In Brussels or Essaouira, in New York or Copenhagen, whether the weather is mild or snowy; The members of the musical group “Tinarween” stand in their desert clothes, and the veil from which their eyes shine, radiating with feelings of sadness and anger, they open their performances with a phrase that is repeated in every concert for them; Welcome to The Desert.
The Libyan writer Ibrahim al-Koni says in the novel “Anubis”: “The desert is for the body an exile, but the desert is for the soul a paradise.” A sentence that applies to the members of the “Argentina” group, which in the Tuareg language means “the desert.” This band carries with it the spirit of the desert wherever it goes. So what is the story that the Tinaroin members hide and their words expose?
“Sixty-three” .. The founder of the band laments his father
After the end of the French colonization of Mali in 1960, the Tuareg revolution began, “because we are free men.” This is how “Yado”, a member of the group, describes the nature of the message that illuminated the path of “Tinariwen” in their artistic path, as everything has a military significance in the Tinariwen group.
In the song “Soixante Trois”, the founder of the group, Ibrahim Ag Al Habib, mourns the memory of his father, who was executed by the Malian authorities after the Tuareg rebellion. He was born, they ravaged the pastures and wiped out the cattle, in the year 63 he is gone, but he will return.
This song chronicles a catastrophic stage for the Tuareg, as they fell victim to a political division of their lands between the African countries that gained independence from France, and the nature of their travels; These Tuareg found themselves in a stateless diaspora, and their lands were distributed among Mali, Niger, Algeria, Mauritania and Libya.
Among those forcibly displaced, and among the refugee camps in southern Algeria; There were two people, Ibrahim Ag Al-Habib and Hassan Ag Al-Tohamy, who discovered the magic of the electronic guitar in the eighties, and with this discovery the first indications of the nucleus of the “Tinaroen” group appeared.
“Tinaroen” .. From armed struggle to musical revolution
In light of the diaspora that the Tuareg suffered among the refugee camps, the invitation came from Libya when the late Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi promised to arm and train the Tuareg, by establishing a military camp for them. 1986.
Between the bullets of the revolution that broke out in northern Mali and Nigeria in 1990; Officially written is the birth document of the “Tinarwen” group whose members participated in the revolution and witnessed the abuses of their people.
The armed conflict ended with the signing of peace agreements between the Tuareg, Mali and Niger, so “Tinaroen” withdrew from the battlefields, to take its struggle with it to the battlefields.
Each resistance faction has its own band.
Tinaroen musicians traded their firearms for a guitar, and engaged in a greater struggle to communicate their people’s message to the world, through a musical blend that combines traditional Tuareg music with the fast rhythm of guitar. for the world.
Ag Al-Husseini says: Every resistance faction in the world has its own orchestra, composed of members who are musicians and resistance fighters at the same time, who play the role of a military fighter, as they are militarily trained and know martial arts, and at the same time have an artistic spirit that has an important value, because it can express a lot. He describes themselves as “warrior artists”. https://www.youtube.com/embed/uUS0-0Fv7c8?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent