A struggle to preserve traditional music

Mati playing a traditional gourimi during a workshop for disadvantaged youth in Niamey. Since 2018, Adamou has been organizing workshops for young people from disadvantagedbackgrounds, where they learn to play and make traditional instruments at the CFPM, a government institution founded in 1989 in Niamey. — AFP

A SUCCESSION of high and low sounds from the Nigerien musician’s drum is a kind of telegram but few today understand its message.

Each beat is a syllable in the Hausa language.