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

Nadia Belalimat (1)

1 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

In 2004, with the album Amassakoul (Traveller), the Tinariwen band showed the world a contemporary image of Kel Tamasheq society. Its success sanctioned worldwide the cult music of the Tuareg rebellion of 1990, and propelled its cultural and political message into ‘world sound’, while the band joined the professional circuit of world music. While this success significantly widened its public, it also helped publicize the most critical aspects of contemporary Sahara. In recent years, many ishumar guitar bands joined the international scene, so that one can hear the words of the Kel Tamasheq about their own modernity.

Mots clés: Tuareg music; social and cultural history; anthropology of music; Cultural globalisation

Domaines: Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie; Musique, musicologie et arts de la scène

Nadia Belalimat. The Ishumar Guitar: Emergence, Circulation and Evolution, from the Diasporic Performances to the World Scene. Anja Fischer & Ines Kohl Tuareg Society within a Globalized World, Saharan Life in Transition, I.B.Tauris, pp.155-170, 2010, 9781848853706. ⟨halshs-01395559⟩