CLASSIC MUSIC AND POETRY IN THE SAHARA DESERT

The classic songs of the Imuhar (Tuareg) nomads are accompanied on eg. the Imzad (Imzad).

IMZAD (one string violin)

The body of the Imzad is made out of half a calabash covered with leather. A wooden stick is used as neck.
The violin bow is stringed with horsehair. Only women play the Imzad but not every woman can play it. Women or men sing along with the Imzad. The order of the songs is not fixed and depends on the circumstances or what performer likes.
The lyrics are written in verse just as the poetry of the Imuhar. Nowadays, only a few women can play the Imzad. Some elderly women or men are now famous for songs played on the Imzad (Badi 2006: 165f). Not a single woman is able to play the Imzad anymore among the Kel Ahnet nomads.

The Imzad is now part of the representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of the UNESCO. 

Example of Imzad music on YOUTUBE

TENDE (Drum)

The Tende (Tinde) is a large wooden mortar which is covered with goat skin. The skin is held down by two large wooden sticks on each side at which two women are sitting. Either one of these women plays the drum or a third woman sits in front of the Tinde and beats the rhythm.
A special tende rhythm tries to imitate the walk of camels. A wet cloth is put over the skin to improve the sound. The cloth has to be wet all the time.
Normally, women play the Tende. But most men are able to play the Tende as well.

 Example of Tende on YOUTUBE

GANGA (Drum)

The Ganga or Gangan drum is only played by Imuhar nomads on special occasions like weddings.
The mother of the bride plays the Ganga at the marriage. She takes her milk bowl and puts goat skin over it. The Ganga songs have a typical rhythm and nobody sings along.

ETTEBEL (Drum)
The Ettebel is a large drum. In former times the Ettebel was beaten in order to assemble a political meeting.

CHANT
The nomads sing songs that are typically accompanied on the Imzad or the Tende. Every nomad knows the different melodies but only a few women or men are known to be good singers. Normally, unmarried women are the ones who sing. Sometimes, women meet up in the afternoon and practice on the tende in order to improve their singing and drumming skills. That way, shy girls can practice playing the Tende and singing and elderly women can comment on their talent.

BACKGROUND SOUND 
The crowd accompanies the singer with a kind of buzzing sound – a long hm-sound. Sometimes, an attendant trills especially when a very elegant camel rider passes by. Only women trill. Women try not to show their open mouth when they trill. The crowd also accompanies the song by clapping their hands in a special manner.
In former times, women would wear special large rings, which made a sound when clapping the hands.

PLACES to make music
The nomads do not only play music at special events. Sometimes, young single nomads meet at night and play music. They meet at a tent of a widow where women sit on one side and men on the other. These meetings do NOT call Ahal (, even if this always circulates in the literature).

ILLUGAN
An Illugan is often held at weddings or namegiving-days. There, women sit around a Tende and sing while men pass by on their camels. The men adorn their camels and then they pass the women in pairs. Dressed in their best gear they use a special riding style.

MAINTENANCE
While most women cannot play the Imzad anymore almost every woman can play the Tende. Even child starts by practicing the classic rhythm of the Tende on a metal bowl.

POETRY and SONGS 
The poetry of the Imuhar (Tuareg) is well known and there are several books about that topic (eg. Bernus/agg-Albostan 1981; Casajus 1989b; Ghabdouane 1989; Albaka/Casajus 1992; Casajus 2000b).
The poets are quite popular and famous. The topics of the poems vary between love, honor, women, the landscape, and journeys (Badi 2006: 61).

DESIGNATION
Tesawit, according to Foucauld (1951-52: 1472) is a „piece de vers“ and the poetic rhythm is called Anaya (Ritter 2009a: 1036). A song is called Asahar (Ritter 2009: 476) and the rhythm is called Azal (Ritter 2009b: 261). Aliwen (Ritter 2009a: 163) are special songs which are performed by women at weddings. A dance song is called Ezale (Esele).

STRUCTURE
The lyrics of the Imuhar (Tuareg) use tend rhyme and the verses are all quite similar to each other in the number of syllables and metre.
The number of syllables used by the Ahaggar is around seven to eight syllables and the Air about eleven syllables (Ghabdoune 1989: 11). It is a highly mathematic structure where every verse ends with the same sound.
The length of the poems can vary and sometimes the poems are accompanied by music.

TOPICS
Casajus (2000c: 66) named three kinds of Tesawit:
- the poetry which is written about loneliness
- the songs of women for celebrating religious or family events
- the traditional songs at a wedding.

