 SAHRAUIS: The Last Legacy of Colonial
Africa
I can't imagine a more bizarre assignment! Take loads
of recording equipment by way of Algiers--scene of recent sanguinary
events--straight to the Western Sahara to record the music of the Democratic
Arab Republic of the Sahara (SADR). The SADR is a de facto state without
territory. Its people, the Sahraoui of Berber and Arab origin, live between
Mauritania, Western Algeria, and what is called the "liberated" areas of
Moroccan-occupied Sahara. Most of the 200,000 Sahraoui live in Algerian refugee
camps in an area never before inhabited by humans, and are dependent on
international aid for their basic needs. Western Sahara has become the last
legacy of colonial Africa. Nubenegra Records helped Luis Delgado, Alberto Gambino, Zazie Wurr, and Manuel Dominguez spend two weeks visiting refugee camps to record and preserve the Sahrauis' music. The culmination of this project is documented in an attractive bilingual (German and English) three-cd box set, Sahrauis: The Music of the Western Sahara (Intuition/Nubenegra INT 3255). This set includes 124 pages of information on the recording process, lyric translations, colorful photos, and descriptive material about these heroic desert nomads from the former Spanish Sahara. I realize this is a recording and not a research paper but I could have used a table of contents and an index to help me understand the complex political scenario. The music is superb, however, with the first cd devoted to the singing of the Sahraoui women, who are credited with keeping the refugee settlements together. (The men have been away struggling for independence against the Spanish, the Mauritanian, and, finally, the Moroccan armies.) The first two cds were recorded in the Algerian refugee camps in January 1998. The third cd was previously released to accompany a European tour in 1982 in an effort to draw attention to a referendum for self-determination under the auspices of the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity. The songs are achingly soulful, like "Dios Mio (My God)," sung by the beautiful Aziza Brahim with rhythms beaten by hand on a carpet. Some of the songs are also gritty--like the pervasive desert sand. "El Sahara es un Tesoro (The Sahara is a Treasure), with Ali Mohamed replaces the traditional four-string tidinit with a Midi guitar. Of the 46 songs, some are contemporary sounding, like the reggae-fused "Nostalgia," performed by the talented Mariem Salec. Others sound as spontaneous as a mournful lament to the Sahara moon like the traditional "Viejos Recuerdos (Old Memories), sung a cappella by Mahfoud Aliyen. As a collection of music from a tribal society, whose roots go back to the fifteenth century, this box set may not appeal to the casual record buyer. But as a sonic document, it should draw attention to a part of the world that will never be visited by the Club Med crowd.
Whether Christopher Columbus heard some of these traditional
pieces when the Pinta docked at the neighboring Canary Islands for
repairs is debatable. Whether this music, with its simple hypnotic guitar
and polyrhythmic handclaps that rock us, is the mother of all trance music
is arguable. What we do know is that these musicians are still refugees
and Sahrauis: The Music of the Western Sahara will stand as a historical
account that shows the strength of an extraordinary people sending their
message out to an indifferent world. Home |
