The Wassoulou region of southern Mali has earned a reputation for bluesy rhythms and melodies, and stunning, female vocalists. With sculpted braids, flowing robes and an angel's voice, Oumou Sangaré leads the Wassoulou invasion now competing with Mali's once-dominant Manding griot (jeli) pop music.
Sangaré's mother and grandmother sang, and they encouraged her to do so from the age of five. In 1986, the 18-year-old Sangaré toured in the French Caribbean and Europe with a 27-piece folkloric troupe. At 21, she ignited the Wassoulou explosion with her smash debut cassette Moussoulou ("Women"), which quickly sold 200,000 legal copies, and many more in the pirate cassette trade. The album was released on the international market in 1989 and was followed by Ko Sira in 1993, Worotan in 1996, and Oumou in 2004. These releases were accompanied by international tours which brought Wassoulou to world audiences.
Youth lies at the core of Wassoulou music. Its central instrument, the kamele ngoni ("young person's harp") has six strings, a long neck and a calabash resonator. Its larger cousin, the buzzing, boomy doso ngoni ("hunter's harp") accompanies the sacred songs hunters use to communicate with their guiding spirits.
An outspoken advocate for women's causes, Sangaré challenges long-standing practices of arranged marriages and polygamy. Musically, though, she sticks to her roots, rejecting electronic instruments and limiting her sound to kamele ngoni, djembe drum, violin, flute, guitar, bass, the scraped, metallic karagnan and her own heart-tugging voice. – Banning Eyre, Courtesy Afropop Worldwide: www.afropop.org
