Slightly NSFW: a bit of nudity between 2:00 and 2:30. Le Grand Studio RTL has a SFW, live version.
Remarks:
This song has reached #147 so far in 2015 in France. It comes from her new album, “Motel Bamako”, which came out this month.
Instead of singing yet another light pop song of love in English or French, she raps in Bambara of war in Mali. (There are English subtitles in the video and English lyrics given below.)
The video was shot at the studio of Malian photographer Malick Sidibe, done in the look that he is known for. Her mother, grandmother, sister, niece and one of her cousins appear.
In the middle of the video where there are no subtitles, she is naming towns and cities in Mali: Timbuktu, Gao, Jenne, Kidal, Niafunke, Bamako, Segou, etc.
“Tombouctou” is the French spelling of Timbuktu.
See also:
- Inna Modja: La Fille Du Lido
- Timbuktu
- The libraries of Timbuktu – which brings up the same war
- Wolof – a close cousin of Bambara
- Youssou N’Dour & Neneh Cherry: 7 Seconds – sung in Wolof and English
- Senghor: Aux Tirailleurs Sénégalais morts pour la France
Lyrics:
Translated from Bambara:
The Night has fallen
Hunger is rising
Every single month of the year we are struggling
Everyday single day our People are being killed
The Endless War has just began
We won’t sit down and shut up
Let our country be conquered by intruders
They aim to conquer the North
They aim to conquer the South
They aim to conquer our souls
The Day is up
The sun is rising
They sweared they will never ever give us back Kidal
Our Country is broken
Hyenas have come into our homes and will have no Mercy on us
Our people are starting to rebel
We won’t unite with these intruders
They aim to break our Fathers
Force our mothers to surrender
They want to silence our voices
We will keep on fighting , The light is coming
Dibi donna : The Night has fallen
Fantastic!!!
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…and some very interesting history and developments in Mali. Thanks for the post…I shared it on other social media sites too. Cheers.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jul/06/mali-war-over-skin-colour
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Since I first heard MC Solaar, I’ve had a weakness for French Rap, even though I speak not a word of the language.
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Reblogged this on Raimanet.
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Beautiful!
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Another beautiful musician from Mali is the late Ali Farka Touré
He was a multi- talented multi- instrumentalist, multi-lingual maestro, who sang in Songhay, Fulfulde, Tamasheq or Bambara . Beautiful memories of slowly sailing on a felucca in the Nile from Aswan – Temple of Philae, Temples of Edfu and Esna and fellaheen, listening to Ali over and over again. Listen to his fusion of Malian music and blues. His eponymous album and Niafunké and Talking Timbuktu and his eponymous album are brilliant. One of my favourite musicians of all time.
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(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0iaTsSHuWY)
Ali Farka Touré & Ry Cooder – Talking Timbuktu
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Noticing the interesting influence/re-influence of African American hip hop and blues in (Mali) Africa. Or is it the other way round? Any music aficionado’s take on this?
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Edit: repeated eponymous album
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