Desert Blues
Sunday Telegraph - Richard Stafford
The sounds of the Sahara enchant Richard Stafford in Mali.
As a rule I'm not a festival-goer but last year I was happy to put my misgivings to one side for a music festival in the Sahara Desert.The Festival au Desert began in 2001 as a celebration of the Tuareg culture. The Tuaregs, a nomadic, camel-owning, desert-dwelling people, are identified by the vivid colours of their boubous (long robes) and taguelmoust, the veils they wear as protection against the desert wind and sand.
The festival has grown in recent years and now some of the greatest musicians from Mali and beyond come to this small patch of desert, 40-odd miles north of the historic city of Timbuktu. Mali's reputation has been somewhat tarnished by terrorist incidents in the past, but most visits there are trouble-free and travel companies, such as the AITO-affiliated Tim Best Travel, still operate trips there.
Getting from Bamako, Mali's capital, to Timbuktu can take as long as you've got: I covered the 500 or so miles in 10 days, surrendering to the anfractuous nature of Third World travel. You can, though, do it in two: there's a new airport a few miles south of Timbuktu with twice-weekly flights from Bamako, sparing visitors the bone-shaking last hours of the trip.
From Timbuktu, as part of a caravan of 4x4s, it's two hours to the festival site near Essakane. A permanent stage has been built in the dried up bowl of what was once Lac Faguibine, and festival-goers erect goatskin villages in the lee of the giant sand dunes.
During the day, the air fills with the haunting ululations of Tuareg jalimusolu (female singers), who sit cross-legged in the sand while men dance and beat their doundoun and djembe drums with a feverish intensity.
As the sun sets, the main stage crackles into life. Some of the great names in Malian music - Toumani Diabate, Oumou Sangare, Habib Koite - have turned out in tribute to Ali Farka Toure, the king of desert bluesmen, who recently died. His son, Vieux Farka Toure, is also there.
But there's one band that is synonymous with the festival - Tinariwen, or 'desert'. They're from the north-eastern town of Kidal, and, the story goes, they met in Libyan refugee camps while in exile during the Tuareg rebellions of the mid 1990's.
Their anthemic songs of exile and disenfranchisement strike a chord with the Tuaregs in the audience, bringing them either to their feet or down from the bedizened saddles of their camels.
It's the music that sustains you through the three days: if it's luxury you're after, you'll be lost. No matter. Now, whenever I hear the magical sound of a lute-like kofa, I'm transported back beneath the Saharan stars again.
Way to go:
Tim Best Travel offers tours to a range of annual African festivals. Itineraries include visits to Mali and the Festival au Desert. From £3,000pp (020 7591 0300; www.timbesttravel.com)
