Fatoumata Diawara: The Woman Using Art to Impact the African Diaspora and the African Continent.
In the spirit of celebrating the women that mean more than the world to the world, there’s no doubt a huge spectrum that women of Africa and the African diaspora have covered with their assertiveness, fearlessness, boldness and positive change.
Whether on the continent or outside of it, one thing for sure will always remain with African women, and that’s the connection to their motherland and this doesn’t necessarily mean that they all are socially aware and drive the karts of social responsibility and consciousness, but the connection to the continent with such a huge history of exploitation, land grabbing and racial discrimination usually pushes many women with any form of power to gravitate towards creating positive change in their communities on the continent and abroad.
One of these ladies is Fatoumata Diawara a Mali born woman using art to preserve culture and address the different struggles of women and the various issues faced by emigrants. The Malian Singer who is currently based and lives in France was born in 1982 on 21st February in Ouragahio, Ivory Coast even though both her parents were Malian.
She started out her amazing career as an actress and she competently carried out her roles in theatre and film. She features in movies such as Timbuktu, Genesis and The Dream of The Python. She later launched deeper into the entertainment world when she branched into the music world.
Her musical career officially took off with her first three studio recorded albums that debuted with Fatou back in 2011. Just like many artists with African roots, Diawara’ s musical style is a fusion of the traditional Wassoulou with other international genres and styles t which she morphs to put her message out through song.
She claims to be the first Malian Female solo guitarist. The songbird who croons in a smooth sensual voice chiefly sings in Bambara which is the Mali national language and her music carries the same oomph as that carried by the music from her home region. The tradition in their music is to primarily pass on advice through song “Songs of Advise”. And Diawara doesn’t deviate from this mantle with her lyrics carefully carved to address various pain points.
Her music tackles anywhere from issues associated with immigration to the diaspora, respect for others, the struggles that African women go through, female genital mutilation/ circumcision acts as well as laboring to wake the nation of Mali up to the Her culture that is getting eroded away and her roots and origin that are constantly getting dented by various careless acts by the leaders and the nationals.
Perhaps her most influential piece of music on the nation was “Mali-Ko” a piece written to foster unity in the nation and in criticism to the fundamentalist conquest of northern Mali in which the minority community of the Tuareg faced a load of resentment with many blaming their community for the incursion. While the Mali war is still ongoing, it’s the collective voices of people such as Diawara that will bring some rays of hope to the nation of Mali through their music.
The multi-Grammy nominated artiste continues to shake stages around the globe and singing words of caution and advise, education and change. She keeps wearing her crown even in the diaspora with a great load of influence on the diasporic Malians.
