National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

The vast desert nation of Mauritania lies between Morocco and Senegal. Over the years, drought has concentrated three quarters of its once-nomadic people in cities. The coastal capital, Nouakchott has gone from 20,000 to half a million in just 35 years. Descended from Bedouin conquerors and Berber refugees from Morocco, modern Moors include both Bidan, who claim ancestry from Bedouins and Berbers, and Haratin, who descend from Arab-speaking, liberated slaves.

The country's strict caste system puts musicians -- known as iggawin -- at the bottom. Nevertheless, musicians must undertake elaborate study, men on the four-stringed, hourglass-shaped tidinit lute, and women on the 10- to 14-string harp lute, the ardin. Players can learn three "ways" to play, the white, the black, and the spotted, and within each "way," there are five modes each corresponding to a life phase or emotion--karr, fagu, lakhal, labyad and lebtayt. – Banning Eyre, Courtesy Afropop Worldwide: www.afropop.org