Moussolou

In 1989 Oumou Sangare, a young singer from the Wassoulou region of southern Mali, went to the JBZ studio in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire to record her debut album. Except for electric guitar and bass, the line-up was traditional - kamalengoni or 5-string 'youth's harp', karinyang (iron scraper) and violin (substituting the local one-string fiddle). The music they recorded was exactly the kind of music performed by hunters to charm the wild animals and invoke the protecting spirits, but with updated lyrics reflecting the concerns of young women living in African cities today.