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Circumstantial Alliances and Loose Loyalties in Rebellion Making: The Case of Tuareg Insurgency in Northern Niger (2007–2009)

“…Rejecting total cultural alienation, Tuareg migrants of the teshumara movement (i.e. the identity created abroad by the ishumar) elaborated an egalitarian, revolutionary form of nationalism, spread across the desert through the songs of activist musicians, the most famous of them being the Malian collective Tinariwen ('deserts') 7 which explicitly and powerfully advocated armed rebellion (Belalimat, 2003;Lecocq, 2004).…”

The Ishumar Guitar: Emergence, Circulation and Evolution from Diasporic Performances to the World Scene

“…The group linked its performances to the history of the Tuareg movement from the beginning of the 1980s to the middle of the 1990s. 21 Its protest songs produced national and regional mobilization for the rebellion as much as they justified it. The power of the ashamur song at the time relied on several mechanismsan emphasis on the historic country (imidiwan win akal-in/nak ezaghagh el-ŕurba), an allegory of the reinvested homeland (as-sawt el wahush), constant reaffirmation of social ties and family links transcending the absence, the construction of political solidarities, and a call to action.…”

“The Truth about the Desert”: Exile, Memory, and the Making of Communities among Malian Tuareg Refugees in Niger

“…The al-guitara musical genre has gained significant importance in studies of the Tuareg in northern Mali. Most studies focus either on its role in the 1990s rebellions in Mali and in Niger (Belalimat 2003(Belalimat , 2008Klute 2013;Lecocq 2010;Rasmussen 2006) or on its nature, specifically assessing whether it can be viewed as traditional or a global musical style (Borel 2006;Fischer/Kohl 2010;Schmidt 2009). Probing whether the al-guitara musical genre is traditional or modern, most conclude that it is not traditional at all.…”

“…Explaining why the Tuareg should only visit Tuareg in urban Niamey due to matters they have in common to discuss, Mohamed Ag Irgimit extended his argument to the al-guitara genre. When young Tuareg meet, they listen to alguitara songs sung by Kel Tinariwen, a musical group created in the 1980s by Kel Adagh Tuareg in exile in the Maghreb (Belalimat 2003;Belalimat 2008;Klute 2013;Lecocq 2010). The songs focus on the free-born Tuareg experiences of marginalization, forced migration, and longing for home which they called tenere (literally the bush).…”