Music Of Northern Mali Silenced By Al Qaeda Linked Extremists

Music is a vital element of Malian culture, ingrained in the lives of its people from birth and vital to a number of ceremonies from birth to weddings to praying for weather conditions and, importantly, it has been used as a method of storytelling and the passing down of tradition as well as the teaching of morals and values for hundreds of years.

“In northern Mali, music is like oxygen,” Baba Salah told the Washington Post's African correspondent Sudarsan Raghavan in an interview last week.

But the northern part of the West African country has fallen silent in recent times as al Qaeda linked Islamic militants outlaw music throughout the north of the country.

A military coup in March saw the nation of Mali split into two, with Islamic extremists quickly seizing major towns in the northern part of the country and instilling an ultraconservative regime that outlawed not just music but smoking, drinking, videos and anything that may pertain to western culture.

Popular north Malian singer Khaira Arby – who is one of the 400,000 people to have fled her home in recent months – last week told the Washington Post that religious extremists, who now rule her home city of Timbuktu, had broken into her house and destroyed her instruments.

“They told my neighbours that if they ever caught me, they would cut my tongue out,” she said.

She is just one of the high profile examples of those being silenced in the African musical hotbed; it's not just popular music that is banned, but all music, with the exception of tunes set to Koranic verses.

Music playing from stereos reportedly attracts the attention of Islamist police, so mobile phones are the only way that the country's people can listen to music, presuming they can keep them well hidden; though it is reported that mobile phones with memory cards are now the “main target” for the police.

The BBC reports that Niafunke, the hometown of one of Mali's most famous musical exports Ali Farka Toure, has fallen into complete silence as a part of the al Qaeda occupation. Farka Toure was the mayor of Niafunke up until his death in 2006 but, while a memorial to him still stands, you won't hear any of his music played in the town anymore.

The Washington Post also managed to speak with a leading member of the forces who are implementing this ultraconservative regime, who said they are fighting against all music, not just that of Mali.

“Music is against Islam," Oumar Ould Hamaha, military leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, one of the three extremist groups controlling the north, told the Post. “Instead of singing, why don't they read the Koran? Why don't they subject themselves to God and pray? We are not only against the musicians in Mali. We are in a struggle against all the musicians of the world.”

Music is just one of the elements affected by the strict Islamic social code that has been implemented, though perhaps the one thing most intrinsically linked to the traditional culture of the country. Other threats to their culture have come with the destruction of shrines in Timbuktu earlier this year.

Malian people and the people of its neighbouring countries are reportedly frustrated that the United Nations is yet to intervene and authorise an operation to remove Islamic extremists who now control the northern part of their country.

Speaking to the BBC, a 28-year-old farmer residing in Niafunke says that he is growing tired of the empty promises his government are giving.

“Our government keeps on repeating that the liberation of the north will come tomorrow but we now hear that we may have to wait another year before they launch operations against these extremists,” he said

A piece written for War reporting website StrategyPage.com suggests that Al Qaeda may attempt to hire the large number of young, unemployed Tuareg people and turn them against their elders. What happens remains to be seen, but one does not hold out much hope for a peaceful resolution anytime soon.

Have a listen to some of our favourite popular music to come from the Mali.