The Malian singer Oumou Sangare burst onto the West African music scene when she released her first album, Moussolou, on cassette in 1990. I was living in Tokyo at the time and African friends told me about a new singer rapidly rising to fame on the back of an album that had already sold a quarter of a million copies. A kind soul bought me the cassette from a trip to Mali so that I could review it for the Japanese newspaper I was writing for. I still have the original.
The UK-based label World Circuit released a CD version of the album in 1990, which paved the way for Sangare to perform overseas and made her an international star. Prior to the release of Moussolou, Sangare was making a decent living singing with simple percussion at street sites, weddings and funerals; after the album was released, she formed a band to develop her career. Today, after seven albums, she’s not only a top musician and an important voice for women in Mali, but a successful businesswoman.
World Circuit, perhaps realising that vinyl is having its second coming, has just released the album on vinyl. My original cassette has almost no information on it, but the new, vinyl version comes with a digital download and explanatory liner notes. I found my copy at Zudrangma Record Store on Sukhumvit 51.
There are three broad zones of music in Mali: the northern tradition, which features the rootsy Bambara style as played by Zani Diabate and his Super Djata Band, as well as the repertoire from different ethnic groups like that of the Tamashek people (think of Ali Farka Toure or Tinariwen); the Malinke traditions of Central Mali, which you can hear in dance bands across West Africa; and the Wassoulou traditions of southern Mali, which is where Oumou Sangare comes from.
Sangare’s success with Moussolou drew attention to the musical traditions of Mali’s heavily forested southern region, where the praise-singing traditions of the “griots” or “jalis” (hereditary praise singers) are less prominent. In this region, hunters’ songs are popular and mainly performed by women. The music they play has a very funky, almost reggae-like rhythm.
At the time that Moussolou was recorded in Abidjan, some West African bands were overplaying synth drums and keyboards, but Sangare’s album kept the sound acoustic, basing the rolling rhythms of her Wassoulou music on percussion, scrapers, kamala ngoni (a kind of lute), violin, bass and guitar. And soaring above this irresistible Malian groove is Sangare’s powerful, haunting voice.
But it wasn’t just the music that caught people’s attention. Sangare took on issues that faced Malian women in their daily lives, as she says in the liner notes: “‘Moussolou’ means ‘women’. That is where everything began. When I wrote ‘Moussolou’, I wanted to direct it at Malian women, since I could see they were suffering. No one had done that before. The number that was the most revolutionary was Diya Gneba. Say no, say no to forced marriage, look your parents right in the eye and say no. That was hot. It really upset people but it was necessary.”
There are just six tracks on the album, but they’re all standouts, beginning with a stunning kamala ngoni intro on Djama Kaissoumou (Let’s Talk a Little), to which Sangare adds her fluid vocals. Diabary Nene (Shivers of Love) and Woulou Bara Diagna (Cruel Nostalgia) complete side A of the album.
The title track opens side B, with its delightful intertwining rhythms and message to women to work for their country. It’s a really stirring track, and one that I’ll be playing at my next DJ night. Diya Gneba follows, and the album is completed with one of my favourites, Ah Ndiya (Oh My Love), such a strident, uplifting song, it leaves the listener in a positive frame of mind (remember that you’ll be dancing by this time as well).
This is an essential album for any decent music collection, and on vinyl it sounds fantastic. Highly recommended.
Readers interested in other great female singers from Mali’s Wassoulou region should check out the compilation The Wassoulou Sound: Women of Mali (Stern’s Africa, UK). The album includes singers such as Sali and Coumbia Sidibe.
I’ll be playing some Malian music at my next DJ night, Speakeasy Shabeen at Studio Lam on June 4, from 9.30pm till late.
This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.