Morocco Music Festival Pays Tribute to Timbuktu

Taragalte, the desert music festival in the Moroccan Sahara, pays special tribute to its sister festival in Timbuktu, where an Islamist takeover has forced musicians into exile.

Published

7 months ago

Topics

Middle East & North Africa

People

Oum El Ghait, Fadimata Walett Oumar

Places

Morocco, Timbuktu

Transcript

SHOTLIST: M'HAMID EL-GHIZLANE, MOROCCO. NOVEMBER 9, 10, 11, 2012. SOURCE: AFPTV - VAR of the festival location - VAR of musicians performing Soundbite 1: Oum El Ghait (woman), singer and Taragalte festival organiser (French, 7 secondes) "There is a link between the Timbuktu and the Taragalte festivals and this is what we wanted to express." - Oum El Ghait performing Soundbite 2: Fadimata Walett Oumar "Disco" (woman), singer from the Tartit group of Mali (French, 18 sec) "Despite the fact that people want to keep us from our music, our music is already out there, in the entire world, and I don't think that they can ever take away that right. It's a universal right for us, the right to sing. For us Tuareg, music is therapy." - VAR of performers dancing Soundbite 3: Fadimata Walett Oumar "Disco" (woman), singer from the Tartit group of Mali (French, 30 sec) : "People left when the north was first taken by MNLA, the Azawad National Liberation Movement, and later by Ansar Dine, who became the rulers of the regions. From then it was difficult because we couldn't make music, women had to cover themselves and people left because that wasn't in our culture." - Singer performing /// ----------------------------------------------- AFP TEXT STORIES Mali-unrest-music-Morocco,INTERVIEW 'Singing is universal right:' exiled Mali musician by Simon Martelli =(PICTURE)= M'HAMID, Morocco, Nov 14, 2012 (AFP) - When Malian singer Fadimata Walett Oumar performed at the Timbuktu desert festival in January she had no idea that within two weeks unrest would force her into exile and lead to an Islamist takeover. "We have been chased from our country... But despite the fact that they want to block our music, it has already reached the outside world," she told AFP, speaking at Taragalte, another desert music festival in the Moroccan Sahara. The group she heads, Tartit, formed in 1995 and made up of 10 women from Mali's Timbuktu region, has performed worldwide, including in the United States and Canada, Brazil, Europe and East Asia, and plays the traditional music of the Tuareg people. They were one of the main acts at the Morocco festival, which took place at the weekend among the rolling sand dunes of the African desert, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Algerian border, and paid special tribute to Timbuktu. "We are really happy and proud to be here. It is very uplifting. But it also makes me sad, because I am nostalgic for my village, my family and my life," said Fadimata. After performing at the Timbuktu festival in January, the Tartit group travelled to Bamako, but by early the following month the women had fled the country, some travelling to Burkina Faso and others to Mauritania. They left when anti-Tuareg demonstrations erupted in the capital, in the first wave of unrest that resulted in a military coup in March and an all-out rebellion in the north, which eventually fell into the hands of Al-Qaeda-linked Islamists. A cousin of Fadimata's husband was killed in the ethnic violence that swept Bamako, where she said shops and houses were looted and burned. "We want all the Malian people to see each other as Malians, that we can live together, taking into account our cultural differences... as we have lived for centuries," she said. For Fadimata, like so many others, the strict imposition of Islamic sharia, which has seen music banned, women forced to veil and sufi shrines destroyed, is a terrible betrayal of Malian culture. "Our culture is a very musical culture, a culture of joy, not a culture of being shut up in the house," she said. "Singing is a universal right. For the Tuareg, it is like a therapy. In the evening we get together and sing. There is nothing else for us," she added. Since fleeing Mali, Tartit has also performed in Poland and Mauritania, but the women are geographically divided, and the prospects of returning to their hometown any time soon, let alone performing their, appear slim. The organisers announced last month that Timbuktu's desert festival will take place next year in