'If you take music away, Mali is dead'
They Will Have To Kill Us First
Image by They Will Have To Kill Us First
Banning “Satan’s music” in Mali was like stopping the flow of blood to and from the heart.
The clampdown on joy imposed by dissatisfied Tuaregs and militant Islamists when they took over northern Mali in 2012 was enforced by murderous threats, so it was effective. Temporarily.
Many musicians fled, but they did not stay silent.
“If you take music away, Mali is dead,” say Songhoy Blues, four budding musicians from different corners of Mali who met in exile in Bamako and created songs of resistance. “We decided to create something to get us out of our pain. It’s our way of resisting, our instruments.”
They are among the stars of a delightful and moving documentary, They Will Have To Kill Us First: Malian music in exile. The music ban turned out to be their making, because as the film shows, their enforced relocation brought them to the attention of a group of British musicians, including Brian Eno and Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), and on to international stardom, culminating in a performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
The film also features singer and activist Disco, who is married to ‘Jimmy’, a leader within the MNLA – the group of Touareg separatists whose cause was hijacked by Islamic militants. In a refugee camp in Burkina Faso, Disco organises gigs and offers support for musicians in exile. If Disco goes back to Mali, everyone else will follow.
The third focus of the documentary is the “nightingale of the north”, Khaira Arby, who is frightened but brave: “If we can’t have music, it’s the end of us. The only thing I have is my voice and my capacity to raise awareness.” Her return to perform in the north – to the evident astonished admiration of the politician whose permission she seeks – brings an uplifting finale to the film.
Gorgeous music and interesting musicians struggling in the midst of heartbreaking and frightening political turbulence: director Johanna Schwartz did well to see the significance of the situation immediately and act on it.
The commitment of the performers illuminates this film, but so does their quiet common sense and wisdom. They offer a scathing critique of the jihadists for professing to be against everything modern but using non-traditional weapons, vehicles and GPS satellites. Of her husband’s political manoeuvrings, Disco says, “You can say you’re fighting for a cause but in the end it’s other people who spoil that cause, so I prefer peace.”
No wonder the stultifying, death-cult jihadists are afraid of such life-enhancing people.
• 'They Will Have To Kill Us First: Malian music in exile' is showing at Film Africa. Info: http://www.filmafrica.org.uk/
+ Johanna Schwartz on her film about the bravery of Malian musicians
+ Moving portrait of the father of African film
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