Mdou Moctar with his bandmates
Mdou Moctar’s latest studio album—Funeral for Justice—is an anti-colonial rallying cry. Moctar is a guitarist, singer and songwriter who plays desert blues. Following Moctar’s critically acclaimed 2021 album, Afrique Victime, the musician leans away from the overtly 1970s sound of his previous album. The album is more experimental and has a stronger Tuareg influence.
Since the late 19th century, the nomadic Tuareg people of the Sahara desert have been subjected to brutal French colonialism, which they resisted through multiple rebellions throughout the 20th century. They have engaged in various rebellions against regimes backed by Western imperialism in the 21st century. The creation of modern African states such as Niger, Mali and Libya, carved up Tuareg traditional areas, making them an ethnic minority in their own land.
Regional governments have often marginalised and oppressed Tuareg people, and restricted their way of life. The genre of desert blues arose against a backdrop of exploitation and anti-colonial resistance. It resulted in a pan-African mixing of traditional Tuareg melodies and rhythms with psychedelic sounds of 1960s African American electric blues.
The album’s title track addresses Africa’s leaders directly. It calls on them to disentangle themselves from the system of world imperialism and to “Retake control of your resource rich countries, Build them and quit sleeping”.
Funeral for Justice is sung predominantly in the Tuareg language of Tamasheq—a language that is slowly dying out, with many Tuareg opting for the colonisers’ language of French. The album’s second track, Imouhar, calls on the Tuareg people to preserve their language. To do is an act of anti-colonial resistance as well as an act of cultural self-preservation. The album’s penultimate track, Oh France, directly addresses French colonialism with both bravery and intimacy, stating, “We are better off without (this) turbulent relation”.
Moctar wants to see the defeat of French and US imperialism in Africa, saying, “I never in my life liked France in my country. I don’t hate France of French people, I don’t hate American people either. But I don’t support their manipulative policies, what they do in Africa. We want to be free, we need to smile, you understand?”
Funeral For Justice is out on 3 May
Heart-wrenching tale of a family stuck in the Syrian war
At the height of the Syrian war, a family living in Damascus hide in their flat. Most of their neighbours have already fled their bombed-out homes. This is where the Syrian film, Nezouh, directed by Soudade Kaadan, begins. In the stifling flat 14-year-old Zeina lives with her mother, Hala and her father, Mutaz.
Stubborn and proud, Mutaz refuses to leave the home the family has worked so hard to afford. Repeatedly, he states that he does not want to be a displaced person. Nothing will get Mutaz to leave, including a bomb that falls right through their living room.
But Mutaz’s stubbornness is constraining for both Hala and Zeina. Both women have other dreams that they know will never come true if they stay in a city torn apart by war. Zeina plays the part of a fairytale-like character trapped in a tower, waiting for her circumstances to change.
There is much to say about Nezouh. But what I found most poignant and heart-wrenching was the story that it tells is so profoundly personal. It was a reminder for me that under the rubble caused by imperialist war are the shards of pictures drawn on walls, mobile phones with videos of families on them and pairs of shoes that a person has kept for a special occasion.
What makes Nezouh so special is that it’s a film about war that pulses with life, not death. It might tear your heart out, but it will make you more resolute to fight for the living.
Sophie Squire
Nezouh is in cinemas on 3 May
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