Burkina Faso, where Fadimata now lives. "We are scattered now between Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Mali," she said. sma/hc Morocco-music-tourism-desert-environment-social,FOCUS Desert music, dance and lament in dunes of Morocco by Simon Martelli =(PICTURE)= M'HAMID, Morocco, Nov 14, 2012 (AFP) - Rousing desert rhythms brought to life the oasis of M'Hamid, last stop in Morocco before the vast empty wastes of the Sahara, as musicians from across the region descended on the dunes. The Taragalte music festival kicked off in earnest at the weekend under a spectacular star-lit sky, with a list of women's groups, from Morocco, Mauritania and Mali topping the bill. Camel racing, poetry and traditional dance featured among the palm trees and rolling sand dunes of M'Hamid, with the festival celebrating -- and seeking to preserve -- a desert culture undermined by modernity, according to its organisers. Mauritanian group Noura Mint Seymali captivated the crowd with a powerful delivery from the vocalist, Noura, accompanied by a virtuoso performance from Ayniyana, her accomplice on the ardine, a 20-string harp similar to the kora. Next up was the Malian group Tartit, 10 Tuareg women from the northern region of Timbuktu, whose traditional music, a hypnotic blend of chanting, clapping and drumming, added poignancy to the Moroccan event. Unrest forced the group to flee Mali in February, just two weeks after they played at Timbuktu's famed desert festival, with Islamist militants later occupying the entire northern region, banning music, destroying ancient shrines and forcing women to wear the veil. A sign placed below the stage read: "Taragalte pays homage to Timbuktu, heritage of humanity." Oum, the budding Moroccan star who headlined the opening night at Taragalte with her five-piece soul band, said the festival sent a message of solidarity to the musicians and the women of Mali. "It's a chance to say that we support them, and the freedom of the arts, and the freedom just to be," she told AFP. "It's a message that is even stronger because it comes through the voices of women." Taragalte, now in its fourth year, has forged strong links with its Malian counterpart, which the organisers have attended yearly, inviting musicians to M'Hamid from the festival in Timbuktu -- just a 50-day camel ride away, locals quip. Malian guitarist Samba Toure, a protege of Mali music legend Ali Farka Toure, made an appearance at M'Hamid, while renowned Tuareg group Tinariwen played at the inaugural event in 2009. -- Rich desert culture -- ------------------------- Osman Toure, bass player for the Mauritanian group Noura Mint Seymali, which was also invited to play at M'Hamid during the Timbuktu festival in January, praised the Moroccan initiative, following the events in Mali. "I find that the desert, the tents... Of course they are different cultures. But it's the same spirit. There is a great similarity between the two festivals," Toure said. "It was a moment of tragedy that took place (in Mali) with respect to the music... Many of the musicians fled to Mauritania, as well as Senegal and Burkina Faso. But despite that, many of them ended up here." M'Hamid El Ghizlane lies deep in the desert, on the edge of the arid Draa valley, some 250 kilometres (150 miles) southeast of Ouarzazate, the so-called gateway to the Moroccan Sahara, and 40 kilometres from the Algerian border. Centuries ago, it was used by the camel caravans plying the old trade route between Morocco and Timbuktu, but the closure of the Algerian border in 1994 means any overland trip, however hazardous, is no longer possible. Halim Sbai, one of Taragalte's main organisers, speaks passionately of the need to preserve "the natural and cultural patrimony of the desert," including by allowing local people to participate, displaying their traditions and music at the festival. The construction of a hydro-electric dam at Ouarzazate in 1972, to provide for the city's growing population and tourist trade, with its five-star hotels and golf courses, took a heavy toll on water supplies to M'Hamid, Sbai explained. "The dam deprived the region of water that, before it was built, flowed from the High Atlas mountains all the way here." "We are in an oasis that needs to be preserved. It's a very fragile environment. And we try to get tourists to help us with that, so we can leave it for future generations," Sbai said. sma/hc