Malian band Tinariwen (playing WOMAD NZ in March 2018) are a true musical revolutionaries in every sense. Active since
1982, these nomadic Tuareg or ‘Kel Tamashek’ (speakers of Tamashek) electric guitar legends revolutionised a traditional
style to give birth to a new genre often called ‘desert blues’. They also have a history rooted deeply in revolution and
fighting for the rights of their nomadic Tamashek speaking culture and people. The rebellious political nature to this
music is far from pantomime; many of the original members of the band fought in the “great rebellion” against the Malian army in 1990-91 and used music to spread the message of rebellion among their dispersed tribes. They
are still profoundly passionate about the right of their language and culture to exist and flourish, but for now they
are seeking to ensure this happens through their music.
Don’t for a minute let all this fool you into thinking they can’t party - these guys and their music are truly funky,
shredding their electric guitars in climactic solos like Hendrix with tabs beneath their turbans all locked into a
pounding trance like syncopated sub-Saharan African rhythm.
I first heard Tinariwen in the early 2000’s when they burst onto the world scene and was blown away by the passion and
obvious feeling conveyed in the music. Despite not being able to understand the lyrics except those you can pick up with
your sixth form French, the piercing, nasal back of the throat vocals of lead singer Ibrahim Ag Alhabib pierce some long
forgotten evolutionary part of your being. You can just feel the sizzling energy of the desert coming off the hypnotic
interlocking slide guitar and scorching lead solos like a hot Saharan wind. The interlocking African hand percussion,
chants, claps and bass rhythms are absolutely trance inducing with elements reminiscent of the music of the griots – a
highly esoteric ancient Saharan spiritual tradition of bards.
I remember being fascinated to hear their revolutionary back-story and the personal struggles they have endured to get
where they are. I am so excited about hearing them play live as they have continued maturing and developing musically
and their latest album is excellent. Here’s a taster while you read their story below:
The Story of Tinariwen
The socio-political realities of the modern world have been tough on the nomadic Kel Tamashek culture which is spread
across Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Libya, and Algeria. Over the past century, their history has been one of constant
struggle for survival in an unforgiving territory desired by outsiders. They have suffered under (and rebelled against)
the rule of the French colonial army, and later against the post-colonial governments that emerged. Band leader Ibrahim
Ag Alhabib lost his father to the first Tuareg rebellion of 1963, sending him on the path of rebellion. In the eighties,
when Qaddafi offered military training to the Tamasheks, thousands answered his call. He and the other founding members
of Tinariwen were among them, meeting in a Libyan training camp, and playing their first performances there. Legend has
it that, they once performed a song for Qaddafi himself. According to reports, at times during the war, Tinariwen’s
cassettes were the only recorded music that could be found.
Out of these conditions of severe adversity and struggle, Tinariwen emerged as a musical expression of the Kel Tamashek
rebellion, giving voice to the longing of a people for freedom to pursue their traditional way of life. In 1992, the
government of Mali signed a peace treaty with the rebels, and Tinariwen’s fighting days came to an end. Tinariwen then
began singing about Kel Tamashek unity to overcome the internal tribalism and factionalism being exploited by the Malian
Government. However, they have not forgotten their roots. “We are military artists!” Abdallah Ag Alhousseini, one of the group’s guitarists and singers, once told a journalist from Algérie News. “Today, if we see that our brothers need fighters rather than musicians, we will go to the front, because we are always
ready to answer the call of the preservation of our land, our values, and our culture. This is what we do through music,
and we will do it again with arms!”
There is no doubt that Tinariwen's success launched a renaissance and explosion in Tamashek guitar music, the ripples
of which are still felt today. This music, often labelled as ‘desert blues’ or ‘Tuareg Guitar’ or just ‘guitar’ in Mali
- is the cultural inheritance of their race. Their own name for it is ‘Assouf’, which doesn't directly transliterate. In
the liner notes of Tinariwen's Aman Iman album, an unnamed nomad is paraphrased saying that assouf is everything that
lies in the darkness beyond the light of the campfire.
Tinariwen is thought to be the first Tamashek electric guitar band, in this way making them akin to Bob Dylan. Like
Dylan, by plugging in, they have forever changed this traditional folk music style, but in doing so have ensured its
relevance and flourishing in the modern digital world. Before them the style was only passed down through the
generations of nomadic tribes and shared across their region (along with a fair smattering of revolutionary political
propaganda) by the exchange of low-resolution recordings on cassette tapes. Without this rennaisance, there was a very
real possibility this musical tradition could have withered away and been forgotten.
As Joe Tangari writing for Pitchfork puts it: “Tinariwen have rightfully grown to international fame-- they are for the Kel Tamashek essentially what Bob Marley was
for Jamaica, an emissary that confronts the struggle and sadness of their people head-on in infectious, emotionally
charged songs. This is Tinariwen's other great innovation: When they moved on from playing traditional songs rooted in
the past to playing their own compositions that spoke of modern turmoil and dreams, they became the sound of their
people.”
