Fatoumata Diawara
Ahmed Ag Kaedi
Bassékou Kouyaté
Rapper Master Soumy
Fatoumata Diawara
MALI BLUES C+
Mali Germany (90 mi)
2016 d: Lutz Gregor Official
Site
A curiosity of sorts, as it’s a compilation of conversations
with several musicians from Mali mixed with concert footage, with a
behind-the-scenes backdrop of political upheaval in the northern desert region
of Mali where in 2012 an alliance of Tuareg separatists and jihadists from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb assumed
control of the region, implementing their version of Sharian law, and have prohibited
dance and forbidden the use of music, eliminating the Festival of the Desert
while rounding up and smashing guitars, burning studios, and threatening to
kill musicians. Half a million people, including
many performers, fled to the south or to neighboring countries. A subject touched upon in Abderrahmane
Sissako’s earlier film Timbuktu
(2014), one of the cities that was overrun by jihadist fanatics, who banned not
only the playing but even listening to music.
One of those musicians depicted in the film is basically the star of
this film, Fatoumata Diawara, seen here singing in Sissako’s film, TIMBUKTU' - Clip La Musica (2:06), whose
colorful outfits and everpresent smile lend a sunny tone to the film, where we
hear her say early on, “I can’t imagine a life without music. It would be like the Earth stopped turning.” Raised in Mali, but currently living in
France, she’s actually better known in Europe, where she was apprehensive about
her first solo performance in Mali, as we see her nervously arriving at the Bamako
airport, the nation’s southern capital, a city never occupied by the jihadists.
The film follows various musicians arriving for the outdoor, open-air, 2015
Niger River Festival in Ségou, an annual 5-day festival of music, attracting an
audience of over 35,000 people, suddenly the best place to hear live Malian
music. The stage is actually a floating
pontoon sitting just off the banks of the Niger River, where water separates
the audience from the musicians, though many hardy souls waded in to dance. Situated in the heart of West Africa, Mali is
one of the poorest countries on earth, but is also the original source of
traditional African rhythms transported to America by slaves, giving rise to American
blues and jazz. Music has always been
associated with Mali’s cultural identity, where their rich heritage includes Ali
Farka Touré, the godfather of desert blues and a superstar on the African continent,
along with his son Vieux Farka Touré who has continued his father’s legacy, Fanta
Damba, whose career stretched four decades and was primarily responsible for
introducing the music of Mali to Europe, Salif Keita, who introduced Afro-pop,
usually seen in his colorful African garb, a descendent of Sundiata Keita,
one of the founders of the Malian empire in the 13th century, Amadou and Mariam,
a husband and wife blind couple specializing in pop fusion, and Oumou Sangaré, perhaps
today’s biggest Malian star, a female force popularizing the regional Wassoulou-inflected
style practiced by Fatoumata Diawara, who also provided the excruciatingly beautiful
music in Sissako’s WAITING FOR HAPPINESS (2002), including what is arguably the
most hauntingly beautiful song ever heard, “Djorolen,” Oumou Sangaré - Djorolen -
YouTube (8:21).
Upon returning to a beautiful home overlooking the Niger
river which cuts through the center of town, with the city of Bamako on the
other side, Fatou acknowledges her guitar purchased this house, as she greets
other arriving musicians, including Tuareg master guitarist Ahmed Ag Kaedi, leader
of the band Amanar, a quietly introspective man who fled the religious
persecution in Kidal, part of the northern desert, where extremists burned his
home and his guitars before threatening to cut his fingers off. Now exiled from the desert, he laments being
in a big city, with too much pollution, too much noise, and too many people,
but it’s no longer safe to return to his hometown. Accordingly, he sits in open public places
dressed in flowing robes and a white turban quietly playing his amplified
guitar as people scurry about, moving from place to place around town to
practice, with Fatou joining him on a rooftop musical session, both knowing
what it is to feel exiled. Hopping on a
bus, Fatou takes off for the southern countryside, returning to her village
home near the border of Ivory Coast, where she’s unsure how her family will
feel about her, having abruptly left home to avoid a forced marriage, a custom
that is part of her Wassoulou culture.
