Oumou Sangare-أومو سنغـــاري

Oumou Sangare

Oumou Sangare-أومو سنغـــاري

The Wasulu people are ethnic Fulani who have adopted a Manding language close to Bambara, Bamanankan. Wasulu is a dialect of 

Bamanankan in Mali, but also spoken in Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire near their borders with Mali.Oumou Sangare, the Internationally know singer is originally from the Wasulu group of Mali.Oumou Sangaré is the leading female star of the Wasulu sound, which is based on an ancient tradition of hunting rituals mixed with songs about devotion, praise, and harvest played with pentatonic (five-note) melodies. In addition to the flute and violin her sound is accompanied by the sound of the scraping kèrègnè, women play the flé, a calabash strung with cowrie shells, which they spin and throw into the air in time to the music. Sangaré most often sings about love and the importance of freedom of choice in marriage.At the age of 21 Oumou recorded her first album, Moussoulou (Women), released in 1990. It caused a great stir because of the subjects in the lyrics which were not usually publicly expressed, most notably her big hit 'Diaraby Nene (The Shivers of Passion)', and also her chosen rhythm. Oumou's songs use the resonating jittery sound of the kamalengoni - the youth version of the hunter's harp. The radical mission of her songs is to highlight the issues that women in Mali face, especially polygamy.Further albums in the 1990s were Ko Sira and Worotan. You don't have to look very far to find one of Oumou's songs on African music compilations Empresses of Africa and Africanesque are just a couple. Several of Oumou's songs feature on the soundtrack of the powerful movie Beloved (1998).
Since the CD Worotan 5 years ago, Oumou has concentrated on producing music for the Malian market and a few other projects, including the building of a hotel in Bamako called Hotel Wasulu and touring countries in Africa.
In January 2003 Oumou participated in Festival in the Desert in the northern part of Mali, her presence was notable because of the recent civil war in the North. Her song Wayena is on the festival CD. Later the same year Oumou was at international summer festivals including WOMAD festival in Reading UK. She was in London for the Jazz Festival in November as part of a major international tour.

Oumou Sangare was a featured artist at the 2003 Smithsonian Institute Folklife Festival in Washington, DC USA. She has a new internationally released double CD as well in 2003, simply entitled Oumou; it includes notes on the songs provided by Oumou herself. The CD is a 20-track compilation of 12 songs from her existing CDs plus 8 tracks not previously on CD. DJs are already promoting 'Yala' as one of the best dance tracks on the album. A few of the songs give advice to young people, such as Djorolen and NGuatu. Oumou's performances on stage are truly spectacular as she and her dancers spin calabashes in the air.

Oumou Sangare-أومو سنغـــاري

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