Bombino

So since I haven't featured any African music, I thought I'd write about another Tuareg musician in today's post. I chose Bombino because I find his electric form of tribal African music very soothing.

Bombino comes from Niger. His actual name is Omara Moctar but he came to be called "Bombino" (which is a variant of the Italian word, "bambino", for "little one") when he joined Haja Bebe's band, as he was the youngest in the band. The Tuareg tribes often oppose the Niger government because they don't feel that the political parties in power support them enough, so the Niger government often deny them rights. Indeed their opposition to the Tuareg can be so bad that the lives of people in the Tuareg tribes can be threatened, so Bombino has often had to flee to other countries. Nevertheless it was during his exile in Burkina Faso that he was tracked down by the film maker, Ron Wyman, who had heard taped recordings of his music and urged him to properly record his music. This led to Bombino and Ron Wyman recording the album, Agadez, which was released this year.