By now, you may have heard of Bombino, his album, Agadez was a hot seller on i-tunes and named one of NPR’s 50 favorite albums of 2011. Bombino, whose given name is Omara Moctar, is a guitarist from the Tuareg tribe, African nomads who have been persecuted by the government of Niger, especially, who reportedly fought for Gaddafi in Libya and are now considered rebels by the government of Mali, but their real fidelity is to eking out their lives in the desert
Filmmaker Ron Wyman was in Niger working on a film about the Tuareg when he first heard this song “Tenore” about a region in the north of Niger.
Ron tracked Bombino down in Burkina Faso, where he was living in exile. That was the beginning of a creative collaboration that produced the album, Agadez and a feature film, Agadez: The Music and the Rebellion. The film, which blog critics named "one of the overlooked gems of 2011 is showing on Friday at the Music Hall in Portsmouth. Next week, Bombino performs for the soul of the Sahara, a benefit concert for RAIN for the Sahel and Sahara, a nonprofit organization focusing on education and agriculture in Niger that we’ve featured on the program.
