"The Celebration"

The Saharawi people's homeland is the Western Sahara, part of Morocco since 1975, despite the longstanding, but never fulfilled promise of a referendum on self-rule. In some ways, their struggle mirrors that of the Tuareg in northern Mali, except that the Saharawi have never been allowed to return to their homeland, and they have now lived in tent cities in southwest Algeria for so long that refugee life has become a vital aspect of their culture. Both the Saharawi and the Tuareg trace their origins to north Africa's original inhabitants, the Berber (more properly Imazighen), and both of their stories fit into the larger, and very complex, struggle of all Berber peoples to find their rightful place in Arabized countries like Algeria, Morocco and Libya, and African ones like Mali and Mauritania.

This set of recordings from the tent cities reveals the lively, folkloric musical life of a people who have had an enormous amount of time to reflect on who they are. Most of these 11 tracks involve only drumming and singing, something that sets this release apart from the landmark 1998 3-CD compilation Sahrauis: The Music of the Western Sahara (Nubenegra), which also includes many electric guitar revelations, and studio-made pop songs.

On the opening track, "Ya lali (Old Man)," The first thing that strikes you is the unearthly sound of the voice. It has an electronically distorted hue, as if the (strangely unidentified) singer is being amplified through a guitar amplifier with the chorus effect activated. Once the ear adjusts, you focus on the sound of the voice, its full-throated richness, the sense of a deep emotional investment. A chorus answers her and there is both clapping that follows a set, pulsing pattern, and soft, muted hand drumming that creates a subtly polyrhythmic overlay.

Some songs hew to a camel-lope, three-four time; others play six and four rhythms against one another in classic north African polyrhythm; and at least one, "The Celebration," cranks out driving four-four, gloriously accented with ululations and intensifying hand-clapping to create a mystic party mood. There is a beautiful guitar instrumental with a loping rhythm reminiscent of the Tuareg takamba. In all, a moving and atmospheric turn in the desert. One only wishes that there were information about the artists to match the excellent notes about the plight of the Saharawi, and the song texts.

Contributed by: Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org