Far from a lazy comparison, however it is quite accurate – Tinariwen combine a unique melange of an obscure and dying
cultural and musical tradition and the present day and future ambitions of an oppressed people. Ultimately their music
is both nostalgic and traditional while also hopeful and modern giving the people of this nomadic culture a sense of
belonging, continuity and hope for a better future. It is no surprise with this combination that they have attracted a
huge international following. This was no easy feat; it took them two decades of hard-graft circulating cassettes,
interrupted by war in northern Mali, Algeria and Niger in the late 80s and early 90s. Now there is a proliferation of
second-generation bands such as Bombino who are also gaining critical acclaim, but they all look for inspiration to
Tinariwen – in fact some people call them “the children of Tinariwen”.
Roots of Kel Tamashek Music
The label ‘desert Blues’ is actually a bit misleading in its implications of unoriginality. However, conversely it
actually points to the valid fact that musicologists have in fact traced the origins of the modern blues to the Malian
region. As Joe Tangari again describes the blues connection of Tinariwen’s work:
“The pentatonic scales echo those heard along the curve of the Niger River, and it's easy to draw a line through the
music of Senegal, Guinea, southern Mali, and other parts of West Africa straight to American blues.”
In other words these guys are no imitators – they are descendants of the original bluesmen - playing in a style they
have inherited down the generations. Their music is still very much their own - it draws on traditional Kel Tamashek
chant music played on distant relatives of the guitar. The Guitar as an instrument is actually descended from the
melding of Arabic and North African music and first emerged in its modern form in the Moorish empire leading to the
emergence of ‘flamenco’ guitar of Andalusia in Southern Spain. It is no surprise it was adopted with relish
progressively by the Tamashek from the 1960s when they began to find their way into the region.
The historic roots of Kel Tamashek musical mix lie in their interesting history as a nomadic culture of caravan traders
wedged between a number of colliding worlds from the sub-Saharan African cultures, the Arabic world and Spain and the
Colonial French. Like many nomadic cultures they have picked up elements of these other cultures they have come into
contact with along the way. For this reason, Flamenco, Arabesque and the Berber orchestras of North Africa and Lebanese
string music are all in the mix in Tamashek music making for a diverse and deep musical tradition.
The Sub-Saharan Soul of Tinariwen
However, the soul of the Kel Tamashek music, one could argue comes from the griots of the Sahel region, a semi-arid band
of land that spans Africa to the south of the Sahara. A griot is a repository of oral tradition or bard or troubadour and is often seen as a societal leader due to his or her traditional position as an advisor to
royal personages. According to Paul Oliver in his book Savannah Syncopators on the griot, "he has to know many
traditional songs without error, he must also have the ability to extemporize on current events, chance incidents and
the passing scene. His wit can be devastating and his knowledge of local history formidable".
These griot elements are also present in the tradition of the famous Southern Malian musician Ali Farka Toure who no
doubt influenced the fledgling Malian musicians of Tinariwen. Toure is the world’s best known Malian blues exponents and
on hearing him its is hard to question that Mali and the griot tradition is indeed the homeland of the blues and
ultimately of the social and political commentary and free styling of hip hop.
Although they are popularly known as "praise singers", griots may use their vocal expertise for gossip, satire, or
political comment. It is this political commentary aspect of the griot tradition that Tinariwen and the Kel Tamashek
have incorporated into their music with relish, using it as a vehicle for the emancipatory goals of their historically
maligned and oppressed people. In a sense Tinariwen have been the bards or griots of their generation, spreading groovy
songs of highly charged emotion and inspiration to their people.
What does the Future Hold?
Andy Morgan writes in the Guardian:
“The Sahara is in a mess. It’s not just the terrorism, kidnapping, drug trafficking and other headline-hogging
afflictions (the ones that tend to obsess western governments and analysts), it’s the vicious subsoil from which those
headlines grow: the poverty, corruption, political indifference, underdevelopment, armed conflict and desertification.
Those underlying calamities turn the daily lives of many Saharan people into a grinding struggle. The modern world has
not been kind to them or to their old nomadic ways.”
Given the continuing difficulties, they face in a world that even in the most progressive regions, consistently fails to
acknowledge the human rights of nomadic peoples, the Kel Tamashek sorely need heroes such as Tinariwen and their
offspring. However their cause was not helped in 2013 when in the Islamist rulers of Mali banned music across two thirds
of the country. Three years later in 2016 the Guardian reports that there are signs things are improving. “low-level violence continues in the north and beyond, with an Islamist attack on a hotel in the capital in November and a similar terrorist assault in Burkina Fasoin January. But there are signs that things are changing….. These days bands perform in bars in the capital most nights
of the week and regular street parties have whole neighbourhoods dancing.”
The hypnotic and soulful sound of Tinariwen has become the soundtrack of cultural resistance and rebellion in the region
and it is impossible to hear it and not be moved. Lets hope that the on-going war in this region does not claim another
generation of gifted youngsters who could continue this musical legacy and ensure the survival of a language, musical
tradition and ultimately a Culture.
See Tinariwen live at WOMAD 2018 16 -18 March 2018, in New Plymouth