Oumou Sangaré is a Grammy Award-winning Malian Wassoulou musician, sometimes referred to as "The Songbird of Wassoulou".
Wassoulou is a historical region south of the Niger River, where the music descends from age-old traditional song, often accompanied by a calabash.
The much lauded 'Festival In The Desert 2003' was the first of two programmes to come from Mali. Winner of the Sony Gold Award the show includes music from Ali Farka Toura, Tinariwen, Robert Plant, Tartit and Afel Bocum. The festival itself is held in a nearby oasis in the southern Sahara Desert, and is the traditional gathering of the Touareg people, who sing powerfully hypnotic songs about the pain and pleasures of desert life.
Before immigrating to the West, Abdallah travels to the coastal city of Nouadhibou, Mauritania, to visit his mother. Although he grew up there, Abdallah feels anything but at home in his old neighborhood: He can no longer speak the local dialect, and he wears western clothes that immediately cast him as an outsider. But, as Abdallah spends time with a young boy and an elderly electrician, he can't help but feel a sense of loss for the life he's abandoning.