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Thursday 25 February 2010

The Mama Of Didadi

Nahawa Doumbia is a female singer from Mali. I had never heard of her until recently when I got hold of a CD called "Reggae Times in Africa" which featured one of her tracks, "Banani" - which I posted last month. This whetted my appetite, and I managed to track down a few of her albums on eMusic.

Her musical style is apparently primarily built around Didadi, a rhythm from the Wassoulou region in Mali. According to the write up about her on the Harmony Ridge Music website, her family tried unsuccessfully to prevent her performing on stage by "resorting to the magical powers of blacksmiths". Clearly the magical blacksmiths of Mali are a waning force - either that or they know a good thing when they hear it and so didn't try very hard to stop her.

Here are a couple of tracks from her 1990 album "Nyama Toutou":

"Sinzin" - Nahawa Doumbia

"Sigi Sele" - Nahawa Doumbia

And here she is with an "unplugged" version of "Banani", which is where I came in:

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