UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Rhythms of Value: Tuareg Music and Capitalist Reckonings in Niger Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7pq4x0x5 Author Schmidt, Eric J. Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Rhythms of Value: Tuareg Music and Capitalist Reckonings in Niger A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnomusicology by Eric James Schmidt 2018 © Copyright by Eric James Schmidt 2018 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Rhythms of Value: Tuareg Music and Capitalist Reckonings in Niger by Eric James Schmidt Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnomusicology University of California, Los Angeles, 2018 Professor Timothy D. Taylor, Chair This dissertation examines how Tuareg people in Niger use music to reckon with their increasing but incomplete entanglement in global neoliberal capitalism. I argue that a variety of social actors—Tuareg musicians, fans, festival organizers, and government officials, as well as music producers from Europe and North America—have come to regard Tuareg music as a resource by which to realize economic, political, and other social ambitions. Such treatment of culture-as-resource is intimately linked to the global expansion of neoliberal capitalism, which has led individual and collective subjects around the world to take on a more entrepreneurial nature by exploiting representations of their identities for a variety of ends. While Tuareg collective identity has strongly been tied to an economy of pastoralism and caravan trade, the contemporary moment demands a reimagining of what it means to be, and to survive as, Tuareg. Since the 1970s, cycles of drought, entrenched poverty, and periodic conflicts have pushed more and more Tuaregs to pursue wage labor in cities across northwestern Africa or to work as trans- ii Saharan smugglers; meanwhile, tourism expanded from the 1980s into one of the region’s biggest industries by drawing on pastoralist skills while capitalizing on strategic essentialisms of Tuareg culture and identity. These developments engendered novel cultural production, including several new festivals across the Sahel-Sahara and a guitar musical style that has evolved from protest anthems into popular songs. This dissertation draws on over fifteen months of ethnographic research in Niger, Mali, and the United States—grounded in participant observation, audiovisual recording, consultation of archived materials, social media engagement, and interviews—to demonstrate how a variety of stakeholders produce, manage, and curate Tuareg music as a resource in order to produce diverse forms of value and to create meaning. iii The dissertation of Eric James Schmidt is approved. Andrew Apter Helen M Rees Timothy Rice Christopher Alan Waterman Timothy D Taylor, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2018 iv To my brothers, for modeling unapologetic ecstacy in music: to John, for the nights listening to Tchaikovsky under the Christmas tree; and to Chris, for singing bols in the car and practicing tabla on the steering wheel. And to the rest of my family, for their unflagging support for my journeys, no matter how far: to Grandpa, Mom, Dad, Margie, Jeb, Claudia, Marci, Casey, Caden, and Juan. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures viii Glossary xi Acknowledgements xv Vita xix INTRODUCTION 1 Framing Tuareg Society Within and Beyond the Nation 3 Value and the Production of Culture 8 Methodology 13 Chapter Outline 19 Contributions 21 1. TUAREG CULTURAL POLITICS IN POSTCOLONIAL NIGER: A BRIEF HISTORY 23 Displacement and the Genesis of Tuareg Guitar 24 Rebellion and Reconciliation: Guitar Goes Public 45 Musical Strategies of Extraversion: Tourism, Tours, and Records 58 Conclusions 67 2. CREATIVE WAITING WITH TEA, TALK, AND TACTILE 68 Creative Waiting in Fadas 71 Music and Waiting Beyond the Fada 83 The Spirit of the Fada, Digitized 100 Conclusions 120 3. ECONOMIES OF HONOR AND MONEY, PART I: TUAREG ARTISTES IN PERFORMANCE 123 Honor and the Social Position of Tuareg Artistes 126 Spraying 137 Praise Singing 149 Dance and Performance Antics 155 Conclusions 167 4. ECONOMIES OF HONOR AND MONEY, PART II: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REGIMES 172 Copyright Policy in Niger 175 The Ethics of Covers 181 Conclusions 191 vi 5. INDEPENDENT RECORD LABELS AND THE CIRCULATION OF TUAREG MUSIC 193 Salvaging Arid Fidelity 195 Reluctant Capitalists and Studio Labor 215 Curation and Ethnographic Authority 227 Conclusions 244 CONCLUSIONS 246 Appendix A: Selected Publications of Sublime Frequencies 253 Appendix B: Publications of Sahel Sounds 255 Bibliography 259 Discography 275 Filmography 277 vii LIST OF FIGURES All photographs by the author unless otherwise indicated. Figure 0.1 Map of historic region of Tuareg influence. 7 Figure 1.1 Map of Niger and surrounding areas. 28 Figure 1.2 Women perform tende at the Cure Salée festival. Ingall, September 24, 2016. 