Niger band goes on first airplane trip to entertain Nyege Nyege fans
Before their melodious performance at this year’s MTN Nyege Nyege festival, not many Ugandans knew about Nigerien desert blues band Etran De L’Air.
According to Sahel Sounds, the record label responsible for the band’s debut album No 1, Etran De L’Air is a Tuareg outfit that performs at cultural and religious events in the city of Agadez, where the music scene is mostly dominated by weddings and political gigs. But with cutthroat competition in the wedding, baptism and political scene, such gigs go to bands with tribal or social status that Etran de L’Air, despite its long history (the band was formed in the early 1990s), does not have. In fact, Etran De L’Air is a 'substitute' band for when the big names are overbooked.
The band, which comprised Aghali Kinna, Moussa Ibra, Abdourahamane Ibrahim and Abdoulahi Ibrahim at Nyege Nyege, was performing outside Niger for the first time with the help of the Music In Africa Connects (MIAConnects) Regional Mobility Programme, which supported the festival in getting the Nigerien band to Uganda.
Nyege Nyege is an international festival that takes place in the heart of Uganda’s tourism hub, Jinja. Over the past three editions, the festival has pioneered an EDM culture alongside underground genres fusing African folklore with modern sounds. The 2018 edition of Nyge Nyege was the biggest yet. With a buy-in from big corporates, the festival was able to programme an elaborate line-up and add an extra day of entertainment.
Etran De L’Air's members say the journey from Niger to Kampala, Uganda, and later Jinja, was their first on an airplane. “Our music is like a fusion, but it is traditional Niger music with a modern touch to it,” the band told Music In Africa with the help of an interpreter. For Nyege Nyege, the band travelled light with two singing guitarists and a bass player as well as a drummer, although they also include percussionists whenever possible.
Draped in white Tuareg attire, headwraps and traditional jewellery, the group took to the stage. Singing in French in their native Tamasheq, Etran De L’Air's style incorporates various music influences from countries like Eritrea, Somalia, Chad and Mali, among others. The lead guitar patterns were something the Ugandans were familiar with, thanks to the notable population of Eritreans and Somalis in the country. The guitar lines were also played in a conversational manner, which kept the audience mesmerised and on its feet.
For the band, this meant everything. “By the time we came to Kampala, I had a fever, but when I saw people in the audience dancing I forgot about it,” one of the band members said.
Etran De L’Air was followed by R’Afrika, a Uganda-based Francophone hip hop group that engaged the audience with rap, poetry and dance routines influenced by the sounds of the DRC. Etran De L’Air was most impressed with R’Afrika due to the fact that the latter sang in Lingala and French. “We have seen a number of good Ugandan acts, some of which we could work with. But there is a big language problem here – no one understands us,” Etran De L’Air said.
Band member Kinna says Etran De L’Air wants to encourage fans to widen their horizons. “We wanted our performance to show people at Nyege Nyege the good in coming to festivals and seeing different acts from other places,” he said.
Nyege Nyege 2018 was almost cancelled when Uganda’s Minister for Ethics and Integrity, Simon Lokodo, claimed the festival promoted homosexuality. The festival was then allowed to go ahead. This came with a heavy deployment of security personnel at the festival grounds.
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