The Famous World Desert Festival in Exile
Festival in the Desert happened near Timbuktu in January 2000, drawing on talent from major traditional Touareg music festivals like the Kidal festival, (Ta-koubelt), and the Timbuktu festival, (Tamakannit). The Festival in the Desert brought musicians from many Touareg clans together and for four days they played traditional songs and performed dances. There was also camel and horse-racing. The festival eventually opened to other cultures, including artists from around Mali, but also from Africa, Europe and the United States.
This festival was organized by several Touareg associations, including Efes and Aitma. They also worked under the sponsorship of other national and international partners. The last edition of the Festival in the Desert was held in January 2012, again in Timbuktu despite the danger of civil war and the warnings of Western governments that their citizens stay away from the city. Still, Bono, lead singer of the rock group U2, and dozens of European musicians and fans attended the festival anyway.
Since 2012, civil war in the north of Mali has made it impossible for the Festival in the Desert to go on. But Malian musicians, artists and peace activists have found a way to preserve the festival’s spirit. They call themselves the Caravan of Artists for Peace and National Unity and they organized events in Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, and most recently in Bamako, Mali’s capital. A “festival in exile” was also organized in several European countries. All these music events contributed to the process of national reconciliation and reconciliation of peoples.
The 2017 edition of the Festival in the Desert, supported by the Caravan, ran from the 1st February 2017 to the the 12th February 201 in Segou, Sikasso and Bamako, with the exclusive sponsorship of the Malian Ministry of Culture, Crafts and Tourism and the Ministry of National Reconciliation, the Timbuktu Renaissance Initiative, Instruments for Africa and PMU Mali.
One of the co-founders of the original Festival in the Desert was Mr: Manny El Ansary,
who is descended from a Touareg marabout family. His efforts to use music and art to promote peace and reconciliation have made him a true ambassador of peace in this country. In 2012, al Qaeda militants and Toureg separatists took over northern Mali and occupied Timbuktu. The Islamist militants soon fell out with their Touareg allies.
The leaders of the Touareg insurrection exiled themselves outside Mali, leaving the north of the country to a group of Islamist rebel groups. Those groups banned music and artistic expression in Timbuktu and across the north.
These last 5 years, despite the exile of the Festival in the Desert from Timbuktu and the lack of security in the north, Ansary organized the Cultural Caravan for Peace. The Caravan is a collaboration of festivals that are all products of the culture that have developed over centuries in the great bend of the Niger River. After 5 long years of exile, the 2017 edition of the desert festival, was marked by its attempt to return to the Timbuktu fabled desert region. unfortunately, due to the politico / security crisis and the civil and religious leaders of Timbuktu did not want to not hold a festival in Timbuktu .
Every year the festival on the bank of the Niger river in Segou reserves on their program a special night for the desert festival in exile called “the night of the cultural caravan for peace.” It’s important to highlight the collaboration of the desert festival and the festival of Taragalt of Morocco and its artists which participate every year to the Cultural Caravan for Peace. This year, among the Moroccan bands invited was the young band of Daraa Tribes.
Every year participants of the desert festival from all over the world attend the Segou Festival on the Bank of the Niger to live the desert blues and live the melody of the sounds of Touareg traditional musical instruments.
After the Cultural Caravan for Peace performance in the Bambara kingdom of Segou, the artists for peace, bloggers for peace, and cultural activists continue to the southern region of Sikasso where the desert festival in exile was invited to participate in the Triangle of Balafon.
In the framework of the Cultural Caravan for Peace, the desert festival in partnership with the national commission for demobilization, disarmament and reinsertion and the commission for justice, truth and reconciliation had organized a conference on the 11th of February 2017,
at the the Grand Hotel Azalai of Bamako. During that conference the representatives of refugees were also invited to take part and explain their concerns. Since the peace treaty accord, which included the cease of fire in Mali and the opening of the United Nation mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the pillar of DDR (Demobilization, Disarmament, and Reinsertion), which works hand by hand with the Malian government.
According to Zahabi Ould Sidi Mohamed, Head of Malian National DDR program: “The Government of Mali has the primary responsibility for ensuring that disarmament is effective and total throughout the national territory. Thus, all illegal weapons holders in the Kidal, Taoudeni, Ménaka, Gao, Timbuktu and Mopti regions are directly and indirectly affected by this program. “
For the framework of the process of peace and national reconciliation, the government of Mali and its partners work on national reconciliation, meeting with different communities living in the northern region of Mali to restore peace, live together, and accept of each other among ethnic groups.
According to the representative of the committee of the national listening conference, Mr: Nouhoum Sankare : “The head of state wants all national components, in all their dimensions, to be involved in the process of organizing the national conference of understanding. Finally, he adds, the conference is a boon to make the dream of reconciliation a reality."
The last commission that explain their mission was the commission of justice, truth and national reconciliation-- one of the most important commission in terms of conflict resolution in Mali. This is because it is only this commission which can bring local grassroots communities to restore national justice between people and make and bring the soul of innocent local populations to peace.
The President of this Commission, Mr. Ousmane Oumourou Sidibe says:
"One of the commission's main challenges is therefore to restore confidence between the state and the citizens. To do this, we must identify the victims of the serious human rights violations during the repeated conflicts that Mali has experienced, recognize them and integrate their narrative in our common memory, for future generations.” He explains.
The 2017 edition of the Cultural Caravan for Peace closes it activities with two great concerts, one at the French institute and a second one on the banks of the Niger River in the urban city of Bamako, capital of Mali. For the Cultural Caravan for Peace organizers, national and international partners the cultural heritage of Mali must be at the heart of the resolution of this conflict. It all is used as a catalyst for lasting peace and brings hope to Malians as well as serves as example to resolve conflict across the globe.
Editor: John H. Sime
