298: Bayun Maata, by Abdou Salam et les Tendistes

Abdou Salam et les Tendistes (Niger)
Bayun Maata
7 tracks, 43 minutes
Awesome Tapes From Africa

And so we move from yesterday’s house music to today’s Hausa music! Hahahahahaha so funny.

The Hausa are an ethnic group from a wide region across Africa’s Sahel, from Côte d’Ivoire in the west and Sudan in the east. Around 70 million people (according to Wikipedia) identify as Hausa, with the biggest populations living in the north of Nigeria and the south of Niger. Abdou Salam Mamadou is one of the biggest musical stars in Niger, and his music has been described as ‘pan-Hausa,’ using influences and traditions from across the culture’s spread, as well as neighbouring cultures such as those of the Fula people. Most notably, his music uses drum patterns associated with the Tuareg tinde music – hence the name of his band.

With just a simple ensemble of gurumi lute (similar to a Ghanaian kologo), bass and drums (and occasional, low-in-the-mix guitar), Mamadou manages to make music with such a sweet groove. Lacking in any unnecessary accoutrements, it only has what it needs to make you sway and to get its musical message across. It is refreshingly free of overproduction; in fact, this particular tape has very bad sound quality, but that only adds to the charm.

On this album, courtesy of the ever-wonderful Awesome Tapes From Africa, Mamadou goes through several different styles, although I have to admit I wouldn’t be able to name them. For the uninitiated – and I count myself very much among them – this music echoes much further into other musical geographies. The title track sounds remarkably like music of the Moroccan Gnawa people, bluesy wailing vocals and all. This makes sense: the Gnawa are descended from sub-Saharan West Africans, and their music often makes mention of the spirits of the Bamana and Fula people, and so it’s not too hard to connect the Gnawa and the Hausa as deriving from the same ancient ur-culture. A more random connection is that at several points across this tape, I found myself inexplicably drawing the comparison between Mamadou’s gurumi and the Kenyan nyatiti lyre. But that one’s too tenuous, I think that’s just my brain connecting similar sounds without reason. Still interesting though.

As with so many Awesome Tapes, this album presents just tiny fragments of information – a band name, a photograph, the track listing and the music itself. Helpful commenters and some Google-fu reveals some more little details like some basic cultural background, instrument names and a Spotify listing with two more albums on there (always welcome). But then the trail goes cold. As ever, I find myself wishing I had more information. There are so many questions, but they’re probably only answerable by Nigerien people on the ground. One day I’ll get there, and I’ll find out the full story behind this great music.