The desert blues rebellion music of the Tuareg people of Saharan Africa has garnered its fair share of attention in recent times, and deservedly so. It’s fascinating, if tragic, political conflict in its own right; the Tuareg people seeking independence from the French Colonial states of Mali and Niger, and on that takes on an extra dimension when considering the guitar was banned as a symbol of rebellion in Tuareg controlled areas. Few have done more in this fight than Mali’s Tinariwen, whose own story has a mythic quality to it. From frontman Ibrahim Ag Alhabib – his own parents killed during the Tuareg uprising of 1963 – teaching himself guitar on a self-fashioned instrument of a watering can, stick and fishing wire, to members of the band joining an uprising of their own, allegedly riding into battle with Kaleshnikovs in their arms and Stratocasters on their backs.
A band forty years on the move, birthed from a nomadic people and typified through exile and touring alike, it feels fitting that eighth album Amadjar was formed on a journey. Two weeks in a campervan turned makeshift studio, traveling from Morocco to Mauritania, the band would spend each evening under the stars with their instruments. Ideas were birthed, rendered and expanded, songs formed in the community before finally the album was recorded over the course of several days in the desert on the outskirts of Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania. Tackling the struggles of the Tuareg people, from political unrest to climate change, Amadjar brims with a true roots essence. The days of gun-wielding rebellion behind them, instead the music speaks of unity and togetherness, an understanding that the future needs to be fought together in community and harmony.
“My friend I beg of you, let’s speak with one voice. These last few years I’ve journeyed without my saddle, no one offers me a meal anymore”, sing the lyrics of ‘Takount’, translated from Tamasheq. The weapons now the interweaving blues guitars, churning between one another with infectious momentum. Interspersed with recorded snippets of conversation and impromptu transitions, it harnesses a genuine sense of a desert jam session, the band’s bread and butter over their forty-year tenure. Feeling built to be enjoyed together, this is the world Tinariwen dream of, where all people can simply enjoy life together under one sky. Their name roughly translates to ‘deserts’, and one gets the sense of a physical and metaphorical element here. An almost biblical journey to freedom, Tinariwen have inspired compatriots from Tamikrest to Bombino, artists that encapsulate the struggle of a people, taking it to the world through music that truly brings people together.
Photo by Marie Planeille
