Listen with your heart in your ears...

CD Review: Introducing Mamane Barka


How can two words – African Blues – adequately describe the music of Malam Mamane Barka? They can’t. This is music you need to listen to with your heart in your ears.

As a singer-songwriter, Mamane Barka is popular with many modern Nigerians because he blends traditional music with songs about issues of contemporary life.

On ‘Introduction to Mamane Barka’, stories are sung in the languages of the Niger (Hausa, Toubou, Kanuri and traditional Boudouma), and through the biram – a five-stringed boat-shaped harp with sonic similarities to the Ethiopian krar and Egyptian simsimiyya.

The Boudouma fishermen of Lake Tchad (Chad) consider the biram a sacred instrument imbued with spirits. Barka travelled to Tchad in 2002, to study the rare instrument and learn traditional Boudouma mystical stories under biram master Boukar Tar. The master gave Barka the last known biram and asked him to promote the instrument to the rest of the world.

The biram had not been played outside the Niger Republic until Barka took these mystical stories of spirits, animals and bravery, from Lake Tchad to China, Japan, Pakistan, France, Germany, Spain, and Holland.

From the opening track, Mashi, the biram resonates like the pulse of activity around the lake.

A natural soulmate of the biram is the douma – the spiritual drum – played by Mamane’s life-long friend, Oumarou Adamou.

Adamou’s traditional Nigerian percussion weaves through this rich tapestry with the unifying strength of a silk thread.

I love the energy of Banan, a song about the everyday challenges of confrontation with bad spirits. Although mostly Muslim, many Boudouma still practise pre-Islamic cults that include witchcraft.

On Kiota (gift):

There are simple gifts
For nothing and there are gifts like a bean
When planted they need to grow
Some people only make gifts because they want something from you.


Doro Lelewa could be an ode to modern life:

Oh, you can live well in the little village of Doro Lelewa.
There where the master of the Biram lives.
A little village right next to the lake.
Birds' singing all life long and creating harmony
Fishes, cows, horses and goats
Far from noises of the cities, far from noises of motors and cars.

Song lyrics aren’t included with the cd but can be found here: http://www.mamanebarka.com/CDIntroducing.html or visit www.diaspora.com.au for more info.

Does the past meet the present, or the present meet the past? Take a journey to Mamane Barka’s world to find out.

- Kerry Awia Markey (August 13, 2009)