30 Figure 1.3 Takamba performance featuring calabashes and amplified molo, a plucked lute closely related to the tahardent. Niamey, November 12, 2016. 32 Figure 1.4 Excerpt from “Nak Izaghagh Tinariwen” by Ensemble Stella de Tamanrasset. 36-37 Figure 1.5 Tende n-emnas drumming pattern. 37 Figure 1.6a A man on a camel wears his tagelmoust in the older style at the Cure Salée festival. Ingall, September 24, 2016. 41 Figure 1.6b Members of Groupe Taflawiste show more relaxed modes of wearing a tagelmoust popularized by ishumar. Agadez, December 10, 2016. 41 Figure 1.7 Groupe Tasko performs at celebrations for the enthronement of Sultan Oumarou Ibrahim Oumarou of Agadez. December 14, 2016. 58 Figure 1.8 Cover for Desert Rebel: Ishumars, The Forgotten Rockers of the Desert (2006). 66 Figure 2.1 Iboune Moujamani with brother Ibrahim and cousin Dariya Diallo sit at a fada meeting place in their compound in Niamey. 68 Figure 2.2 Nigérien postage stamps celebrating Radio Clubs, issued circa 1965. 80 Figure 2.3 Issouf Hadan reading SMS messages on air at Radio Nomade FM. 81 Figure 2.4 Attendees at a more formal tagssir in Agadez. December 2016. 99 Figure 2.5 Photomontage grid for voting on prominent Tuareg artists. 105 Figures 2.6a-c Montages by Moussa “Tchingou” Eggour. 107 Figure 2.7 Invitation for a Niamey concert celebrating Tabaski in 2017. 109 Figure 2.8 “Agir pour Ingall” performers, organizers, and supporters. July 9, 2016. 116 Figure 2.9 Charter for WhatsApp group “Amis des Artistes Touareg.” 118 Figure 3.1 A man sprays Bombino at a wedding organized by members of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO). Niamey, December 30, 2016. 140 viii Figure 3.2 Staff collect bills sprayed on foreign ambassadors and government officials at a concert by Abdallah Alhousseini and Kader Tarhanine at the Cure Salée festival. Ingall, September 23, 2016. 141 Figure 3.3 Men tallying sums of money donated directly on behalf of dance groups or sprayed at a takamba gathering in celebration of Tabaski (Eid al-Adha). Niamey, September 13, 2016. 142 Figure 3.4 Takamba performance featuring molo (a lute closely related to tahardent) player Souleymane Seydou and dancers of Groupe Faisal at a wedding in Niamey. August 28, 2016. 144 Figure 3.5 Bombino leads at a wedding in Niamey, accompanied by Moussa Albadé, Bibi Ahmed, and others. December 30, 2016. 148 Figure 3.6 Abdallah Alhousseini performs with tagelmoust and relatively reserved gestures that are more representative of the older generation of artistes. Cure Salée, Ingall, September 23, 2016. 156 Figure 3.7 Dancers throwing up their hands while Bombino strikes a dramatic pose on stage at a public concert during the Agadez Sokni celebrations. Agadez, December 15, 2016. 157 Figure 3.8 Idé, a calabash player in Niamey, flips his leg back and forth over his calabash during a takamba performance at a naming ceremony in Niamey. November 12, 2016. 159 Figure 3.9 Souleymane Seydou plays his molo behind his head while standing, a bill stuffed under his turban by a member of the audience, at a naming ceremony in Niamey. November 12, 2016. 160 Figure 3.10 Youth dancing to Hama Moussa’s music at a wedding in Niamey. July 30, 2016. 163 Figure 3.11 A woman in a Mauritanian mehlafa dancing jagwa during a concert by Bibi Ahmed at the Lebanese-owned Palais de Chawarma restaurant. Niamey, October 30, 2016. 165 Figure 4.1 A BNDA holographic banderole sticker adorns a legal album purchased in Niamey. 178 Figure 4.2 Bombino performing in front of the Grand Mosque of Agadez at his homecoming concert on January 17, 2010. Photo by Ron Wyman. 189 Figure 5.1 Front cover of Sublime Frequencies DVD Niger: Magic and Ecstasy in the Sahel (2005). 207 Figure 5.2 Digital art (author unknown) commemorating the peace settlement ending the first Tuareg rebellion in Niger, recirculated on social media ahead of the Agadez Sokni festival in December 2017. 207 ix Figure 5.3 Front of Sublime Frequencies album Group Inerane: Guitars from Agadez, Vol. 4 (2011). 208 Figure 5.4 Front and back covers of Music from Saharan Cellphones. 211 Figure 5.5 Detail of liner notes of Music from Saharan Cellphones. 213 Figure 5.6 Mdou Moctar album Anar (2014). 220 Figure 5.7 Jason Powers, Mdou Moctar, and Christopher Kirkley at Buzz or Howl. 223 Figure 5.8 Promotional posters for Purple Rain, featuring Prince on his iconic purple motorcycle; and for Akounak, featuring the Sahelian Prince reigning over Agadez. 238 x GLOSSARY “Tuareg” is a foreign term to describe people of the Sahel and Sahara who identify themselves as “Kel Tamasheq,” meaning “the people who speak Tamasheq,” or else as imajeghen (the masculine plural referring to Tuareg people and to a particular social class within Tuareg society). Yet even these terms suggest an overarching uniformity that does not account for the several Tamasheq dialects spoken in the region; while “imajeghen” is the masculine plural most widely used in Niger, in Algeria and Libya it is imuhagh, and in Mali and Burkina Faso, imushagh.