The unique and compelling sounds of guitarist Omara ‘Bombino’ Moctar draw from his roots in the Sahara with influences from around the globe.
Raised during times of rebellion in his home of Agadez, Niger in West Africa, the guitar of the nomadic Tuaregs was then prohibited. However, in 2010, after living for years in exile, Bombino was able to return to his city in the Sahara where his fame as a guitarist has mushroomed.
“The Tuareg music existed a long time before the revolution and the most recent conflict in 1990, so for me it’s a simple music that draws from the culture, from the animals, from the desert,” he said via a French interpreter Saturday at the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival following a performance on the Blues stage.
“Music has no boundaries,” he said of the collaborative workshop he had just participated in. “It was very interesting to exchange with other musicians.”
Because his talent as a guitarist was evident as a young child, people started calling him Bombino in keeping with the similar Italian word meaning ‘little child.’ People soon started to recognize him by that name, and it stuck.
Growing up in a city in the Sahara Desert, he was comfortable in the mid-30 temperatures of the festival. “It’s an average temperature,” he said, as perspiration dripped off his interviewer’s brow. “It gets really hot there.”
He explains that at home, when it rains, people are happy and have a party.
Most important for Bombino and his music, he said, is to let people know about his home, Agadez, the title of his latest CD. The cover includes a photo of the city.
“The town where I’m from, Agadez, means ‘visiting.’ It’s always a place where people are welcome.”
Many tourists used to come visit, he says, but no more – and he’d like them to return.