"We are modern slaves": Mdou Moctar, the Hendrix of the Sahara | The music

How do you even dream of making music when your family and your religious leaders disapprove when you live on the edge of the Sahara Desert and you can not afford an instrument?

This helps that the Tuareg musician Mdou Moctar, of Niger, is not easily discouraged. Unable to acquire a guitar, he made a wooden one with brake wires from an old ropes bike and learned to play in secret. "I was part of a religious family and the music was not welcome, but I listened to the local musicians and dreamed of being like them," said his 32-year-old singer-songwriter on the phone. a tour in the United States.

"My parents could not afford to buy an instrument and would not have done it. Becoming a musician would mean to me that I am a delinquent, a terrible man who drinks beer and drugs. I never told them that I wanted to play the guitar, I did not dare. So I made one.

The next challenge was reaching an audience. Moctar, born in the village of Abalak, in the desert of Azawagh, in northern Niger, began playing at weddings by singing in Tamasheq, the Tuareg language. His first album Anar – composed for a lost love – is recorded in Nigeria in 2008: it presents the sound of simple and crude guitar and the mesmerizing lyrics of Moctar, a style known locally as "badouf", a word that does not translate easily, but that evokes the desert. the Blues. Anar was not officially released; instead, it has spread all over the continent via Bluetooth exchanges between mobile phone data cards.

In 2011, one of the songs of the album, Tahoultine, was featured in Saharan Cellphones Music. It was compiled by Christopher Kirkley, the creator of the label Sahel Sounds, who gave himself a personal mission to find the nomad Moctar.

"I was going to hear about this foreign man who was asking me, but I did not know why," says Moctar. "In 2011, he came to see me. He knew I was playing left-handed and one of the first things he asked me was if I had a left-handed electric guitar. When I told him no, he sent me one.

Kirkley also made Moctar the star of a tribute to Prince's rock opera, Purple Rain. As there is no purple word in Tamasheq, the film, released in 2015, is called Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai: Rain blue color with some red in it. It tells the story of a musician from Agadez who fights with rivals and a conservative father to make music, while driving in the desert on a purple motorcycle.

Kirkley had to make some changes to Prince's risky love story for local actors from the Muslim tradition. "We obviously could not kiss on the screen. We even had problems with a hug. I thought, "Well, maybe we could just finish the movie with you both in your arms?" And they said no, "said Kirkley in 2015. Thus, Purple Rain's father, alcoholic and unfaithful, became a strict and pious Muslim, banned music in his household and burned his son's guitar to save him. 39 boy's soul by telling him: "Only drug addicts and alcoholics play the guitar." Moctar is delighted to make the film: "It was magical. Just magic. A dream."

Today, Moctar, who claims that his traditional music has been influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Van Halen and Prince, has a new album, Ilana, which means The Creator. The electric guitar has refined the sound to become more soulful and sophisticated; Western complex influences are noticeable in complex riffs and increased use of bbad, without drowning the dominant mainstream feel. A large part of the album was spontaneously created in studio and the lyrics cover everything from love songs to attacks on French industry in Niger. He strongly criticizes the influence of France on its former colony, which became independent in 1960.

"For 48 years, France has been exploiting uranium in our country, yet we still have no roads, no medicines, and in many places there is no water or electricity. "he says. "France says we are independent now but we do not have independence, we are modern slaves. They say it's an African problem, but we're tired of what France is doing to us; it's as if we were still in the 15th century. "

Moctar insists that he is doing his part to help his country with the construction plans of a school and dispensary in his local village; Religious leaders were skeptical about his music, but he convinced them with his words of respect, honor, and tradition. "I'm religious, but being a Muslim does not stop me from being an artist. The music is not criminal. My music satisfies people and through it, I help people, which counts for something. I am just an ambbadador, a messenger of music, telling what's going on in my world. "

Even his mother no longer despairs of his career choice. "She now says that I am someone good. I do not take drugs, I do not drink and I do not vex people. She is happy with me and I am happy.

• Ilana (The Creator) Released March 29 on Sahel Sounds