{"id":41651,"date":"2022-01-03T09:30:51","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T09:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jazairhope.org\/?p=41651"},"modified":"2022-01-02T22:59:09","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T22:59:09","slug":"tamanrasset-and-the-algerian-blues-of-the-tuareg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jazairhope.org\/en\/tamanrasset-and-the-algerian-blues-of-the-tuareg\/","title":{"rendered":"Tamanrasset and the Algerian blues of the Tuareg"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the heart of the Hoggar mountain range in the south of the Algerian Sahara, stands the city of Tamanrasset, capital of the country’s Tuaregs. A cosmopolitan city at the confluence of important trans-Saharan trade routes, Tamanrasset is inseparable from the Tuareg blues.<\/p>\n

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Photo : Swiatoslaw Wojtkowiak \u2013 Market in Tamanrasset<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tuareg blues (also known as desert blues or tichoumaren) is a genre derived from African-American blues and traditional Tuareg music. Also including influences from other musical currents, the Tuareg blues was forged by Tuareg claims.<\/p>\n

Sung in tamahaq and tamasheq (variants of Tamazight), the Tuareg blues often borrows from the sluggishness, the register of nostalgia and loneliness.<\/p>\n

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Photo : Weave \u2013 Tamanrasset, Algeria 1989<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tamanrasset then holds an essential place in the history of the musical genre. Indeed, the city has attracted many citizens of surrounding countries, including Niger, Burkina Faso, or Mali following the repressions of 1963 and the droughts of 1972.<\/p>\n

Among them are Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Hassan Ag Touhami and Inteyeden Ag Ablil, the founding members of the precursor group of Tuareg blues, Tinariwen. The group has for years taken up residence in the Touareg capital of Algeria and it is in the city that the group was born. The same goes for the group from Kidal, Tamikrest, formed in 2006 in Tamanrasset.<\/p>\n

\u201cTamanrasset is not a place of exile. Our desert and there and it has always been a Tamasheq city. So by living in my community, I can talk about it, express its fears, doubts and suffering. They are mine too. ”<\/p>\n

Ousmane Ag Mossa of the Tamikrest group<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n