2023-06-11 00:30:22
Tinariwen, a Tuareg group as much as a cultural institution, has earned an international reputation by establishing links between the blues and Sahelian music, from Niger to Mauritania, via Mali, Algeria and Libya. A musical odyssey in the winds of the Ténéré, in search of the blue note. With their virtuoso guitars as a viaticum, they caught the eye of rock hero Jack White, leader of the late White Stripes, and his producer Josh V. Smith.
For the time of a bewitching new album, the blues is put away in the drawers to explore the country universe, with banjos and violins melted into the Berber trance. The album should have been born in Nashville, if not for this damn Covid. Rest assured, our Tuaregs crossed the Atlantic by connecting to Wi-Fi to record “Amatssou” from the Algerian desert, with the contribution of eminent country musicians and, on two tracks, the legendary producer Daniel Lanois (U2, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel…). A fascinating road-trip in the heart of nature. Passing through France, Abdallah ag Alhousseyni, born in northern Mali, pillar of the group and spokesperson for the Tuareg cause, granted us an interview where it is as much about music as about the memory of his family.
You called your album “Amatssou”. What does this word mean ?
It’s a quiet danger that I don’t see, but I feel it’s there. A bit like with a lion: you know the danger it entails. It is a widely used word, but only in this sense. It’s not all scary. Amatssou, you say it when you are sure that there is a stronger danger behind.
Why did you choose this title?
Because today, with us, it’s amatssou. For several years, our territory has been completely in danger. And we have to remind the world that all of this is scary. Few things circulate in the media on the Tuareg. Journalists could provide some information, but today there is none. So how do you explain to the world what’s going on? It’s through the music, the interviews. In the desert, it is as if we were forgotten. And it’s been ten years.
Since the 2012 putsch and the jihadist presence in Mali…
Today, jihadism has multiplied. Before, there were only people from Al-Qaeda, but today there are also those from Daesh. And before long, they will create a third Islamic organization, and so on. It’s amatsu.
How is Islamist pressure exerted on culture?
Their project is to bring people to them. So you can’t use your culture. You must use the culture of Islam. The culture of self and the culture of Islam are two different things. When people come like that to Islamize you, it means you have to give up your own culture.
What is the place of music in Tuareg culture?
I don’t want to venture to say that music has a more important place in our community than in other communities. Because everyone loves and respects the music they were born with. But when you’ve suffered like that, when you’re marginalized, music is one of the things that really keeps you alive. The music you already love, you will love it very much. It’s like healing your pain with it. Music naturally has its place among the oppressed.
It also has a poetic function…
Yes, and today music conveys the messages of the Tuareg throughout the world. Before, it was inside the community itself, in the desert. They talked a lot about their problems. Not only with Mali, but also problems between them, on a daily basis.
You recorded this album in southern Algeria. Why this choice ?
The group’s project is to always record in a desert. We had already done it there in 2011, then in Morocco, in the north of Mali, in Mauritania, in the United States. But this time, it was almost an obligation. The album should have been recorded in Nashville, but, with the coronavirus, it didn’t work out. As always, there were Westerners with us, and the only place we could take them was at home, in Djanet (in the south-east of Algeria-Editor’s note). In the north of Mali, in Niger, in the Hoggar, the governments do not authorize their presence.
The spirit in which country music was created is exactly the same as the spirit in which our music was created. That’s why it’s easy to connect them. »
Musician Jack White played a role in this album, notably through its producer Josh V. Smith. How did the meeting go?
Josh V. Smith knows the band well. We stayed with him for two weeks and played at his house in Nashville. As he knows that I am interested in country music, he took me to a main street where only that is played. It’s called Broadway. You walk out of one place and then walk into another with the same musicians you left there. Frankly, it’s impressive, I went crazy! I have seen people give terrible demonstrations. Looks like a circus! They turn their bass and, at the same time, they play. Guitarists, it’s the same thing. As we failed to record there, we sent them songs to play.
You are known for having established links between the blues and Tuareg music. Are they also evident with the country music that colors your new album?
If you find me a country musician, I’d rather play with him than a blues musician. (He demonstrates on the guitar.) See? If I play like that, a country musician can play with me very well, no problem. I already checked the thing. What I play in the band has more to do with country music than blues. Don’t be afraid that the music comes from different continents. Music is created in people’s souls.
Country music and Tuareg music also have this relationship to space in common…
The spirit in which country music was created is exactly the same as the spirit in which our music was created. That’s why it’s easy to connect them. These are people who left, who sang their souls, their sufferings, their problems, on the mountains, on the back of a horse or a cow.
In the album, you talk about the troubles in Mali, about the suffering endured by your people. How do you see the future?
It is not at all easy today for all of Mali, and particularly for the Tuareg community. However, even when the situation in Mali is normal, we encounter many difficulties. Because the way of life that we have chosen, and our parents before us, is to stay in the desert. Frankly, we’ve chosen the most complicated way of life on the planet. But we have no choice, it’s our land, our history, we’re going to die with it. What threatens us the most today is that people leave the territory. Today, young people no longer want to stay in the desert. They want to see something else, in France, in America, in Algeria.
Faced with this situation, do you have a role to play?
Each generation has its own way of looking at life. A musician today is not going to sacrifice his life to sing. He is going to sing something fast to earn money. He doesn’t waste his time spending months in the desert to write songs about exile, or about people panning for gold in the desert. When you find an old man, you realize that all of his children are gone, leaving him with the animals. With 500 or 600 grams of gold, you can buy yourself a house, whereas with all your animals, you cannot even buy yourself a bicycle! So young people don’t bother to hang around here for three or four camels. Whereas with gold, after a month, you can earn twenty or thirty.
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