Uranium mining is backbreaking work. Workers spend hours in the mines operating heavy machinery while at risk of exposure to radioactive chemicals. In Niger, uranium comprises almost its entire export product, but its government sees virtually none of the profits. By contrast, France, its former colonial conqueror, still controls most of the country's supply, using minerals to power a third of its domestic electricity, while nearly 90 percent of Nigerian citizens are left without access to electricity. electricity. And although France eventually abandoned all military bases in Niger after a 2023 military coup, many of its mines remain active to this day, leaking radon into the water supply of surrounding towns.
On his new album Funeral for Justice, Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moctar confronts these abuses head-on. “Why does your ear hear only France and America?/Conquerors carve up your lands/They walk bravely through all your resources,” he sings in his native Tamasheq on the title track. You might not pick up all the finer details from listening to the first track from Moctar's monumental new album, but it's hard to miss the sound of righteous fury in the opening guitar chords, which are fired like the first shots in battle. When you talk to The New York Times, Moktar said he wanted to make his guitar sound like a person screaming for help or the piercing wail of an ambulance siren. In his most directly political album to date, Moctar lets his solos become the sound of his rage when Tamasheq's lyrics aren't enough.
“I make music to make people smile,” Moktar said recently Crack Magazine, and so far, this music has earned him plenty of success with Western audiences. Just a few weeks ago, Moctar and his outstanding live band – Souleymane Ibrahim on percussion, Ahmoudou Madassane on rhythm guitar and Mikey Coltun on bass – took the stage at Coachella to bring their exciting live show to their largest audience yet. At that show, Moctar himself couldn't help but smile as he stepped away from the mic and launched into one of his now-legendary solos, his fingers nimbly dancing across both the body and the left fret of his guitar, piling on melodies one on top of the other until they seemed to take on a life of their own.
Perhaps it's no coincidence that the lyrics sweep as a direct appeal to the American public: “My people cry while you laugh/All you do is watch.” And perhaps just to get his point across more strongly, Mdou Moctar doesn't shy away from power chords or distortion, instead leaning into the anger and power of the DC punk scene that birthed bassist and producer Coltun on “Funeral for Justice “. “Sousoume Tamacheq” is a synthesis of these ideas, combining a dizzying rhythm section with the sounds of traditional Tuareg instruments such as the three-stringed teharded or the gourd-shaped gourd. The result is an exuberant and furious Tamasheq call for unity that sounds as urgent as it reads on the page.
