Afar Ways

The 74-year-old Momina is a member of the nomadic Afar people, a Muslim ethnic group who inhabit the desert regions of Ethiopia and Eritrea and this album was recorded in her thatched stilt-hut in Djibouti in 2018 by the inveterate global adventurer Ian Brennan.

Like all of Brennan’s productions (think Zomba Prison Project, Ustad Saami or the Malawi Mouse Boys) the emphasis is on a spartan, unmediated authenticity, which gives the eight songs a raw and earthy sound. Momina’s voice is wild and untamed, just as Brennan likes them, whether growling resonantly in an idiosyncratic semi-rapping conversational style or in a higher, ululating vibrato during call-and-response chants. Her backing band consists of a rotating cast of friends passing through her hut with guitars and a calabash, augmented by rhythmic hand-claps and human beat-box basslines in service of the singer whom they honorifically call ‘auntie.’ With titles such as ‘The Donkey Doesn’t Listen’ and ‘My Family Won’t Let Me Marry the Man I Love (I Am Forced to Wed My Uncle)’ the songs speak of both the joys and troubles of clan life and Brennan’s ability to find voices from way off the conventional world music grid continues to amaze.