Ahmed Ag Kaedi

(He sings in the Tuareg language) “I see Kidal there before me and it’s become like the ruins of a civilization,” his voice sounding parched, weary, and unfiltered. “A land of the United Nations, the French military, and a terrible drought.” Kaedy updates the politics of the Tuareg music pioneered by Tinariwen in deceptively laid-back tunes like “Azaman” (“Era”), which compares Mali’s northerners to “small animals, separated from their mothers.”