Oumou Sangaré welcomes us into his resplendent dressing room, a few hours before going on stage, on April 21, 2024, in Montreal. She arrives from Toronto, and then leaves for New York then New Orleans, to present to the public Timbuktuher latest album which she describes as special because it was written in the middle of a pandemic.
The suffering suffered by women inspires me a lot… And it started at a very young age for me, when I saw my mother suffering, I sang to relieve her. Oumou Sangaré
An album which, like the previous ones, tells us about African women and their living conditions. Because women are Oumou Sangaré’s main Source of inspiration: “The suffering suffered by women inspires me a lot, when I see that a woman suffers a lot, it touches me. And it started with me very young, when I saw my mother suffering a lot, I sang to relieve her…”
From little singer to international career
Oumou Sangaré, who has just celebrated her 56th birthday, was born in Wassoulou, a region in southern Mali. Unlike many Malian artists, she is not a morello cherry, but her grandmother sang and her mother too, she was very well known in Mali. Oumou’s mother was abandoned by her husband, so she takes her daughter with her to weddings and baptisms where she sings, that’s how Oumou started singing, in these traditional ceremonies.
In 1989, Oumou went to Senegal to record his first album, Mosulou, which sets him on the path to an international career that will take him to all continents during several world tours. A career also crowned with prestigious prizes such as the UNESCO/International Music Council Music Prize, received in 2001 for his contribution to “the enrichment and development of music, as well as to the cause of peace, understanding between peoples and international cooperation.
In the name of women
She tells us that one day, she sang a song in a ceremony that spoke of her mother, of everything she had experienced and “when I sang about my mother’s suffering, around me, I saw all the women in the ceremony crying. There, I understood that I had touched a sensitive point for all these women who suffer in silence . I spoke for my mother, but it was as if I spoke for all the women around me in this ceremony, it gave me something to think about, I said to myself. : ‘Oumou, there is something there, women suffer a lot’… I had just found my fight.”
I speak for women who do not have the opportunity to speak. If this is what it means to be a feminist, then yes, I am a feminist. Oumou Sangaré
Does she consider herself a feminist? “I speak for women who do not have the opportunity to speak. If this is what being a feminist is, then yes, I am a feminist, replies Oumou Sangaré. But the aggressive side, I don’t agree. This is why I sing gently, with music, to tell the truth, but gently. I think that man and woman, on earth, are called to complement each other. We are not here to wage war, but to complement each other. You are a man, you are nothing without a woman. You are a woman, you are nothing without a man. If we complete each other, life will be pleasant.”
The Malian artist denounces early marriage, forced marriages and polygamy in her songs, but always gently: “I want to bring joy to everyone’s hearts by singing and speaking the truth in gentleness.” She says she is optimistic that the conditions of African women will evolve positively over the coming years, because she notes that the mentality of men from new generations is changing, but she knows that there is still much progress to be made.
Artist and businesswoman…
Oumou Sangaré also wants to be an example for the women of her country and for all African women: in parallel with her international career, she is a businesswoman who notably opened a hotel in Bamako in 2002 and who launched, in 2006 , the marketing of a 4X4 vehicle that it had built from cars imported from China and engines from Japan, cars that it named Oum Sang.
“It’s important for me, my life as an entrepreneur, she specifies, because I have spent my life encouraging women, telling them: yes, you can be autonomous, to be free in life, you must be autonomous and not depend on anyone. So let’s work for our freedom. I sang it for years. After my world tours, I saw artists starting businesses, so I figured I’d do the same thing. I try to do my best to show women that it’s possible.”.
“Apolitical”
Oumou Sangaré does not want to comment on the difficult political situation his country has been experiencing for years: “I am apolitical, specifies the artist, I love my country, I love the people of my country and everything I can do for the people of my country, I will do it with my heart”.
In 2012, she decided despite everything to join the group of African artists participating in the song for peace Mali Ko.
The festival that she has set up in her native region of Wassoulou since 2016 and which brings together hundreds of thousands of people each year, particularly from neighboring African countries, has not been canceled because of this political turbulence. “We didn’t want to give in to fear, we didn’t want to be terrorized,” declares the singer, who says she is very proud of her festival where big names in African music but also young talents come to play.
It’s nice to know that your work goes beyond borders, that you are followed by the new generation. I have a feeling of pride, but it also carries heavy responsibilities. Oumou Sangaré
Because if there is something that is also close to the heart of Oumou Sangaré, it is helping young artists to break through: she played a key role in the career of the one who was her backing vocalist, Fatoumata Diawara , just like for the French artist of Malian origin Aya Nakamura, who also dedicated a song to her. Alicia Keys and Beyoncé are also among his fans. “It’s nice to know that your work crosses borders, to know that you are followed by the new generation, I have a feeling of pride but it also carries heavy responsibilities”underlines the singer.
And Oumou Sangaré concludes with a final message, sent to women around the world: “I will never stop telling women to believe in themselves, to have confidence in themselves, to never minimize themselves. We are capable of anything, everything a man can do, a woman can do” .
Djely Tapa, the tribute of an heiress
The evening of Oumou Sangaré’s show, a Montreal artist of Malian origin took the stage with her: Djely Tapa. She considers Oumou Sangaré as a mother, because she has always known her since her mother is a great friend of the singer: “She loves us like her own children, I am like her daughter.”
She is also involved in helping women in different cultures, so she gives women the chance to be autonomous, to be able to get by on their own. Djely Tapa, Quebec-Malian singer
“When I want to talk about Oumou, I want to talk about her in four facets: as a woman artist, as a woman entrepreneur, as a committed artist and as a mother. Firstly as an artist, she She is a woman who has made her way, who has pioneered many things for the new generation; she is very committed to musical youth, to world music, and to artists from Mali; his duets with young artists, his songs also committed to peace”, confides Djely Tapa.
The young artist considers her an example for her, “In terms of entrepreneurship, she is in real estate, she is also involved in helping women in different cultures, so she gives women this chance to be autonomous, to be able to get by on their own- In this way, she is a formidable businesswoman who any young artist or any woman like me would like to be like.
Djely Tapa salutes feminism as practiced by Oumou Sangaré: “She doesn’t just make songs dedicated to African women, the acts follow, everything she does is linked to her commitment to women. More feminist than her, for me, that doesn’t exist. For the young singerwe can defend women’s rights, we can engage in the women’s fight without distorting our culture and that is what I try to do by taking Oumou as an example, she takes the good values of our society to promote them and integrate them into its fight for women’s rights“.
“Oumou is in my top ten of the greatest female voices, older people listen to her music, we can’t put her in a box or put a label on herconcludes Djely Tapa, c“Is a woman who always reaches out to others, she shares her success with others, when she can lend a helping hand to someone, she does.”
(Re)read also in Terriennes
In Montreal, Djely Tapa, the voice of the griots of Mali
Musician and migrant: bouncing back in her adopted country
Fatoumata Diawara: the Malian artist who carries the voice of women
Literature: Malian women, “everyday heroines”
Music: time for recognition for Malian rapper Ami Yerewolo
