There’s a type of acacia wood in the Sahara that’s rare and hard to find, but highly prized by the nomadic Tuaregs, who have traditionally wandered the desert. For Iyad Moussa Ben Abderrahmane, aka Sadam, singer-songwriter with the Algerian ‘desert blues’ band Imarhan, it always evokes strong feelings. ‘Tellalt is the wood we use for campfires,’ he says. ‘It’s precious when we’re in the bush – it’s excellent for cooking and warming our nights. It also makes a pretty sound when it burns and it has a wonderful smell. Whenever I use it, it brings back childhood memories, but it also makes me think of our culture, our people and our struggles. I wonder: When this wood turns to ash, will our people’s suffering end? What might life be like if there was an Azawad state?’
That sense of melancholy runs through Imarhan’s new album, Essam (‘lightning’). On the song ‘Tellalt’, Sadam sings: ‘Our country will come back to its people. / And our flag will be raised.’ Sadam explains that he is singing about the Tuareg flag – for Azawad, the disputed region in northern Mali, stretching across the southern Sahara and Sahel, which has seen years of violence and conflict, with many Tuaregs forced to flee for safety. ‘We’ve been asking for our independence for a very long time now. Recently, I’ve seen a lot of suffering around me. A lot of people fled from Mali to come to Algeria. I’m singing about the flag of Azawad but also the flag of freedom in general, because this flag would mean freedom.’
