Obituary: Ali Farka Toure

Ali Farka Toure received accolades for his charity work for women and children. Picture / Reuters

Musician. Died aged about 67.

Malian blues singer and guitarist Ali Farka Toure, one of Africa's best-loved musicians, died in his sleep after a long fight with bone cancer.

Dubbed "the African John Lee Hooker", the Grammy-winning bluesman was among West Africa's most internationally successful artists, winning acclaim around the world for his 1994 album Talking Timbuktu, recorded with Texan guitarist Ry Cooder.

"Ali was for Mali, for Africa and for the rest of the world a very great musician. A musician who leaves behind him a fabulous heritage," said Culture Minister Cheick Oumar Sissoko.

Farka Toure, who was born in 1939 but did not know his exact date of birth, won a second Grammy last month for In the Heart of the Moon, recorded with his countryman Toumani Diabate.

He had just finished work on a new solo album when he died.

His haunting music, which he sang in 11 languages, combined the traditions of northern Mali with the influence of American blues, which he saw as having its roots in West Africa.

Radio stations interrupted their programmes to broadcast his hypnotic desert blues. Some played homages from listeners and fellow musicians around Mali, which stretches across the southern edge of the Sahara.

"When it comes to blues, he exposed the real source of things. His music wasn't just for Mali or for Africa, but for the whole world," said Diabate, a virtuoso of the traditional West African harp or kora.

Though he achieved international renown, Farka Toure remained deeply rooted in the traditions of his home region, near the famous Saharan trading town of Timbuktu.

He retreated from music in 1990 to concentrate on his rice farm in the village of Niafunke. When his producer convinced him to record again, an impromptu studio running on generators had to be set up there so he could tend his fields at the same time.

He was appointed mayor of Niafunke, where he will be buried, in 2004 for his efforts to improve the lives of those in the region. He cultivated more than 300ha around the village and set up welfare projects for women and children.

"He's one of the great, great, great musicians ... He is one of a kind: he is the lion of the desert," Diabate wrote in the liner notes to their album.

Farka Toure, who took up the njurkel - a traditional type of lute - at the age of 10, occasionally toured in North America and Europe, adapting influences from jazz, blues and the traditions of West Africa's Songhai, Mande and Tuareg cultures.

But he was fiercely proud of his native country and never allowed outside influences to dilute his musical heritage.

"We were in the middle of the landscape which inspired the music and that in turn inspired myself and the musicians. My music is about where I come from and our way of life," he was quoted as saying of his 1999 album, Niafunke.

"In the West, perhaps this music is just entertainment and I don't expect people to understand. But I hope some might take the time to listen and learn."

- REUTERS