sahelsounds

The guitar soiree is the quinessential to the modern Tamashek. At least a few times in a week a festival will be organized -- be it a marriage, a baptism, or simply a concert. As the first stars appear in the sky, the guitar can be heard wafting over the city. "Listen..." heads tilt, to ascertain the sound. "Radio? No, definitely guitar..."


The guests, the women in glittering shawls, the young men in new turbans and sporting leather jackets assemble on the ornate rugs on opposing sides. In the center lies a section a few meters squared. This is the dancefloor. The first group is announced over the microphone to come forward as the band strikes a few chords, and groups of men rush forward. There is usually disagreement, as six young men stubbornly claim their place. "Three people only, please," the announcer begs. The band waits patiently for concession. "Merci," the announcer sighs, and the music begins. There is some bustle in the crowd of women before a few jump up. The dance is a simple two step from side to side, although it occurs on a counter beat, and the dancers dance in place, facing one another yet seperated by a good meter, moving their arms about in striking poses. At some point in the song, the refrain, both sides step forward and and dance close to one another, before passing and changing sides on the square. The music ends, the six dancers rush back to their places.


Group Amanar at a small concert in Essouk. (myspace link)


The guitar soiree is the forum for Tamashek guitar music. It's rather nonparticipatory -- after all, everyone wants to dance -- but it is just as much an opportunity to be seen. The first guitar soirees came in the 1990s. Prior to that the guitar cassettes were more likely to be heard blaring throughout the speakers in Libyan military camps.

In some ways, the precendent of the guitar could be seen as the tahardint, the traditional guitar, and the takamba. The takamba is a style of tahardint with a distinctive rhythm pounded on a calabas. It is a fast sound and paradoxically a painfully slow dance. The format of the soirees are similar, but the dancing is slower, ghostly, and more eloquent.


Takamba from Ali Ag Moman, Timbouctou.



Yet the music that probably comes closest to the guitar is iswatt. Iswatt incidentally is a noninstrumental music. The sound is created by a rhythmic clapping accompanied by foot stomping, a constant low frequency male humming and grunts, and a female singing ("the five instruments of iswatt," a friend proclaims). The crowd forms a circle and pairs of dancers enter admist the energectic hand clapping. The dancing is fast, arms flailing, dust raising, and with billowing robes. The dancers drop to the ground and jump into the air.

If the guitar is the music of ville, isawatt, even today, continues to be a music of the brousse. In the rainy season, a few people will sneak away into the darkness, far away from the tents and begin singing. The others will hear and come together, following the echoes through the dark night. In that way at least, things are not so different.


Iswatt "demonstration" by children en brousse.

Labels: guitar, ishumar, iswatt, kidal, tamashek

The Tuaregs consist of a variety of tribes, stretching across the center of the Saharan desert, East of Mauritania, across Mali, Algeria, Niger, Libya. In the past, the Western association was with "blue men" in the desert, the fierce resistance to colonization, the romantic myth of the desert nomad. Today it is impossible for the West to speak of Tuareg without the obligatory reference to the Tuareg guitar.

Koma and Attaye, two acoustic guitars in Kidal

The Tamashek guitar, or "ishumar" (A French deriviation of chômeur, or "unemployed") was borne in the rebellion. After the first rebellion, the youth that had left for Libya for military training in the war with Chad returned to Mali -- without any education or opportunity.

Interview with Initriy and Tahieat (French)



Origins are difficult to ascertain, but Tinariwen of Tessalit, Mali are popularly considered the pioneers. The music of Tinariwen is traded across Mali, via the Tamashek. Numbering only 600,000 but stretching over thousands of kilometers -- the Malian Tamashek community is like a small town, and everyone knows everyone. But the heart is definitely in the North of the country.

Ishumar guitar music is preferrably played with the electric guitar (for its responsive touch, both solo and rhythm) bass, percussion (calabas, djembe, or drum kit), and singing and hand claps. It is almost always played in a pentatonic scale (familiar immediately for the "blues" component), with a droning bass note and syncopated treble that accompanies the singing. One chord is often sufficient. but with tremolos and impressive solos. A friend remarks that tremolo of "false" notes are what seperate Tamashek guitar from Sonrai guitar. "It plays better with the way they speak." And certaintly, the language Tamashek is full of bent and uluated vowels, placing it closer to Arabic in sound then with its cousins to the South. While the music has certain roots in traditional Tamashek guitar, the influence of Western music (cassettes of Bob Marley and Jimmy Hendrix most substantially) cannot be ignored. And today, as is common throughout the Sahara, the favorite guitarist amongst the younger generation: Dire Straits.




