Taking the fight to the desert

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The growing resistance by Mali’s musicians against attempts by jihadist militias to suppress their art and divide the country could launch a wider regional campaign against religious intolerance and political oppression. The singer Fatoumata Diawara has brought together 45 musicians and singers from West Africa to record a song and video, in Bamako to promote peace and national unity.

The cast for the Bamako recording includes some of the region’s finest musicians and singers such as kora player Toumani Diabaté, ace guitarist Djelimady Tounkara, singer and social critic Oumou Sangaré, Amadou and Mariam and Côte d’Ivoire’s Tiken Jah Fakoly. A group of Tuaregs, who now face discrimination in both northern and southern Mali, also appear on the record to call for national unity and tolerance. Tuareg musicians such as the band Tinariwen, who have supported the Rolling Stones, have been forced underground and now can play only outside the country.

The three main jhadist groups occupying northern Mali – Ansar Eddine, Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and the Mouvement pour l’unicité et le jihad en Afrique de l’ouest – have banned the playing of musical instruments as un-Islamic. Last June, Ansar Eddine destroyed the mausoleum of Sidi Mohammed, a 15th century Muslim scholar, in Timbuktu and threatened shrines that they condemned as idolatrous. One of the most important historic centres of learning, Timbuktu has 700,000 ancient manuscripts in 60 private libraries.

Voices United for Mali - 'Mali-ko' (Peace / La Paix) on YouTube