Tinariwen performs at MNLA’s 4th Congressional Event in Kidal

From November 30 to December 3, the 2019 MNLA (National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad) Congress took place in Kidal, under the theme of continuing a generational struggle against current conditions and striving for a better future.

A military parade took place, preparations inspected by colonel and MNLA Chief of Staff Mahamad Ag Najim, and more than 10,000 civilians attended.

110 tinted tents (ehaket), each made of between 80 to 90 sheepskins were set up. The skins are tinted by hand on red hills (tamakchoyt) and seamed together by women– a task that can take up to 3 years to finish. On the first day, the mufti of Kidal recited Surat al-Fatiha, an address was made by the amenokal of the Adagh, and speeches were made by Algerian, Libyan, Moroccan, Mauritanian, and Nigerien spokespersons as well as Ulemas. Kids gathered to cheer “Azawad harkouk!”

On the final day, the famous Tinariwen group played their new Amadjar album, opened up by Majdou, an artist from Tarbiyat, Niger, and Tamikrest. This was their first concert after many years. 

Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, or Abraybon, said to his audience regarding the opportunity to perform in Kidal again, “It’s always been my dream, I did not think it would happen in my lifetime.” In one song he sang, “Even if you see my smile, know that my heart has scars.”

Eyadou Ag Leche, bass guitarist of Tinariwen, told TV 5 Monde, “It’s like returning to family, because it’s a family we’ve abandoned for long, due to the many events that have took place in the zone…We’re very happy to be here and participate in the movement.” From the first note, the audience lit up. The intense feeling of exile was felt in the music. “We have a noble cause that we are defending,” Ag Leche said. A solution is wanted as soon as possible in order to establish peace. 

Tuaregs from the Aïr (Niger) gifted President and Secretary General of MNLA Bilal Ag Asherif a shield (imajaghan), and Bilal Ag Asherif gifted a guitar made by local artisans to Ibrahim Ag Alhabib as well as the following:

Backdrop

At age four, Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, founder of Tinariwen, witnessed the execution of his father, a Tuareg resistance fighter, during the 1963 uprising in Mali. He then lived in refugee camps near Bordj Badji Mokhtar, Algeria. He built his own guitar out of a “plastic water can, a stick and some fishing wire,” according to Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni. 

In 1979, Ibrahim Ag Alhabib formed the group with Alhassane Ag Touhami and brothers Inteyeden Ag Ablil and Liya Ag Ablil to play at parties and weddings, the same year he acquired his first real acoustic guitar. While the group had no official name, people began to call them Kel Tinariwen, which in Tamashek means “The People of the Deserts.” Later, Ag Alhabib resided with other Tuareg exiles in Libya where they joined the Tuareg resistance movement and met fellow musicians Keddou Ag Ossade, Mohammed Ag Itlale, Sweiloum, Abouhadid, and Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni.

The musicians joined together in a collective (now known as Tinariwen) in order to create music about the issues the Tuareg people face. They built a makeshift studio and vowed to record songs for free for anyone who supplied a blank cassette tape. The resulting homemade cassettes were traded widely throughout the Sahara.

In 1989, the collective left Libya and moved to Ag Alhabib’s home village of Tessalit where he hadn’t been in 26 years. In 1990 the Tuaregs of Mali revolted against the government, with some members of Tinariwen participating as resistance fighters. After a peace agreement known as the Tamanrasset Accords was reached in January 1991, the musicians left the military and devoted themselves to music full-time. You can learn more about Ag Alhabib and Tinariwen in a documentary called Teshumara.