Talking with a former rebel/musician: "Dire Straits is the number one guitarist for the Tamashek. If he held a concert here...no...all the Tuareg - Algeria, Libya, Niger - would come to Kidal." Mark Knopfler, are you listening?

Abba and Ahmedou Ag with acoustic guitar, Timbouctuo, 2, 3,

Sarid Ag and Doni with electric guitar, Kidal, 2

Labels: guitar, mali, tamashek, tamasheq

While Tuareg rock (Desert Blues, i.e. Tinariwen) is the most known form of Tamashek music abroad, traditional guitar still has a strong place in the North. The traditional guitar is found throughout West Africa, for Peuls, Sonrai, Maures, Tuareg, Sarakoles - respectively named Hodou, Koubour, Tidinit, Teherdent or Hardine (and a four stringed version known as Gambare or Jeli Ngoni for the Bambara).

There are two sizes of the guitar; both are the same form - a three stringed lute of wood hollow body. The guitar is fretless, and the strings are bound to the neck by a wrapped bands of elastic. The larger, with a deeper resonance, is used for "listening" while the smaller, with a brighter and tinnier sound embodies a more lively sound, suitable for dancing. Amplification is achieved with the standard microphone of West Africa - a transducer microphone furnished from the Casio watch. The guitarist sits with a knee bent the guitar held between the legs, a seemingly acrobatic position (photo needed!).

Ali Ag Mooman is a griot from Timbouctou. While the griots still hold a strong role in society (no marriage would be possible without one), they are often marginalized in the market. The traditional music is not sought after with the fervor as the modern sounds.

Ali plays some songs while his brother explains (in French, translations below).

Adernibah

"This is in the desert, there is a group of guitarists that had lost their route, and they played this song for 20 days. Adernibah in Tamashek is people who are lost in the desert. It is a song known in the entire world."


Two Songs


"This is the first song of the Tuareg. It's called "Yona". The beginning of the (Tuareg) guitar, this is it!"


Takoba


"This is from a grand leader, called Hawadine."


Hawadi

"This is called y'addi. This is the song uniquely for the Tuareg. If there is a war, this song is played. It's like a drug, this song, and if they hear it they march straight!"


Lastly, a recording of Ali Ag Mooma (thardint), Moussa (Calabass), and myself (guitar) in an evening soiree/cassette recording, performed at his house by the "Gare Goundam." As the night progresses, all the neighbors trickle in, drawn by the buzzing of the guitar - the best promotion, and how most soirees are "advertised" in the desert towns and the nomad 'acampaments.'

This is a popular song titled Chebibah, which means "the youth" in Arabic. It was originally composed by an Algerian, but is a standard for Tamashek guitar.

Chebibah

Labels: griot, mali, tamashek, tamasheq, tuareg

The desert north of the river Niger is a scrubby dry place. Along the border with Mauritanian and Mali, there are a mixture of Maurs, Berbiche, and Tamashek (Tuareg). I meet a group of Kalashnikov carrying youths (military). The zone is in a state of continuous tension, as rebel raids have been frequent and recent as a few months ago. There is a clear division between the Bambara and the Tamashek officers, even though this is likely to be denied.

Ag Said singing independence songs in the truck

I stay a few days in Gargando, a tiny and unassuming village, known in the region primarily for it's brackish water. The youth have come back for vacation. In the late evening, we sit around and play songs on my guitar.


Night Soiree with youth


Night Soiree 2


Night Soiree 3






During the day, the heat is too oppressive to move. Later, by the afternoon, there is millet to pound and cows to feed. But there is lot of time to sit around too and play with the microphone.


Young girl raps (in tamashek)


Unknown song


At night, under the stars, the old bearded patriarch Abdullahi tells me, in a deep cinematic voice: "In America you sleep in five star hotels. Here in the desert, we have a million and one." And his laugh bellows out over the white sand.

Labels: guitar, mali, tamashek, tamasheq, tuareg