Special report

The heritage of Ali Farka Touré

Anniversary

Niafunké 

07/03/2007 - 

One year ago, on 7 March 2006, Ali Farka Touré, the Malian “guitar hero”, died. In the small town of Niafunké, in the Timbuktu region, Ali Farka Touré was more than a musician. Mayor, notable, farmer and benefactor, he was also responsible for restoring young people’s pride in belonging to this arid, landlocked region. Report.

After a 24-hour crossing in a smack, the large dugout boats used on the Niger River, Niafunké finally emerges, wedged in modestly between the grey water of the river and the bright green of the surrounding paddy fields. Niafunké, home of the guitarist Ali Farka Touré, is 200 km south of Timbuktu and clearly landlocked. There are no reliable roads, only risky boat journeys, and in any case, it takes hours to get there and away again. The town is made of sand, sun and wind. And music. 

Strong bonds

Ali Farka Touré was at home in Niafunké and never felt the desire to go and live in Barnako. The man who had “musician-farmer” printed on his visiting card was well known here for his hundreds of livestock (cows, sheep and goats), his cultivated fields, rice paddies and orchards. Today, Bila, Ali Farka’s oldest descendant, runs it all. In this Songhai and Fula region, animals and land are the marks of wealth and influence.

In the courtyard of the family home in Niafunké, Bila is drinking tea with the “young people of the house”, whom Ali Farka took in his charge. They talk once more of Ali’s love for Niafunké: “He never wanted to go and live in Bamako, he preferred living here as a family. All his children went to school in Niafunké. Because we cultivate thirty hectares of land, we can take on local workers.” Ali Farka’s choice of lifestyle, combined with his aura of wisdom and simplicity, have conferred him a particular image throughout the region. 

In 2004, the inhabitants of Niafunké pushed the “musician-farmer” into becoming mayor of the town of 30,000 people. It was a role that he occupied for a total of twenty months, from 7 July 2004 until his death in Bamako on 7 March 2006. The new mayor, Samba Bâh, lists Ali Farka’s social achievements:

“He wanted to make Niafunké the Switzerland of Africa. He actively strove to replant the town with over 12,000 young trees; he encouraged irrigation and wastewater treatment, and supported women’s and youth associations. But it is hard to pick up from where he left off because we no longer have the finances. When he wanted something for Niafunké, he didn’t think twice about digging into his own pocket. Out of all the things that he did, social work came first.” And even in his own home, Ali Farka put into practice the West-African tradition that encourages those who succeed to take on the education of the young people in the family or neighbourhood. And so, every evening in the family’s courtyard, the little ones sit down to their homework and the college students work out their maths equations on the blackboard under the neon light.

Pride

A number of young people insist on Ali Farka’s role as a “model” for the town of Niafunké. Over and above his aura, Ali Farka, through his international fame, has given an existence to this town lost in the middle of the Sahel. “Ali Farka brought pride to Niafunké. He enabled us to exist, to be proud of our region and its natural and cultural wealth,” says Aly Magassa, one of Ali Farka’s musicians, comfortably seated on a multicoloured mat in his house. And it is true that in using his guitar to explore traditional Songhai, Fula and Tuareg rhythms, or those of the river spirits, the Ghimbala, Ali Farka reopened the never-ending musical path of tradition.

Every evening, at six o’clock, after working the fields, the young generations of “musician-farmers” gather together in front of Ali Farka Touré’s old house facing the River Niger. They play pieces that they learned from big brother Afel Bocoum, Ali Farka’s nephew and the “guitar hero’s” designated successor. “Afel was trained by Ali Farka and Afel taught us to play the guitar and calabash himself. He is so demanding with us that Ali could be there with him. But that means that when he’s on tour, Afel is there in spirit, and we play in his place.”

And so “Alkibar Junior” stands in for Afel Bocoum’s group, “Alkibar”. All the young musicians of Niafunké insist that they very much want to carry on with Ali Farka Touré’s work and “go even further” to make the rhythms of the river and the desert known to the rest of Mali and the world. 

Later, as day comes to a close over Ali Farka’s “garden”, the young musicians break up happily. One of them translates a well-known joke here and explains laughingly: “You can’t die in Niafunké. There’s the River Niger that gives you good fish, there’s good rice, good music, there’s everything here, you don’t die here!” Ali Farka Touré, whose spirit has not left Niafunké, has a good giggle too.

Eglantine  Chabasseur

Translation : Anne-Marie  Harper