The poems or the songs can be about war or combat and can even lead to poetry battles (see Casajus 1998). The poems, which are about loneliness, have often a melancholic touch. They treat the longing for a woman, a beloved camel or a special place.

EXAMPLE

Turna n tera

1-Tahlaft wa teksen igraw t wayleli
2- Hund yunaî ales igraw t geleli
3- Iccak ini temara wer telli
4-Ed ga terut ellil tenneri Malade d`amour

1-Celui qui n`a pas les faveurs amoureuses de Tahlaft, doit être pris de tourment
2- Son cœur compressé et sa tête désorientée
3- Pareil à celui dont la monture est absente
4- Et qui devait affronter de désert ardent en plein été. (Badi 2006: 126)

SOCIOECONOMIC VALUE 
The performances of poetry as well as the performance of a song represent a high socioeconomic value among Imuhar nomads. The performer can reach high social prestige through the verbal virtuosity.

„Improvisational talent and ability to play with linguistic forms are highly valued in Bedouin culture“ (Abu-Lughod 1986: 173).

Some poems evoke memories about the last time they were performed or make a personal statement with a special social content. „Poetry as a form provides a modest way of communicating immodest sentiments of attachment and an honorable way of communicating the sentiments of dependency“ (Abu-Lughod 1986: 240).
The use of poetry can bridge social distances between performer and audience and can convey feelings in an indirect manner.

„Performance puts the act of speaking on display - objectifies it, lifts it to a degree from its interactional setting and opens it to scruting by an audience“ (Bauman/Briggs 1990: 73).

The feedback of the audience is an important part of the performance. „Some forms of verbal art – verse, song, or chant – depend crucially on morphological and phonological, even syntactic, properties of the language in which it is formed. In such cases the art could not exist without the language, quite literally“ (Hale 1998: 204).

Poetry is often closely connected to the author of the poem as well as to the person who recites it. If someone is not familiar with the sociocultural context, it is quite difficult to understand the true meaning of the poetry.

“Poetry as a discourse of defiance of the system symbolizes freedom – the ultimate value of the system and the essential entailment of the honor code“ (Abu-Lughod 1986: 252).

The classic music of the Imuhar (Tuareg) is mainly performed by women, while the new music is performed by young men.
 

A famous classic music group: Tartit / Mali

 

POETIC SONGS with IMZAD MUSIC

Tera n man
Wer diner tezzebab ed taharan
Wer nexdem afarag ed tezzayen
Eddaner tilmen der tibaylalnen
Emedran in keradet mawaden
Bada, et Tawwed, Fenata n tannaten
I illan rur kmet ikkat tikemsen Ikraf ebeydeg iha timewen (Badi 2010 :91)

Les Plaisirs de la vie

Je ne m`occupe ni des vignes ni des figuiers
Je ne labour pas la terre ni travaille les palmiers
Je m`occupe des chamelles dans les solitudes
Mes désirs vont aux trois de plus belles des filles
Bada, Tawwed et Fenata, les trois sœurs
Que Dieu me transporte auprès de vous bien habillé
Paissant dans les acacias, mon mehrari est bien près de moi (Badi 2010 :92)

 

Ul iraqqen
Nek ahel warer ul in hund ahes
Kud terid sewred des elrellay iwes
Kud terid tedded des Ihebgan n azref (Badi 2010 :65)

Un cœur qui brûle d´amour

Aujourd`hui  mon cœur brûle comme un incendie
Tu peux y mettre une bouilloire à bouillir
Tu peux y fendre des bracelets en argent (Badi 2010 :66)

 

A heart in flames

Today my heart is like a large fire.
If you want you can boil water in a bowl on it.
If you want you can cut through a silver bracelet with it. (Tamahaq-translation by  A.Fischer)

Songs out of the exile

Tenere den mallat semmat

Tenere den mallat semmat war hen aman,
seddeglan marhan-net taqqim bas la imarhan,
settogged e-temschar,
kay ed-sakt ezkwan aqqoran,
hekschan-net ibas lan ilaktan,
aldaschnat tehruten, bas dalatan reschran. Temmadrit annenkar annawen isewlan anneschli dagg (dat?) alrar edd igan ibardan. ( Klute 2013: 678-679)

The desert there is white and bitter

The desert there is white and bitter, there is no water there. It’s lovers are long gone, they remained without a lover You gaze upon the ruins from a distance You will be remembered of the graves, the dry ones. The trees do not have branches, tired are the herds, the valleys are not green, Youth, let’s get up, climb the rocks, we should run away from the humiliation that constitutes the path. (translated from Klute 2013: 678-679)