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Ex-refugees of Tinariwen find their sanctuary in the music
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Chicago Tribune, Ex-refugees of Tinariwen find their sanctuary in the music >>
For most musicians, a foulup that involves delayed passports, a missed flight to France and the subsequent delay of a European tour would be unnerving. But Alhousseini Abdoulahi, guitarist of the Malian band Tinariwen, takes this situation in stride. "The bureaucracy of visas is heavy and complex, but we're getting quite good at dealing with it," Abdoulahi said via a translated e-mail from Bamako, Mali. "That's life." Considering all Tinariwen has been through since the mid 1980s, it's clear why Abdoulahi is nonchalant in the face of this hassle. As semi-nomadic Tuaregs, the members of his group bonded in Libyan refugee camps during their tribe's decades-long insurrection against the Malian government. After a 1990s reconciliation, the band was able to return to Mali and receive worldwide attention. One vivid illustration of this newfound wide audience was the large and diverse crowd that packed Chicago's Welles Park last summer to see Tinariwen at the Old Town School's Folk and Roots Festival. Such an American embrace of Tinariwen's music would have been unimaginable to Abdoulahi when he fled Mali as a teenager 20 years ago. As he arrived in Tuareg refugee camps, he joined Ibrahim Alhabib, an older musician who had begun transposing melodies familiar to the indigenous anzad (one-string fiddle) and tahardent (three-string lute) to the guitar. The emphatic beats of North African percussion and vocal chants were woven alongside the guitarists' interlocking grooves. Alhabib organized the Tuaregs into the group that became known as Tinariwen (the name means "empty spaces" in the Tamashek language).While military training was a big part of their life in the camps, Abdoulahi and Alhabib saw themselves primarily as musicians, rather than as a guerrilla army. To this day, Tinariwen operates more as a collective rather than a hierarchy. "Ibrahim has always been our big brother," Abdoulahi says. "We respect him as the originator and leader, but Tinariwen is like an orchestra with different composers. Each songwriter brings his own songs into the group and works with musicians to develop them." Tinariwen's Tamashek lyrics on such recordings as the recent "Amassakoul" (World Village) convey the messages that have always been central to their struggles in the North African desert. Their call to maintain unity in the face of this climate's hardships also bears an intriguing similarity to the Jewish Passover narrative, which is being observed this week. Perhaps that's a reason Abdoulahi says he's looking forward to collaborating with the Israeli musician Idan Raichel, whom Tinariwen met at the WOMAD festival in Singapore. As Tinariwen toured internationally last summer, including a high-profile appearance at England's Live 8 concert, Abdoulahi said at the time that he hoped Tinariwen could increase global awareness of Tuareg issues. He sees progress in Mali, but knows that this is going to be a long undertaking. "We still don't have proper roads, water systems or schools," Abdoulahi said. "But at least now Tuaregs are represented in the government. The authorities are still happy to marginalize Tuareg culture, but people are slowly getting used to Tamashek music in their definition of Malian music." Tinariwen has also sparked an interest in the guitar among young musicians across their region. "There are guitarists all over the desert now, from Timbuktu to Libya and beyond," Abdoulahi said. "And that has a lot to do with the revolution that Ibrahim started." No doubt that much of Tinariwen's growing audience in America and Europe responds to its hypnotic distortion that twists Western rock's time-honored power chords. Abdoulahi says they accomplish this distinctive sound using a combination of acoustic and electric guitars with almost no effects pedals or customizing. "In the desert, we use these small practice amps that run on batteries. When the batteries break down, the sound gets very dirty. Which can be a good thing."
By Aaron Cohen 04/07/06
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