the horrific boat accidents that are killing thousands of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.