In 1989, Aghaly and his brother Mousa left their home. A small village called Ewit, it sits just outside of Timbouctou, not far from where the barge shelters cars across the river. Their family are forgerons and griots. I'm uncertain of the difference between the two, or if there is…
Takamba music is played on traditional guitar (tamashek: teheredent), with a remarkable distinctive rhythm tapped out on a calabash. It's always accompanied by a beautiful ghostly dance. I've written about the music previously and released a few records. The origin of the music remains somewhat shrouded in mystery. Suffice to…
Coubala (or Rokia Wallet Wakina) is one of the few living players of imzad, the monochord horsehair violin that once provided the melodies of the evening in the nomad camps. Coubala's imzad is cobbled together using a metal bowl in lieu of the calabash. Imzad has largely disappeared but for…
Régime De La Terreur: Ansar Dine has invaded the North of Mali, imposing a Taliban style Sharia. A cut to turbaned men breaking glass, overturning plastic crates of amber beer bottles, shouting 'Allah Akbar." It's vicious, yet the religious fervor seems a bit staged. They are excited, not with righteousness,…
The first rains were falling outside Timbouctou. A cold wind carried the bruised clouds over the river and the waving grasses, dampening the scorched ocher of red earth. I remember hearing about Abba, listening to a muffled cassette in Nema, across the border in Mauritania. The rain was also falling…
Takamba is a place. It's also a slow ghostly dance, a distinctive staggered rhythm clapped on a calabash, and a gritty distorted terhardent. "Ali" Ag Amoumine doesn't live in Takamba, but 250 kilometers up river in Timbouctou. He's also not Sonrai, the ethnicity credited with the creation of Takamba, though…