Dec 15/07
Saharawi Saturday
I feel compelled to write again about Mariem Hassan. She’s really amazing.
I posted her song, La Tumchi Anni, when I featured the Rough Guide to African Blues a little while back. I’ve since bought her 2002 release, Mariem Hassan con Leyoad.
She’s one of the principal musical voices of the Sahrwai people from Western Sahara, or the Saharawi Democratic Arab Republic, as they and 76 other nations call/recognize it.
When she’s not belting out tunes, Hassan works as a nurse in the “occupied Sahara”.
This quote from World Music Central sort of sums things up: “Before the war, we did songs of love and beautiful things but the war and the lack of our land made us talk of more important thingsabout the kids, the martyrs, the war.”
You can learn more and buy this album at Calabash, National Geographic and Stern’s. There’s even a fan blog about her here.
Tags: algeria, blues, saharawi, western sahara
I’m continually impressed by the Rough Guide African music compilations. One of their latest, 
Ali Farka Touré, one of the most internationally acclaimed artists in West African music, has died today after a long illness. He was 67. 
If I spend more than five minutes on this post I’m going to miss my train to Bruxelles. I wanted to do a Canada-Africa theme post, but no time.. Oh well. Here’s a good track, and let me quote from
During the 1970s notable Jamaican guitar player Ernest Ranglin went on tour with Jimmy Cliff to West Africa. He apparently liked what he saw and heard here as much as I do, but it took him 20 years to get back and make a record with some local musicians.