Tinariwen: Cool nomads sing the Saharan tune on world stage

Tinariwen is the band that made being nomads cool. They came into the limelight after winning the Grammy Award in the Best World Music category for their album Tassili in 2012. In an interview with Joanna Lobo, they speak about the value of their music and how they manage to recreate the sounds of the desert.

They have been called the rebel musicians and their songs speak of instability in their home, the fight for a free land and of loss. They sing about “important things” — things they love and think are important for their people.

The music created by Tinariwen, the Touareg group from Mali in southern Sahara, is a beautiful mixture of blues, folk and rock. Their ability to combine the familiar and the exotic is what makes them stand a class apart. And slowly but surely, they’re catching the attention of the world.

The Touareg musical tradition is very ingrained in its people. “Music is our way to feel freedom,” says the band. In the desert camp, they add, it is not unusual to sometimes hear a tinde, a traditional percussion usually played by women, with singers and dancers, at even one in the morning.

“Our lyrics speak about the values of our culture and our way of life,” says one of the band members, adding, “Our music is meant to show the resistance of the human spirit.”

Tinariwen was formed in 1979 by a bunch of nomads. The man responsible for this was Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, who saw his father get killed at the age of four. Ibrahim started playing old Touareg and Arabic tunes, then later joined Touareg rebel musicians.

The group’s influences come from rebel music across the world, including the radical chaabi protest music from Morroco and Algerian pop rai. They count tradition as their musical influences.

The band also loves pop music. “The new generation of Tinariwen listens to blues music and reggae like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan and so on. Some listen to a lot of traditional music from Niger or Mauritania,” says Ibrahim.

As a child, Ibrahim was given an electric guitar and that kindled in him the desire to learn how to play it. When Tinariwen started playing on a regular basis, it was Ibrahim who introduced them to the electric and acoustic guitar. In an interview, they claimed that the guitar was a new tradition.

“Our tradition is a part of us, naturally, but letting that tradition evolve is normal,” they say. Women play an important role, with many instruments — the violin (one string) and the tinde — being played by them. “Touareg culture is matriarchal,” says Ibrahim, pointing out that one of Tinariwen’s vocalists is a woman.

Their ultimate dream is to preserve their culture. “Our music must have a focus on our geo-socio-political-economic situation,” they say.