Colonial borders cut Tuareg ancestral territory into Mali, Algeria, Libya and Niger. On Tinariwen’s “Imidiwan Takyadam”, that history is present tense: people scattered and culture under strain. The song is taken from Hoggar, their tenth album, out 13 March via Wedge, and pairs the band with Swedish singer songwriter José González in an acoustic song centred on displacement and migrant life.

Tinariwen formed in the late 1970s in the desert borderlands between Mali and Algeria. Founding member Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, whose father was a Tuareg rebel executed by the Malian state, built his first guitar from a tin can, a stick and bicycle brake wire. Since then, the Grammy-winning group have released nine albums and become widely known for tying electric and acoustic guitars to Tuareg vocal patterns and West African rhythms, a style often tagged as desert blues.

Ag Alhabib wrote “Imidiwan Takyadam” years ago and describes it as “a call to memory and to conscience, a reminder not to forget our brothers and sisters who endure suffering under the tyranny of short-sighted and foolish leaders.” The lyric points directly to Tamasheq communities pushed across borders and living under governments that restrict their culture and movement.

On Hoggar, named after the mountain range in southern Algeria considered ancestral homeland by many Tuareg people, Ibrahim, Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni and Touhami Ag Alhassane spent a month recording with younger Tuareg musicians. The album includes “Sagherat Assani”, a Sudanese song featuring vocalist Sulafa Elyas, and marks the first time in over thirty years that Ibrahim and Abdallah share lead vocals on a track. A European and UK tour runs through April and May, while current United States travel rules still block North American dates.

Listen and stream the single through THIS LINK