By Carissa Bell
Inspiration
The song “Yere Faga” is meant to inspirational for the people of Mali. However, as much as we’ve learned about the power of music, it very well could be inspirational for other people that are facing hard times as well. As we learned from Amical Blues, Mali is experiencing terrorism frequently. I googled suicide in Mali to see if it had been a recent epidemic, but what I found instead was story after story about recent suicide bombings. While I don’t think this song is directed at the members of al-Qaeda who are committing suicide, I do believe that it is directed at those who are forced to live under al-Qaeda’s suppression. The members of Amical Blues talked about how al-Qaeda outlawed music is some parts, and that in some cases people felt they had no option but to join al-Qaeda to support their families. This type of suppression is bound to create desperation that could lead some people to believe that suicide is a better option that continuing to live.
I chose to include some of the difficult photos that I found in reference to these terrorist attacks as well as photos of some of the terrorists themselves. By no means what this project meant to exploit or trivialize the experiences and grief that many Malians have experienced. I hope that they give more understanding to why Oumou Sangare would feel the need to write a song explicitly telling her fellow Malian people not to commit suicide despite how hard their lives are.
Despite such a depressing topic, the music itself is upbeat. There are times when the music stops as if to emphasize what she is singing. The lyrics themselves convey her message. She calls the audience her brothers and sisters which expresses a level of care outside of just being strangers. She also talks about things that happen in life such as success that will lead to jealousy. She also acknowledges the difficultly of living among people, as well as the difficulty of living in Mali but she repeats the phrase “Don’t kill yourself because of suffering. No one should commit suicide because of pain.” throughout the song. The overall message of her song seems to be that no matter the circumstances, the Malian people shouldn’t take their own lives.
The song “Yere Faga” is meant to inspirational for the people of Mali. However, as much as we’ve learned about the power of music, it very well could be inspirational for other people that are facing hard times as well. As we learned from Amical Blues, Mali is experiencing terrorism frequently. I googled suicide in Mali to see if it had been a recent epidemic, but what I found instead was story after story about recent suicide bombings. While I don’t think this song is directed at the members of al-Qaeda who are committing suicide, I do believe that it is directed at those who are forced to live under al-Qaeda’s suppression. The members of Amical Blues talked about how al-Qaeda outlawed music is some parts, and that in some cases people felt they had no option but to join al-Qaeda to support their families. This type of suppression is bound to create desperation that could lead some people to believe that suicide is a better option that continuing to live.
I chose to include some of the difficult photos that I found in reference to these terrorist attacks as well as photos of some of the terrorists themselves. By no means what this project meant to exploit or trivialize the experiences and grief that many Malians have experienced. I hope that they give more understanding to why Oumou Sangare would feel the need to write a song explicitly telling her fellow Malian people not to commit suicide despite how hard their lives are.
Despite such a depressing topic, the music itself is upbeat. There are times when the music stops as if to emphasize what she is singing. The lyrics themselves convey her message. She calls the audience her brothers and sisters which expresses a level of care outside of just being strangers. She also talks about things that happen in life such as success that will lead to jealousy. She also acknowledges the difficultly of living among people, as well as the difficulty of living in Mali but she repeats the phrase “Don’t kill yourself because of suffering. No one should commit suicide because of pain.” throughout the song. The overall message of her song seems to be that no matter the circumstances, the Malian people shouldn’t take their own lives.
