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Nahawa Doumbia
Nahawa Doumbia (born ca. 1961) is a singer from Mali's Wassoulou region. Biography and career Doumbia, in a career that lasted for over four decades, was an important musician in the development and definition of Wassoulou music, the popular music from her area of Southern Mali, which in turn had a great influence on Mali's musical culture. Doumbia was born into a caste of blacksmiths and so wouldn't have been allowed to sing, but broke that taboo. Her career got started after she won a contest on the French-language radio station Radio France Internationale. Scholar Lucy O'Brien mentioned her as one of the women who created a music that gave voice to female expression, and praised her "high-tech poetry and metaphor" in a study of women in popular music. Her debut album, ''La Grande Cantatrice Malienne Vol 1'', was recorded with N’Gou Bagayoko, who played acoustic guitar and who later became her husband. After her first recording, as a duo, she moved toward playing with larger g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wassoulou
Wassoulou, sometimes spelled Wassulu, Wassalou, or Ouassalou, is a cultural area and historical region surrounding the point where the borders of Mali, Ivory Coast, and Guinea meet. Home to about 160,000 people, it is bordered by the Niger River to the northwest, and by the Sankarani River to the east. Inhabitants are known as Wassulu, Wassulunka or Wassulunke. History The history of Wassoulou before the 19th century is poorly attested in surviving sources, but it appears to have been a relatively decentralized and egalitarian society composed of ''jamana'', alliances of small villages defended by walls. The region was in some respects tributary to the Segou Empire in the 18th and early 19th centuries, but still suffered regular slave raids. Wassoulou is also the name of an Islamic state, the Wassoulou Empire (1870–1898), ruled by Samori Ture and centered on his capital, Bissandugu. In 1870, Samori overthrew an older Wassoulou state whose ''faama'' (ruler) was Dyanabufarin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia and claims to be the most widely read masthead in the country. It is considered a newspaper of record for Australia. The newspaper is published in Compact (newspaper), compact print form from Monday to Saturday as ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' and on Sunday as its sister newspaper, ''The Sun-Herald'' and digitally as an Website, online site and Mobile app, app, seven days a week. The print edition of ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' is available for purchase from many retail outlets throughout the Sydney metropolitan area, most parts of regional New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and South East Queensland. Overview ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' publishes a variety of supplements, including ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chris Nickson
Chris Nickson (born 1954) is a British writer, novelist, music journalist, and biographer. Biography Nickson was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, but lived in the United States from the age of 21, returning to the UK in 2005. As a music journalist, he specialised in world and roots music. For several years he wrote a regular column for '' Global Rhythm'' magazine, and wrote ''The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to World Music''. He contributes interviews and reviews to several music magazines and websites. He has written biographies of celebrities including Emma Thompson, Ewan McGregor, Mariah Carey, Soundgarden Ozzy Osbourne David Duchovny and Christopher Reeve. His biography of the late singer-songwriter John Martyn, ''Solid Air'', published in 2006 was published as an ebook and as a paperback in June 2011. In 2010, Nickson published his first novel, ''The Broken Token'', set in Leeds in 1731. The next novel in the series, ''Cold Cruel Winter'' was published in the UK in May 2011 ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wassoulou Music
Wassoulou () is a genre of West African popular music named for the Wassoulou cultural area. Wassoulou music is performed mostly by women. Some recurring themes in the lyrics are childbearing, fertility, and polygamy. Instrumentation includes soku (a traditional fiddle sometimes replaced with modern imported instruments), djembe drum, kamalen n'goni (a six-stringed harp), karinyan (metal tube percussion) and bolon (a four-stringed harp). The vocals are often passionate and emphatic, and delivered in a call-and-response Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ... pattern. Prominent Wassoulou artists include Nahawa Doumbia, Oumou Sangaré, Coumba Sidibe, Dienaba Diakite, Kagbe Sidibe, Sali Sidibe, Jah Youssouf, and Fatoumata Diawara. Notes References * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is the State media, state-owned international radio news network of France. With 59.5 million listeners in 2022, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world, along with Deutsche Welle, the BBC World Service and Voice of America. RFI broadcasts 24 hours per day around the world in French and in 16 other languages in FM, shortwave, medium wave, satellite and on its website. It is a channel of the state company France Médias Monde. The majority of shortwave transmissions are in French and Hausa language, Hausa but also includes some hours of Swahili language, Swahili, Fulfulde language, Fulfulde and Mandinka language, Mandinka. RFI broadcasts to over 150 countries on 5 continents. Africa is the largest part of radio listeners, representing 60% of the total audience in 2010. In the Île-de-France, Paris region, RFI comprises between 150,000 and 200,000 listeners. Its digital platforms attract an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucy O'Brien
Lucy O'Brien (born 13 September 1961)Author Biography, O'Brien, Lucy – She Bop: The definitive history of women in rock, pop, and soul, London: Penguin, 1995 is a British author and journalist whose work focuses on women in music. Early musical and writing career O'Brien was born in Catford, London and grew up in Southampton. In 1979, whilst attending a convent school in Southampton, she formed a punk rock, punk band aptly named "the Catholic Girls". She left the band in 1980 to attend university in Leeds, and The Catholic Girls continued for a while under the name Almost Cruelty before splitting up. At university she played with a number of bands before giving up performing to write instead. She became music editor of the University of Leeds magazine, ''Leeds Student'', and after graduating in 1983, she submitted gig articles to the music paper the ''New Musical Express'' (''NME''), which then published Charles Shaar Murray and Nick Kent. She has since written about the "int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Awesome Tapes From Africa
