Oumou Sangare

Throughout her career, Malian diva Oumou Sangare has been a woman with a mission. Sangare, whose 1993 album Ko Sira (World Circuit/Nonesuch) was recently reissued, has been a loud voice for women's rights in Africa.

"She's assertive and speaks about important issues, specifically in Mali, but it also resonates in America." offered ethnomusicologist Jon Kertzer. Specifically, her lyrics are about "the place of women in Islamic society, and how men treat women."

Sangare, 32, has been singing in public since she was six, working through the ranks of the National Ensemble of Mali and Djoliba, a percussion troupe, before striking out on her own in 1989, when she released Moussolou (Women), which sold over 200,000 copies, and spawning her most popular song, "Diaraby Nene" ("Love Fever"). But, more importantly than any sales figures, the songs she wrote and sang spoke out against the widespread practice of polygamy.

"Now when a woman has talent and something to do, she can move forward."

"I suffered a lot being the child of a polygamous marriage," Sangare explained. "My mother suffered too, and we saw a lot that really isn't what people think of normal. That's why I've been drawn to defend all women in this situation."

On a song like "Dugu Kamelemba" ("The Womanizer"), she pulls no verbal punches against those who take more than one wife. "But," Sangare said, "things are improving now in Mali."

Although her reputation has come from her assertive material, alongong with the invective Sangare is also capable of penning a love song, such as the lilting "Nawo Nawo" ("I Will Go With You"), showing that passion and romance are very much a part of her personality. While these days she makes her home in Bamako, the country's capital, her roots and sound are from the Wssoulou region, further south, with its distinctive percussion, and the light, funky sound of the kamelengoni, or young man's harp, as on "Kayini Wura" ("Evening Greeting").

But throughout Mali, said Kertzer, "she's a star, the leading star of the Wassouluo genre, and the one who broke through first."

Sangare, currently touring the U.S. with countryman Habib Koité, recently finished recording a new album, which will appear early in 2001.

"There'll be some international artists involved, so the horizons have expanded, but it's still traditionally based," she noted. "Wassoulou is still my sound, and I'll be the only featured vocalist."

She also handled the production chores, which is unusual for a woman in Africa. But Sangare has had more than a decade of experience leading a band, although she admitted that "it's not easy for a women to direct a band of men, especially African men. I've encountered a lot of difficulty, but the love for my music has given me the strength to accomplish it. When I think of my mission, that helps me."

And her mission has made a difference. Other female Malian singers like Nahawa Doumbia and the young Rokia Traore have followed in her outspoken footsteps, speaking out for women in their country and across the continent. And while it was gratifying "to have other women follow my lead," Sangare said, it was more satisfying "to see women in Africa have growing confidence and self-esteem, and are no longer afraid of the power of African men. Now when a woman has talent and something to do, she can move forward."

Over the course of a decade and three albums Sangare has established herself as Mali's biggest female star on the international scene, the singing queen. It's a title that may believe does the songbird justice.

"It's the whole package about her that appeals," observed Kertzer, "her voice, her message, and presence. She has confidence and a regal bearing."

This article first appeared on sonicnet.com

Oumou Sangare

"Now when a woman has talent and something to do, she can move forward."

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