African women live through too much hell and suffering/ We should look again at our ancestral beliefs and assess them/ Keep what is good for us, and reject all that harms us — from Fatoumata Diawara aka Fatou’s song Boloko , a cry against female circumcision prevalent in her home country, Mali.

The 32-year-old singer Fatou has experienced “many lives” in her lifetime. Beginning as a dancer in her father’s troupe specialising in the Didadi dance form from the west African region of Wassalou; an actress in popular Malian films, she had run away from home to perform with the French theatre company Royale de Luxe; an accompanying vocalist for African greats like Oumou Sangare and Cheikh Tidiane Seck, she gave up acting to pursue her musical dreams, releasing her album Fatou in 2011 and the EP Kanou earlier this year.

In the last few years, she’s toured with some of the biggest names in the music business, including Herbie Hancock, Damon Albarn and Paul McCartney. Fatou was recently in Delhi to perform at the Blackberry Sharp Nights — Masters of World Music. On the sidelines of the gig, she explains what it means to be a Malian musician and the driving force behind her exuberant performances.

Do you agree with Andy Morgan, former manager of the Malian band Tinariwen, who said: “Like Jamaica or Ireland, Mali’s music and culture are its primary assets, its shop-window to the world, its ‘gold and cotton’”?

If the music is opening doors, then for sure, I agree. People know Ali Farka Toure, Tinariwen, Oumou Sangare, Salif Keita and Toumani Diabate; so you know, we have very famous artists. It’s the only country in Africa like this.

And you can get 10 artists from Mali together and it’s for sure that each of them will give you a different type of music. I’m like Oumou Sangare. I’m from Wassalou in the south of Mali. Also, each region has its own culture, that’s why the types of music in Mali are so very different.

What differentiates Wassalou from the other regions in Mali?

Wassalou is different because our sound is one that people can dance to, more funky, like in India (laughs). And we have a relatively more liberal view, and women sing more as well, and men mostly play the instruments.

What is the setup in your band?

We are four people. One bass guitarist, I play the electric guitar and we have another lead guitarist apart from the drummer. Very simple really, and it’s my first project without traditional instruments. I use my voice like an instrument, not exactly a cappella. It’s a certain kind of singing, a Wassalou sound. We experiment with different kinds of melody, like jazz or rock, but the base is always Wassalou.

How have all your life experiences affected your music?

I have taken some tough decisions and they have all been very hard for me. But these decisions helped me become who I am today… because of this I don’t care so much, one day I said ‘no’ to all my family.

In Mali it’s like India, everything is family; it’s not like in Europe. For us to say ‘no’ to our family was a big thing, like saying ‘no’ to yourself. Sometimes you can be destroyed for all of your life, but it can go well also if you have the will and keep a strong mind. Because when I ran away, came to France, it was like being reborn. I wasn’t in touch with my family for six whole years. I cut off my hair, making this new Rasta hair, to say I’m free. This was my passport, my identity. And through my music also, I’m trying to say that our parents’ generation is not our generation. It’s time for them to let us change, we want something different, that can be possible. Today, by my lyrics I cannot say my parents cannot tell me nothing; but I do what I want to do, it’s because I fight for it. That’s why today, I don’t want to just sing about love every day; each song in my album has something more.

What language do you sing in?

Bambara.

Where is home?

Home is in the air, in the plane (laughs). But, seriously, I can say home for me is on the stage. Even when I go back home to Mali nowadays, I have a different mentality, I look at people and think things, and it’s because of what I have lived every day, every second of my life is power and it’s very strong. For me I have a nation and that nation is to be loved. But travelling as a musician is something else, every town is different, every audience… it’s the same but also different. It’s like they are your kids, like your family, you have to learn how to know them and fill them with joy. Life makes sense when I’m on stage.

What are your plans for the future?

My immediate plan is to make my second album. I’m writing about the same subjects but using different melodies. For me it’s simple. The day when they stop arranged marriage, I’ll stop singing about it. The day when they are going to stop female genital mutilation, I’ll stop singing about that. But if they continue, I’ll try to find different types of music, to keep talking about it. And as for my album’s name, I don’t know yet, maybe it’ll be called ‘Love’.

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