In Niger, the masters of traditional music and their instruments threatened with disappearance

From inside a hut plunged into darkness, a succession of low and high blows resonates which punctuate a call in the Hausa language: a Nigerian musician sends a traditional “telegram” struck on a drum.

"You see ? He heard his name!”, rejoices Oumarou Adamou, alias “Maïdouma”, one of the most famous traditional musicians of Niger and grand master of the douma, a percussion typical of Hausa heritage whose frequency he modulates by rotating his foot naked on the goatskin membrane. Few people now understand this coded language. Nigerien youth, in love with rap and electronic music, forget this knowledge.

During a demonstration, Mr. Adamou puts on his sky blue stage boubou and becomes “Maïdouma” again. His eyes light up as he begins to strike his favorite percussions. The “Good luck! Well done ! Long life ! God is big !" punctuate his logorrhea. Ambassador of Nigerien music on stages around the world, Mr. Adamou is now their guardian at the Musical Training and Promotion Center (CFPM), a government institution founded in 1989 in Niamey.

Very few curious people come to visit its “museum”, a round box in a corner of the CFPM where there is a collection of percussion, string and wind instruments, saved from the fire of the national museum in 2011. “Our "traditional musical instruments are threatened with disappearance, today's young people all want to play modern instruments, like the guitar and the drums," laments Mr. Adamou.

If the elite of traditional Nigerian music are still found daily between the ocher buildings of the CFPM, the masters of the douma, kalangou, gouroumi, molo, are becoming old and rare. Their instruments, as well as their rhythms and ancestral meanings, are threatened with disappearing with them.

“How many artists rehearse here? It’s over, they’re all gone,” regrets Yacouba Moumouni, alias “Denké Denké,” famous Fulani singer and master of the flute. The lack of funding thwarts all preservation projects in a country ranked among the poorest in the world where people under 25 make up 70% of the population. Diplomatic tensions between the military authorities in power and several Western partners since the July 26 coup do not bode well for the world of culture, which has long benefited from foreign funding.

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But the problem is deeper and the diagnosis made by the deans is unanimous: “impatient” young people prefer to compose on the computer rather than subject themselves to a long, poorly paid apprenticeship. Musical vocations are also thwarted by the rise of a rigorous Islam in this 99% Muslim country. But also by a caste system which reserved the practice of instruments for griots, today victims of a generally unflattering image. “We don’t consider griots like in Mali or Senegal. In Niger, when you are a griot, you are a bit vulgar in society,” explains Mr. Moumouni, whose son is currently the only apprentice.

Unlike its neighbors in Mali or Nigeria, traditional music from Niger has not been able to “open up to other world music” and modernize, believes Mahamane Sani, artist and teacher. Based on this observation, since 2018 he has been organizing workshops for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, where they learn to play and make traditional instruments. Inseparable activities, because in tradition, “he who plays instruments must be able to make them himself”, underlines this specialist in national music.

A few steps from the instrument museum, in a CFPM classroom, around ten students are learning how to use the gourimi, a stringed instrument of Hausa origin, under his guidance. Covered in a white veil, Aichata Adamou rubs her first strings with caution. “If I manage to sell even just one gouroumi, this workshop will be a benefit for us,” believes the young woman. Some of the students from previous editions have launched a musical career. Others found work in the musical instrument manufacturing and performing arts company, founded by Mahamane Sani.

Beyond finding a job for these young people, it is “about opening their eyes, for them to understand what they can earn, what it means to be a bearer of these ancestral values,” insists this last. A speech that resonates with young people who assert their identity. “We imitate people who are abroad, but we have our own instruments, why not work on them?” asks Oumarou Abourahamane, a young rapper who is participating in the workshop.

Enough to reinforce the unalterable optimism of Oumarou Adamou, who aims to train “young volunteers from all regions of Niger” in 2024 if finances allow it. “Good luck, good work, long life!” “Maïdouma” and its instruments have perhaps not finished chatting.