Jun 4/06
Tuareg Help
Live and direct from the media center at the World Cup in Berlin, I’m back with a quick post. In a couple weeks I’ll try to do some posts from the pitch during matches involving African teams.
I remember when War Child‘s first Help compilation came-out 10 years ago. I had bought it shortly before a family camping trip in eastern Canada. Amidst the beautiful mountains of Gros Morne national park in Newfoundland, I first fell for the original version of Radiohead’s Lucky, chilled-out to Portishead’s Mourning Air, and fueled my love for The Boo Radleys. What a great album.
10 years later the Help compilations are still great and still raising money for a good cause. Originally Help was brought-out by War Child to raise money for war-town Bosnia-Herzegovina. It’s amazing that the Bosnia conflict was only 10 years ago, especially when you consider that some of the countries involved are now vying for EU membership.
To quote Wikipedia, “The concept of the album was inspired by John Lennon’s comments about Instant Karma, that he wanted records to be like newspapers and be released as soon as they are recorded. Help was recorded on the Monday (4th September), mixed on the Tuesday and in the shops on the Saturday.” 2005′s Help release was recorded, produced and released in 30 hours!
Tinariwen, the Tuareg band I’ve featured at least once on this site, appears on this release. The track is typical of their style with smooth Sahel guitars, Tuareg/Western fused rhythms and laid-back singing. More on Tinariwen here and here.
ps- if any of you live in Stuttgart or Munich get in touch and we’ll meet for a weissbier.
Tags: mali, tamashek, touareg
This came to me last week from Tinariwin’s publicity firm:
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 8:04 PM
Subject: Crisis in Kidal
———————————————————————— ———————————————————-
CRISIS IN KIDAL
The north east of Mali is in turmoil following attacks on military and
police installations in the towns of Kidal and Menaka. On the morning
of 23rd May, at around 06h00 local time, an armed rebel Tamashek
(‘Touareg’) group under the command of Hassan Fagaga attacked two
military barracks near the regional capital Kidal and held them for the
next 24 hours. Fighting continued for some hours as civilians, women
and children for the most part, fled into desert. A number of
soldiers, national guardsmen and police took refuge in the old fort of
Kidal and continued firing on rebels and civilians in the streets
below. There are reports of four fatalities, two soldiers and two
rebels. In Menaka, Moussa Bah, a Touareg army officer stationed in
the local barracks mutinied and fled into the bush with a number of
other deserters, having taken a quantity of arms and ammunitions from
the camp arsenal.
At around 14h00 today an armoured division of the Malian army, which
had travelled overnight from Gao in the south, retook Kidal. The
rebels have fled north, and the situation is apparently tense but calm.
These events follow a period of mounting regional tension. The
politics of the southern Sahara are extremely complex. Simmering
disagreements between certain local Tamashek leaders and the Malian
government have persisted since the signing of the National Pact which
put an end to last Touareg rebellion in 1996. The recent opening of
Libyan consulate in Kidal, strategic rivalry between the Ghadaffi
regime and the Algerian government, the discovery of large oil reserves
in northern Mali, the presence of renegade fundamentalist militias in
southern Algeria and the arrival of US military advisors have all
fueled a welter of speculation and rumor.
Kidal is the hometown of the Tamashek group Tinariwen, who are
currently on tour in Sweden and following events anxiously from afar.
Various members of the group have managed to call friends and family
in Kidal. They are very concerned for the welfare of their families,
who are camping out in the desert in the hottest and driest season of
the year.
There is also a concern that this story will remain largely ignored by
the western media, or even worse, that events will be misreported and
that rumor will mutate into fact. We call on all friends of the
desert and of Tinariwen to help raise awareness of the situation
amongst media organisations in their country, and amongst any NGOs and
humanitarian organisations who have a presence in the region and might
be able to help alleviate the suffering of the civilians caught up in
this conflict.
Many thanks for all your help. Peace and blessings, Tinariwen.
For more information, please consult the following websites:
IN ENGLISH:
Reuters – http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L24611879.htm
BBC – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/5008224.stm
News 24 -
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1938570,00.html
African News Dimension -
http://www.andnetwork.com/index?service=direct/0/Home/
top.fullStory&sp=l35988
UN – http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43206
IN FRENCH:
http://www.kidal.info (one of the best sources of news and discussion about
this situation on the web)
RFI – http://www.rfi.fr/actufr/articles/077/article_43933.asp
Le Monde – http://www.rfi.fr/actufr/articles/077/article_43933.asp
http://www.afribone.com
a few posts behind, but would like to thank you for putting up this mp3 of one of my favourite african music groups, & drawing attention to the Help compilations – i’ll have to go hunt those down.