Malian musicians back power of harmony

Concerts have been banned in northern cities and clubs closed

As musicians from Mali took to a London stage on Saturday night, news was announced that back home French troops had captured the airport of the Islamistcontrolled city of Gao. A cheer went up - and not surprisingly.

Since Islamist militants seized control of Mali’s north following a military coup in March 2012, the country has been convulsed by conflict. Its musical community, whose singers and players have won worldwide acclaim, has been targeted by the hardline Islamists bent on imposing sharia. Concerts have been banned in northern cities, clubs closed, instruments smashed and burned, musicians harassed and forced to flee.

This weekend’s “Sahara Soul” concert at London’s Barbican, featuring Bassekou Kouyate, Sidi Toure and the desert blues band Tamkirest, showcased the country’s musical riches and called for peace. But it also indicated that there were differing visions of what any peace might entail.

“There is just one message - peace,” Sidi Toure said backstage before the concert. “If you filled this room with gold and diamonds, it would not be more important than peace.”

Toure hails from Gao on the banks of the River Niger in the Sahel region and performs Songhai folk songs with a trance- like beat. Music, he said, was ingrained in Malian life.

“When you feel bad, only music can cure you. We have many different kinds — for your first child, for weddings, for parties.”

But it has been forbidden in Gao since an official of the Ansar Din ( Followers of God) militant group stated in August: “We do not want Satan’s music.”

“At the cultural centre, they made a fire in the street of all the instruments. Now all the musicians have left, for Bama- ko, for Niger, for Burkina Faso,” Toure said.

Malians welcomed the French action three weeks ago as Islamist forces advanced on the capital Bamako, he said.

“Without the French intervention, that would have been the end of Mali. The French saved Mali,” he said.

“Today Mali is different, because of terrorism by those who want to impose sharia; no music, no TV, no telephones, no democracy. This is no good,” Kouyate told the audience.