Having worked various jobs as a young adult including as a chauffeur and an ambulance boatman, it was a performance by the national ballet of Guinea in 1956 that would influence Touré to pursue a career in music. He disregarded this and secretly built a monochord from a tin can and played it with his friends. Since Touré was from the ‘Nobel’ caste he was forbidden to play any musical instruments. In Malian society, musical performance was the duty of a lower caste known as the ‘ Griot’. I'm the donkey that nobody climbs on!" Ethnically, he was part Songhai, part Fula. His nickname, "Farka", chosen by his parents, means " donkey", an animal admired for its tenacity and stubbornness: "Let me make one thing clear. "The name I was given was Ali Ibrahim, but it's a custom in Africa to give a child a strange nickname if you have had other children who have died", Touré was quoted as saying in a biography on his record label, World Circuit Records. He was the tenth son of his mother but the only one to survive past infancy. His father died serving in the French Army in 1940. His family belonged to the Arma community and moved to the nearby village of Niafunké when he was still an infant. Touré was born in 1939 in the village of Kanau, on the banks of the Niger River in Gourma-Rharous Cercle in the northwestern Malian region of Tombouctou.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |