Sorry for the blogging hiatus. I spent the last five days in Segou for the Festival sur le Niger and intended to post something here each morning. This plan proved overly ambitious. I forgot to bring the battery charger for my camera and internet access was almost non-existent.
The festival itself was amazing. Segou is one of Mali’s most charming cities. It sits on the Niger river and lacks the hustle and smog of Bamako. Since it was Mali’s administrative capital during French rule it has some interesting architecture and quaint boulevards. One could say that Segou offers almost everything that Bamako does, just only one of each. This was my first chance to spend more than a couple of hours in Segou, and I will be happy to find any excuse to go back.
I spent most of my mornings perusing artisan stalls, checking out art exhibits and sampling some of Segou’s restaurants. Mid-days, when it is too hot to do much of anything, were spent poolside at L’Auberge, a quaint hotel with a Peace Corps-friendly owner.
The entire event was incredibly well organized, with a wealth of entertainment options. Dance troops from all over West Africa performed on side stages, and in the river there was a large boat which hosted lectures on Malian art, culture and politics. It was truly a celebration of Mali and its neighbors.
Music started in the early evening and almost all of the big names in Mali performed. Personal highlights included Tinariwen (who some of us got to meet later in the evening), Nahawa Doumbia (Mali’s preeminent diva), and stalwarts Habib Koite and Salif Keita. Even with all these heavy hitters present, it was Gao’s native son, Baba Salah who stole the show.
Salah is nationally known, but hasn’t had the international success of some of the aforementioned acts. He draws heavily from a genre known as “Gao-Gao” and “Takamba’. His music is also highly derivative of the great Ali Farka Toure, whose bluesy riffs made him world famous. Baba Salah, however, is a flat out virtuoso on electric guitar. In fact, his performance on Friday night was downright Hendrix-esque. The rowdy Songhai contingent went particularly crazy when he did his own rendition of a Ali Farka Toure classic.
Here is a video of him performing the same song few months ago from the Festival in the Desert in Timbuktu. At about the three minute mark, he shows off his guitar playing chops. By the fourth minute, it just gets out of hand:
Also, here are some pictures from the weekend (all photos credited to Suzanna M. Keenan):
At the risk of sounding cheesy, the concert was that much more enjoyable because I spent it in the company of Malians standing shoulder to shoulder, belting out the songs that are their country’s greatest ambassadors. There is something truly inspiring about watching a people collectively celebrate the most beautiful aspects of their culture. It was a great night when I got to see Tinariwen, but for the teenage kids right behind me from Kidal and Gossi, that was the greatest night of their lives. Their night made my night a little better.













