Funeral for Justice

In Niger, uranium constitutes almost the entire export product, but the former metropolis - France - receives the majority of the profits from it. And although France abandoned all military bases in Niger after the 2023 military coup, many of its mines continue to operate to this day, causing radon leakage into the water supply systems of nearby cities.

The title track Funeral for Justice from the new album by the African group Mdou Moctar begins with the words of the band's leader Mahamadou Souleymane, criticizing the situation in the country:

Occupiers divide your lands
Gallantly march over your resources.

For Mahamadou Souleymane, music is inseparably linked to political self-expression. "Assouf" or "desert blues," performed by Mdou Moctar, was born on the battlefield of civil war and has always been the voice of Tuareg resistance. Souleymane's sentiments were clear on his 2021 album Afrique Victime:

Africa has become the victim of many crimes.
If we remain silent, our end will come.

However, his message could be missed. Souleymane's guitar technique brought him worldwide fame, but it distracted from the political dialogue that the musician wanted to engage in with the listener. Everything on Funeral for Justice points to protest - from the blood dripping from the wings of a crow on the album cover to the screeching guitars that open the title track. In an interview with The New York Times, Souleymane said that he tried to depict the cry of a person begging for help with the sound of his guitar. Funeral for Justice is the sound of rebellion, translated from the Tamashek language into the language of music, not subject to misinterpretation.

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