pref: Tuaregs are nomadic people in the Sahara. When African countries achieved widespread independence in the 1960s, the traditional Tuareg territory was divided among a number of countries. The situation naturally led to some (unsuccessful) uprisings. They’re living as refugees in some countries of Africa.

“TINARIWEN IS A BAND BORN INTO CHAOS.”

The founder, Ibrahim Ag Alhabib saw 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 in 1990, 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 have become successful refugees around the world with their traditional Tuareg music, which is influenced by blues and Hendrix.

Chaghaybou from the album Emmaar. It’s about the trials of their people.

It’s their first album which was written and recorded far from their homeland in the deserts of  Californian Joshua Tree National Park. „We watched Western movies, during the recording and ate burritos, and the engineer who worked with us is from Nashville.” Previous Grammy winner album was recorded in the Algerian Desert, because „We love all the desert, these are places where we feel good to live and to create.”

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