A Picture of Jimi Hendricks Was on His Wall

Ali Farka Toure is truly a hero of mine. I often continue my morning meditation after I quit sitting by dancing to the spiritual essence of his music. He became quite successful and toured for awhile, but said he had been severed from his roots by the music business demands. He moved back to his land, converted thousands of acres of arid land into farmable land and taught his community how to use the land to become self-sufficient. He also taught them of our spirit connection to the land and of the importance of standing up for our rights and the rights of nature to live in harmony with nature. I never knew him, I never saw him perform, but he made a connection with me through the love expressed in his music that cannot be described. I have tears in my eyes as I type this. I will miss my friend.



African music giant Farka Toure honored by Mali By Tiemoko Diallo
Wed Mar 8, 12:59 PM ET


Desert blues pioneer Ali Farka Toure, one of Africa's best-loved musicians, was posthumously awarded Mali's highest civil honor on Wednesday as a sandstorm delayed his funeral in his hometown on the edge of the Sahara.

The double Grammy-winning singer and guitarist, who died on Tuesday after a long fight with bone cancer, was made Commander of the National Order by Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure at a ceremony in Bamako attended by ministers and musicians.

"Farka is a monument of Malian music, Farka is the pride of Mali," Toumani Toure said.

Dubbed "the African John Lee Hooker," Farka Toure's haunting music, which he sang in 11 languages, combined the traditions of his native northern Mali with the influence of American blues, which he saw as having its roots in West Africa.

His body had been due to be flown to Niafunke, the town where he grew up on the barren shores of the slow-moving Niger river near the fabled trading town of Timbuktu.

But the landscape which inspired his music seemed to pay him a final homage as a desert wind blew clouds of orange sand and dust across the sky, grounding planes and forcing mourners to travel the 850 km (530 miles) in a cortege of jeeps.

"The whole of Mali woke up this morning to such strange weather and no visibility," said Toumani Diabate, a virtuoso of the kora -- a traditional West African harp -- who played alongside Farka Toure on his latest album.

"Ali was a man of God. Everyone is thinking the same thing. However you look at it, it's mystical."

RICE FARMER

One of the Africa's most internationally successful artists, Farka Toure won acclaim around the world for his 1994 album "Talking Timbuktu," recorded with Texan guitarist Ry Cooder, and won a second Grammy last month for "In the Heart of the Moon," made with his countryman Toumani Diabate.

He had just finished work on a new solo album when he died.

"It's a major loss for all of Africa because Ali proved that as an African, as a musician, we could take our work very, very far," Ivory Coast's Tiken Jah Fakoly, one of the continent's best-selling reggae stars, told Reuters in Bamako.

Though famous for his music, Farka Toure eschewed a life of glamour and thought of himself above all as a farmer, tending to a 350-hectare farm in Niafunke, where he was made mayor after setting up projects to help local women and children.

With few tarmac roads, his coffin -- draped in a Malian flag and carried in an aid agency jeep -- was not expected to reach Niafunke before nightfall meaning the burial would be delayed until Thursday, said family friend Diadie Sangare.

It was a journey that was well-known to Farka Toure, who was born in 1939 but like many Africans of his generation did not know his exact date of birth.

"For some people, Timbuktu is a place at the end of nowhere," he was quoted as saying in the liner notes to "Talking Timbuktu."

"But that's not true. I'm from Timbuktu and I can tell you that it's right in the center of the world."

(Additional reporting by Rainer Schwenzfeier in Bamako and Nick Tattersall in Dakar)



Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.