The

Western Sahara Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the ...

has an established music tradition. Many of the well-known from the country musicians have settled in

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from :wo:daqaar, daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar ...

, where they mingled further with musicians from West Africa. Sahrawi music shares much in common with neighbouring musical traditions such as those of Mauritania and southern

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

, yet retain aspects of pre-colonial heritage. The Tbal is the basic instrument of

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

, though the traditional string instrument called Tidinit, has largely been replaced by

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

. The first Sahrawi music LP, titled ''Polisario vencerá'', was recorded live in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, in 1982 by the band Shahid El Uali. Some performers are

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...

speople who have lived a

nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...

ic existence, which is true of

Mariem Hassan Mariem Hassan ( ar, مريم حسان‎; May 1958 – 22 August 2015) was a Sahrawi singer and lyricist from Western Sahara. She usually sang in Hassaniyya, an Arabic dialect spoken mostly in Western Sahara and Mauritania, and occasionally ...

. From 1998, Nubenegra (Spanish music label) marketed several Sahrawi music CDs in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, with a first release of a three-disc box set from 1998 titled '' Sahrauis: The Music of the Western Sahara'' (catalogue number INT 32552). Featured artists in the compilation were singer

, Leyoad, guitarist Nayim Alal and singer Aziza Brahim. Meanwhile, American label Rounder Records released their own compilation '' Starry Nights in Western Sahara'' in 2000. In 2002 Mariem Hassan and Leyoad released a collaboration album, '' Mariem Hassan con Leyoad''. Then, in 2005 Nubenegra edited Mariem Hassan first solo album, titled '' Deseos'' (''Wishes''). In 2009, the album '' Shouka'' (''Thorn'') was published. Her last work, ''El Aaiun egdat'' (''El Aaiun on fire'') was released in 2012. In 2003 Nubenegra edited the album '' Nar'' (''Fire'') from guitarist and singer Nayim Alal. On November 8, 2007 Tiris released the album '' Sandtracks'' on British label Sandblast Records. In 2007, the American label Sublime Frequencies edited the album '' Guitar Music from Western Sahara'', from the Dakhla-based band Group Doueh. In June 2009, Group Doueh released the album '' Treeg Salaam'' (''Streets of Peace''). In 2008, Aziza Brahim released with the French label

Reaktion Reaktion Books is an independent book publisher based in Islington, London, England. It was founded in 1985 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and moved to London in 1987. Reaktion originally focused on the fields of art, architecture, and design. In rece ...

her first EP, titled '' Mi Canto'' (''My Singing''). Her LP ''Mabruk'' with her band Gulili Mankoo is scheduled for June 2012.

References

External links

Sample and download ''Sáhara, Tierra Mía''Sample and download ''Mariem Hassan con Leyoad'''' Info, Audio & video samples''Mariem Hassan ''INTERVIEW''Starry Nights in Western Sahara Listen to starry-celebration ''sample''
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070928122353/http://www.nubenegra.com/catalogo/index_ampli.php3?id=107%2F ''Advance of the new CD of Mariem Hassan'' {{Hispanophone music

See also

References

External links