WHEN members of the musical ensemble Tartit say they traveled all the way from Timbuktu to Stone Ridge, they aren’t kidding.
  All nine members, who will perform Saturday at the Stone Ridge Center, have journeyed here from the Timbuktu and Goundam region of the Niger River basin in the West African nation of Mali to embark on their first crossing country tour of America.
  Their Stone Ridge appearance comes a week after they performed at Symphony Space/World Institute n New York City, and they will go on from here to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., fro a show Monday.
  Tartit has toured extensively in Europe and played the summer festival circuit in Canada in 2001. On its current tour, Tartit will perform music, song and poetry from “Ichichila,”a recording label, the group’s only U.S. release.

  BECAUSE members of the ensemble are nearly constantly in transit and speak only the Mali language of Tamashek as well as French, the group’s North American representative, Alison Loerke of Seattle, offered to interpret question e-mailed to spokeswoman Fadimata Walet Oumar.
  Oumar is a featured singer and one of Tartit’s five females, She also plays the tinde, a bowl-like wooden drum covered with goatskin, an instrument that is the musical province of women only.
  In fact, women are the founders and leaders of the group, formed in 1995 by females who wound up in refugee camp in far eastern Mauritania.

 TARTIT’S MUSIC includes a message of struggle that group members and their families experienced when their Taureg – or Kel Tamashek – heritage was splintered in the 1960’s into five new states – Algeria, Libya, Niger, Mali and Upper Volta, the latter now known as Burkina Faso. The Tauregs revolted in 1961 and again in 1991 because they were deprived of their traditional economic bases.
  An example in music of the people’s struggle is “Ichichila”, written in response to the 1994 killing of all the men in a village in Tartit’s native area of northern Mali.

 “THE LYRICS say to the men ‘Rise up. Defend your people, the women, the children…,” Oumar said. “(It) was a call to the Taureg men to rise up and protect their people.” ‘Tartit’ in Tamashek means ‘union,’ symbolizing the link between the musicians and the different confederations that make up their Tuareg society. 
  Three quarters of the music Tartit will perform on tour is traditional while the remainder is modern. In addition, the group’s instruments are a mix of their own traditions and those of the Western world. Besides the tinde, the ensemble uses the imzad, a small onestringed gourd-fiddle, also played only by women, the teharden, a three stringed lute played by men only, and the modern guitar and violin.
  But voice is especially emphasized.
  “Traditionally, the voice is the main focus of the music,” Oumar said, “because it represents the heart. By having many people sing, the heart is presented as being very strong.”

   DANCE ALSO is a part of Tartit’s performance. A form called tehardant is accomplished while sitting with legs crossed, the focus is elegant movements of the head and chest as well as expression through the eyes and hands.
  “They say it is the dance of the nobles,” Oumar said. “It is a very ancient dance.”
  Oumar said she has always loved the music and singing of their people, including the sounds of the tinde. By taking part in music, one can forget troubles or celebrate joyous occasions, she said.
  Oumar said she looks forward to continued tours, recordings and sharing the Taureg culture with the world. She has no fear of terrorist attacks during Tartit’s stay in the United States.
  “Destiny is destiny,” she said. “If it is your time to go, you go. You can’t direct these things.”
By Bonnie Langston
Freeman staff

Tartit, a music and dance ensemble from Mali, will perform at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the Stone Ridge Center, Route 209, Stone Ridge. Admission is $15. For information, call (845) 687-8890.