Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
served as a griot to ousted President ATT was in the middle of recording an album when the coup hit. He finished
the record, but the mark of the coup on it - and perhaps his future sales - is indelible.
Tinariwen, an intoxicating Tuareg group of former rebels from Kidal, were caught up in the crisis multiple
times in 2012, with some of their members going missing and turning up in refugee camps in neighboring coun-
tries. Sadly the Festival in the Desert, usually held in January and organized by Tuareg musicians, has become an-
other victim of the crisis. Amano Ag Issa, who recently toured the world with his Tuareg group Tartit, fled the
country in the wake of the 2012 Tuareg rebellion. 'I was living quietly in my country, until the day that shook all
our lives. Everything changed!' he told us. 'My Tuareg people were attacked and killed for no reason. That's
what made me leave Mali. I had to go, we really didn't have much choice but to leave our homeland,' he said.
Fortunately, music is harder to destroy than the threatened ancient monuments and libraries of Timbuktu but
the crisis has certainly silenced some musicians, restricting access to funding, electricity and inspiration. In the
northeast, sharia law has meant that live bands and dancing venues have been silenced.
Outside of Mali, the music plays on, including bluesy stuff such as that from the late Ali Farka Touré. Other
much-loved blues performers include many from Ali Farka's stable, among them Afel Bocoum, Ali Farka's son
Vieux Farka Touré, Baba Salah and Lobi Traoré. Some scholars believe that the roots of American blues lie with
the Malian slaves who worked on US plantations.
The breadth and depth of Mali's musical soundtrack is attributable not just to centuries of tradition but also to
the policies of Mali's postindependence government. As elsewhere in West Africa, Mali's musicians were pro-
moted as the cultural standard- bearers of the newly independent country and numerous state-sponsored 'orches-
tras' were founded. The legendary Rail Band de Bamako (actual employees of the Mali Railway Corporation)
was one of the greatest, and one of its ex-members, the charismatic Salif Keita, has become a superstar in his own
right. We have yet to see what kind of sounds the next, tense chapter in Mali's history will produce.
People
Mali's population is growing by almost 3% per year, which means that the number of
Malians doubles every 20 years; 48% of Malians are under 15 years of age.
Concentrated in the centre and south of the country, the Bambara are Mali's largest eth-
nic group (33% of the population). Fulani (17%) pastoralists are found wherever there is
grazing land for their livestock, particularly in the Niger inland delta. The lighter-skinned
Tuareg (6%), traditionally nomadic pastoralists and traders, inhabit the fringes of the Sa-
hara.
Between 80% and 90% of Malians are Muslim, and 2% are Christian. Animist beliefs
often overlap with Islamic and Christian practices, especially in rural areas.
