Dimi Mint Abba
Biography
1958-2011
Dimi Mint Abba (no relation to the Swedish pop group) was one of the great female voices of Africa – and the most celebrated from Mauritania, the vast, sparsely-populated country where the Maghreb meets West Africa. Asked whether she always wanted to be a singer, Dimi said that she “was born an artist and was destined for the profession”. She was born into a family of hereditary musicians, called griots in French but known as iggawin in Mauritania. Through their songs, they combine the roles of historian, social commentator, poet and soothsayer.
Dimi’s father Sidaty Ould Abba was a singer and composer, who wrote the Mauritanian national anthem. Her mother, Feu Mounina Mint Eida was an experienced ardin (Mauritanian harp) player, who began teaching Dimi when she was 10 years old. The ardin is made from a goatskin-covered calabash, a wooden pole and 14 strings, and traditionally played by women. The male instrument is the tidinit, desert lute, which Dimi also learned.
Her big breakthrough came in 1976 when she won first prize at the Festival d’Oum Kalthoum in Tunisia, with ‘Sawt Elfan’ (Art’s Plume) about how an artist’s work is more vital than that of a soldier. She went on to represent Mauritania at various other festivals in North Africa.
In 1989 Dimi embarked on her first European tour, which also gave her the opportunity to record in London. World Circuit’s Nick Gold had been tipped off about Dimi by the Malian star Ali Farka Touré. Moorish Music from Mauritania (1990) was the first studio recording of Mauritanian music and introduced audiences to a whole new tradition. It features Dimi (vocals and ardin) with her husband Khalifa Ould Eide (vocals, tidinit and electric guitar) plus female backing vocals (from her daughters) and tbal drum. They sing a song in celebration of Mauritanian independence, a song against apartheid, Arabic love songs, dancing songs and verses in praise of the Prophet. There was another, more traditional, album, Music & Songs of Mauritania (1992) released by the French label Auvidis Ethnic.
During the Nineties, Dimi toured in the US and appeared at many festivals in West Africa and beyond. In 2004 she was one of the headline acts at the Festival International des Musiques in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott. In 2006 she performed at WOMAD in the UK and at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, a Proms premiere for her and Mauritanian music. “Wrapped in a red shawl,” wrote the Evening Standard, “she sat on a carpet between her daughter playing drums and step-son playing keyboard and plucked her harp-like ardin in filigree accompaniment to her dramatic voice.”
After an accident, Dimi Mint Abba died tragically young in 2011 of a brain haemorrhage. Her legacy has been continued by her step daughter Noura Mint Seymali, who toured with Dimi in her last years, and has released two albums on Glitterbeat Records. But it was Dimi Mint Abba who first brought the world’s attention to the remarkable music of this little-known country.
BIOGRAPHY
1958-2011
Dimi Mint Abba (no relation to the Swedish pop group) was one of the great female voices of Africa – and the most celebrated from Mauritania, the vast, sparsely-populated country where the Maghreb meets West Africa. Asked whether she always wanted to be a singer, Dimi said that she “was born an artist and was destined for the profession”. She was born into a family of hereditary musicians, called griots in French but known as iggawin in Mauritania. Through their songs, they combine the roles of historian, social commentator, poet and soothsayer.
Dimi’s father Sidaty Ould Abba was a singer and composer, who wrote the Mauritanian national anthem. Her mother, Feu Mounina Mint Eida was an experienced ardin (Mauritanian harp) player, who began teaching Dimi when she was 10 years old. The ardin is made from a goatskin-covered calabash, a wooden pole and 14 strings, and traditionally played by women. The male instrument is the tidinit, desert lute, which Dimi also learned.
Her big breakthrough came in 1976 when she won first prize at the Festival d’Oum Kalthoum in Tunisia, with ‘Sawt Elfan’ (Art’s Plume) about how an artist’s work is more vital than that of a soldier. She went on to represent Mauritania at various other festivals in North Africa.
In 1989 Dimi embarked on her first European tour, which also gave her the opportunity to record in London. World Circuit’s Nick Gold had been tipped off about Dimi by the Malian star Ali Farka Touré. Moorish Music from Mauritania (1990) was the first studio recording of Mauritanian music and introduced audiences to a whole new tradition. It features Dimi (vocals and ardin) with her husband Khalifa Ould Eide (vocals, tidinit and electric guitar) plus female backing vocals (from her daughters) and tbal drum. They sing a song in celebration of Mauritanian independence, a song against apartheid, Arabic love songs, dancing songs and verses in praise of the Prophet. There was another, more traditional, album, Music & Songs of Mauritania (1992) released by the French label Auvidis Ethnic.
During the Nineties, Dimi toured in the US and appeared at many festivals in West Africa and beyond. In 2004 she was one of the headline acts at the Festival International des Musiques in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott. In 2006 she performed at WOMAD in the UK and at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, a Proms premiere for her and Mauritanian music. “Wrapped in a red shawl,” wrote the Evening Standard, “she sat on a carpet between her daughter playing drums and step-son playing keyboard and plucked her harp-like ardin in filigree accompaniment to her dramatic voice.”
After an accident, Dimi Mint Abba died tragically young in 2011 of a brain haemorrhage. Her legacy has been continued by her step daughter Noura Mint Seymali, who toured with Dimi in her last years, and has released two albums on Glitterbeat Records. But it was Dimi Mint Abba who first brought the world’s attention to the remarkable music of this little-known country.