pref: Tuaregs are nomadic people in the Sahara. They’re living as refugees in some countries of Africa.

„TINARIWEN IS A BAND BORN INTO CHAOS.”

The founder, Ag Alhabib has seen a cowboy to play on guitar in a western film in his childhood. After the happy end he fabricated his first guitar from a tin can, a stick and bicycle brake wire. He has formed his band in a Libyan Tuareg refugee camp, where they were under military training in 1979. When the revolution broke out in their homeland, they left Libya behind, put down their instruments and took up guns to fight for the Tuareg independence in Mali. When the conflict died down, the band returned to music. And they became successful refugees around the world with their traditional Tuareg music, which is influenced by blues and Hendrix.

Islegh Taghram Tifhamam from the album „Emmaar”

For a Tuareg the Sahara is not one desert but many,
they call it Tinariwen, id est: The Deserts

„WE LOVE ALL THE DESERT, THESE ARE PLACES
WHERE WE FEEL GOOD TO LIVE AND TO CREATE.”