With vendors along the way offering hard-boiled eggs and plastic bags of
water, we don’t really get a feel for the passing landscape, as the camera
never gets out and explores the territory, missing an opportunity, instead
remaining too close to Fatou’s side. She
is openly embraced by the colorfully attired village women, who sit in chairs under
a tree and listen to her perform a heartfelt, personalized song “Boloko” pleading
to stop the practice of female genital circumcision (“Don’t cut the flower that
makes me a woman”), a powerful song directed against a cultural practice in
Africa that affects up to 140 million women, including Fatou herself, with 38 out
of 54 African states continuing the male-dominated custom, and the subject of
an earlier film by Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène, MOOLAADE (2004). While the shocking practice actually claims
the lives of as many as 15% of the young girls, performed by local elders or
midwives, often without sterilized medical equipment or even anesthesia,
causing infections, infertility, and childbirth complications, a decades-long
United Nations campaign against it has done little to stop the practice. According to a 2014 article from The Guardian (What
is female genital mutilation and where does it happen? | Society ...), “In
eight countries, almost all young girls are cut. In Somalia, the prevalence is 98%, in Guinea
96%, in Djibouti 93% and in Egypt, in spite of its partly westernised image,
91%. In Eritrea and Mali the figure is
89% and a prevalence of 88% was reported in both Sierra Leone and Sudan.”
We are also introduced to Bassékou Kouyaté, who specializes
in the ngoni instrument, an ancient traditional lute that he describes as the
predecessor to the banjo, though he modernizes the sound, using amplifiers and
a wah-wah pedal, allowing him to transform the traditional sound of an acoustic
instrument to a powerhouse, near psychedelic electrical force. Kouyaté and his family are griots, part of an
African oral tradition that dates back centuries, a living archive of his
people’s customs, masters of the word, responsible for passing down the history
of his people, where he toured together with the late Ali Farka Touré, standing
out as the only ngoni player. Because of
his distinguished position, he brings both male and female musicians into a
mosque, passing through a metal detector, where they are frisked, with
uniformed guards present as they meet a Muslim teacher and Imam, first asking
permission for the whites to be present to film a documentary. Asking what Islam has to say about the
practice of outlawing music, the Imam claimed the Koran does not forbid music,
but he did raise a distinction between different kinds of music, as not all is
positive, raising the question of what would be considered culturally
destructive or harmful, and who has the power to make that claim. While Kouyaté was often invited by the
nation’s President to play music at state affairs, he envisions himself as a
voice of the people, but that honor is likely bestowed upon rap artist Master
Soumy, a young rapper in a T-shirt who is the most openly defiant, making angered
political statements of social rebellion, claiming that’s the easiest way to
promote social change. Targeting corrupt
politicians, he relentlessly attacks the hypocrisy of voices of Islamic
intolerance, rallying the audience into a frenzy.
Kalashnikovs and bombs, explain
your Islam.
Murder and torture, explain your Islam.
Before you forbid me laughing, explain your Islam.
Murder and torture, explain your Islam.
Before you forbid me laughing, explain your Islam.
Master Soumy contrasts the protest music of rappers with the
more established position of griots, who have been integrated into the culture
of Mali for centuries, often singing the praises of rich and powerful patrons,
who then shower them with new cars, houses, or airplane tickets, while doing
all they can to prevent rappers from performing. Claiming griots ignore the negative side of
society, rappers fill the void by telling the truth, by being the voice of the
voiceless. Disgusted by how easily
people sell out for money, rappers are forced to beg for sponsorships, as the Malian
record industry has been decimated by piracy.
Still, ignoring the threats leveled against them, which in the volatile
political climate of Mali is certainly dangerous, they stand up for what they
believe in, suggesting “Rap is music that can change society, that can change
mentalities.” As introductory pieces on
the four musicians lead to later concert footage, which feels powerful, but is
constantly interrupted with a quick cutting technique, where we only hear
fragments, some of which is outstanding, but the film only touches on the
surface, never really delving into any prolonged curiosity or discussion, which
may leave some viewers infuriated by the choppiness of the editing style,
feeling stagnant, with little direction.
Nonetheless, it’s an extraordinary portrait of Fatoumata Diawara, who
remains central to the film, and for that footage alone the film is worth
seeing.
Fatoumata
Diawara - AFH180 - YouTube Africa
Festival 2010 (12:31)
Fatoumata
Diawara - African sound & dance styles - Live in ... - YouTube live concert
from Holon, Israel on March 1, 2013 (18:55)
Fatoumata
Diawara - Fatou (Full Album) - YouTube
2011 release (43:59)
Africa
Festival 2014 : Fatoumata Diawara | ARTE Concert Africa Festival 2014 (1:32:14)
Baloise Sessions
Fatoumata Diawara Full Concert HD live
concert from Basel, Switzerland, November 10, 2014 (1:36:49)
L'Olympic
Café Tour d'Hindi Zahra & Fatoumata Diawara - Live @ Banlieues Bleues live concert on French television (1:41:48)
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