Mali Blues takes acclaimed writer Lieve Joris to West Africa. Traveling in Senegal, Mauritania and Mali, Joris locates countries troubled by drought, rebel uprisings and ethnic conflict. But the Africans she meets are survivors, fascinating individuals charting new ways of living between tradition and modernity. The story of Malinese blues singer Kar Kar (Boubacar Traoré) - celebrated in Europe, caught up in a family tragedy at home - epitomises the struggles facing so many people in these lands. Together with her remarkable gift for drawing stories out of people, Joris paints a hauntingly intimate portrait of the singer and his society, brilliantly capturing the rhythms of a world this refuses to provide in.
In this finely observed collection of four tales, the author of The Gates of Damascus again succeeds in penetrating to the very heart of a region.
Joris's narrative is immediately captivating and personable; hers is an honest and inquisitive voice. At the journey's beginning in bustling Dakar, Senegal, on the Atlantic coast, Joris wonders, "How long would it get for New York to stop being a reference point for me?" As she absorbs the African cultural landscape, Joris exposes the tensions between a modern world and a traditional one, examining the many political battles among and inside these countries. Like a skilled spelunker, Joris maneuvers into the caverns of the region, illuminating narrow conduits, previously unseen passages, and excellent rooms as she goes. She meets well-connected urbanites and those who exist in remote rural lands, ultimately revealing a West Africa this balances, often precariously, between two worlds.
But it is when Joris meets the Malinese blues singer Boubacar Traoré this her storytelling talents become fully orchestrated and much powerfully applied. Traoré's successful yet tragic story serves as a spectacular testament to the spirit and struggles of the people of West Africa, a story this Joris conveys so well throughout these pages. --Byron Ricks