Music, song and poetry occupy an extremely large and fundamental place in Tuareg society. Their music is characterized by the importance given to the voices and by the reduced number of instruments. Tartit is unique in that it is bringing this music from the Tuaregs to an international audience.

Founded in 1995 in a refugee camp, Tartit was invited to perform at the Festival of Women’s Voices in Belgium that year. The group consists of five women and four men, singing and playing traditional instruments such as the tinde (drum), imzad (violin), and tehardant (lute). About three years ago they added a guitar to their instrumentation, to strengthen the sound of the ensemble.

Tartit’s repertoire consists of both traditional pieces (some more than a century old, respecting the forms of both words and music) and more recent compositions (created by improvising and taking inspiration from contemporary events to pay homage to men and women who serve their community). The music from the Tuaregs is very earthy, yet embodies a sense of ritual through spare yet haunting melodies and rhythms. The music emphasizes the voice (as soloist or chorus), with the occasional addition of instruments: the imzad (violin), teharden (lute) and tinde (drum). Certain pieces played by Tartit mingle the sound of the teharden and the tinde with the voice of the male or female soloist, with a singer’s commentaries, and with a female chorus. These are pieces which might be heard on festive occasions such as marriages, children’s ceremonies, various tributes, and also in honor of a woman just divorced. Touareg society is one of the few throughout Africa who allow women to choose their own husbands, and to chose to divorce them also if the marriage is not successful!

Members of Tartit are well-versed on their instruments, and in the musical traditions of their culture. The Touareg social structure has traditionally had a great influence on their music: only women of the noble or the vassal tribes were permitted to play the imzad, the small one stringed fiddle that is the symbol of Touareg society. But now any female musician can teach the instrument to any woman who so desires. The imzad is made from half a calabash or from a wooden bowl that is covered in goatskin and to which is also attached a neck that supports one string of horsehair. The imzad players were greatly renowned and could play many melodies, those evoking past events or the high deeds of a hero whose name they bore by the richness of their variations; they could also accompany a man’s singing and, on occasion, also displayed therapeutic powers by curing melancholy and apathy. Good players of the imzad are today becoming ever rarer and its repertoire is inexorably becoming smaller.

The other instrument that is played exclusively by the women is the tinde, made from a small wooden mortar that the women use to grind grains, and which is covered with a goatskin. Until recently only women from the servant tribes were allowed to play the tinde; now, any woman may play it. The percussive sounds of the tinde and the soloist’s song are generally accompanied by a female chorus and by hand-clapping on the off-beat. The imzad and the tinde are both instruments that are made from every day, untilitarian objects: a gourd and a mortar respectively, and they can once again be used for their normal functions after they have been used as musical instruments. Both Fadimata Walet Oumar (commonly called “disco” among her family and friends, due to her love of music) and W. Mohamedoun Fadimata have been playing the tinde since they were quite young. Fadimata learned it from a servant woman, who would put Fadimata on her knee and tap out the rhythms.

The Kel Antessar (confederation of Tuaregs to which several members of Tartit belong) were among the first Tuaregs to use the teharden, the three stringed lute that resemble instruments used by other Africans. The teharden consists of a canoe-shaped wooden resonance chamber covered with a goatskin. A neck supports three strings that were once horsehair but are now synthetic. The teharden is only allowed to be played by men. Issa Amanou is one member of the group who was first trained on the teharden by his uncle Khama ag Akouka, one of the greatest experts on the instrument. Issa sees himself both as musician and raconteur. His words are cast in the present tense, yet evoke a glorious past recalling heroes in order to encourage the listener’s honor and bravery.

The role of music in Tuareg society is, like much of Africa, not separated into “performance” as is often the case in the western world. One very much appreciates that integration when witnessing Tartit make music. Their performance is an invitation to observe Touareg culture as expressed through their music. Whether they are singing the praises of a hero, or celebrating the birth of a child, this group is sure to draw in audiences to a living cultural tradition that has existed for thousands of years. It is a rare opportunity to experience the trance-like desert blues of Tartit, whose music "comes sweeping in with the sand and engulfs the listener with all the brilliance of the desert sky at night..."