Awesome Tapes From Africa is a record label and website operated by Brian Shimkovitz, based in Los Angeles, California. The site was founded in 2006 in Brooklyn, New York. History The site was created as a way for Shimkovitz to share music he had come across while on a Fulbright scholarship in Ghana. He was interested in the variety of genres and artists he found, distributed largely on cassette tapes at markets, but that he had not come across outside West Africa. In 2011, Shimkovitz transitioned the site from just a blog, in which he posted recordings of collected tapes without the artists' permission, to a commercial record label. The goal of the company is to seed and expand an audience for the artists presented as well as provide opportunities to sell albums and tour. Artists are paid every six months and receive 50% of the profits from an album. Tapes presented on Awesome Tapes come from a variety of sources: gathered in Ghanaian street markets, purchased in stores in the US, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Vinyl Factory
The Vinyl Factory is a music company based in London. It includes a record label, vinyl pressing plant, and a venue space. It also publishes ''Fact'' magazine and owns Phonica Records store. Overview The Vinyl Factory began as a pressing plant in 2001 after purchasing the manufacturing equipment from EMI. For two years, they completed orders left over from EMI's company, which helped keep and maintain a loyal customer base. In 2008, Vinyl Factory expanded into a record label. Commissions & exhibitions The Vinyl Factory has curated exhibitions and events at three spaces in London, The Vinyl Factory Soho, Brewer Street Car Park and Store Studios, 180 The Strand. Recent audio-visual shows presented by Store X The Vinyl Factory have included The Infinite Mix (2016), in partnership with Hayward Gallery; Everything At Once (2017) in partnership with Lisson Gallery and Arthur Jafa's Love is the Message, the Message is Death (2017), in partnership with the Serpentine Galleries. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bamako
Bamako is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2022 population of 4,227,569. It is located on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the upper and middle Niger valleys in the southwestern part of the country. Bamako is the nation's administrative center. The city proper is a Cercles of Mali, cercle in its own right. Bamako's Inland port, river port is located in nearby Koulikoro, along with a major regional trade and conference center. Bamako is the seventh-largest West Africa, West African urban center after Lagos, Abidjan, Kano (city), Kano, Ibadan, Dakar, and Accra. Locally manufactured goods include textiles, processed meat, and metal goods as well as mining. Commercial fishing occurs on the Niger River. In recent years, Bamako has seen significant urban development, with the construction of modern buildings, shopping malls, and infrastructure projects aimed at improving the quality of life for its residents. The city is home to many notable ins ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salif Keita
Salif Keïta () (born 25 August 1949) is a Malian singer-songwriter, referred to as the "Golden Voice of Africa". He is a member of the Keita royal family of Mali. Early life Salif Keita was born a traditional prince in the village of Djoliba. He was born to the Keita royal family, who trace their lineage to Sundiata Keita, founder of the Mali Empire. He was cast out by his family and ostracized by the community because of his albinism, a sign of bad luck in Mandinka culture. Raised in a Muslim family, he went to an Islamic school where he was influenced by his Qur'an teacher's singing. He decided to pursue music in his teenage years, further distancing him from his family as that was against occupational prohibitions of his noble status. In 1967, he left Djoliba for Bamako, where he joined the government-sponsored Super Rail Band de Bamako. In 1973, Keita joined the group ''Les Ambassadeurs (du Motel de Bamako)''. Keita and Les Ambassadeurs fled political unrest in Mali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ngoni (instrument)
The ngoni (also written ''ngɔni'', ''n'goni'', or ''nkoni'') is a traditional West African string instrument. Its body is made of wood or calabash with dried animal (often goat) skin head stretched over it. The ngoni, which can produce fast melodies, appears to be closely related to the '' akonting'' and the '' xalam''. This is called a ''jeli ngoni'' as it is played by griots at celebrations and special occasions in traditional songs called ''fasa''s in Mandingo. Another larger type, believed to have originated among the donso (a hunter and storyteller caste of the Wassoulou cultural region) is called the ''donso ngoni''. This is still largely reserved for ceremonial purposes. The donso ngoni, or "hunter's harp," has six strings. It is often accompanies singing along with the '' karagnan'', a serrated metal tube scraped with a metal stick. The donso ngoni was mentioned by Richard Jobson in the 1620s, describing it as the most commonly used instrument in the Gambia. He describe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Sankara
Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (; 21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabè military officer, Marxist and Pan-Africanist revolutionary who served as the President of Burkina Faso from 1983, following his takeover in a coup, until his assassination in 1987. After being appointed Prime Minister in 1983, disputes with the sitting government resulted in Sankara's eventual imprisonment. While he was under house arrest, a group of revolutionaries seized power on his behalf in a popularly supported coup later that year. At the age of 33, Sankara became the President of the Republic of Upper Volta and launched an unprecedented series of social, ecological, and economic reforms. In 1984, Sankara oversaw the renaming of the country as Burkina Faso ('land of the upright people'), and personally wrote its national anthem. His foreign policy was centered on anti-imperialism and he rejected loans and capital from organizations such as the International Monetary Fund. However, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
