Travel Without Arriving: Tinariwen's Journey to Global Consciousness

"You never get the impression that you've arrived."
That's Eyadou Ag Leche, bass player for the band Tinariwen, translated by the Saharan group's manager, Andy Morgan. He could very well be glibly summing up the life of the Touareg, the nomadic culture to which the band and its bracing music belong.

But what he's referring to is the Tinariwen mission, an intertwined course to raise global awareness of the Touareg (or Tuareg, as it is sometimes spelled). Before Tinariwen came along a few years ago, even many passionate international music fans had never even heard the word "Touareg" outside of it being used for the name of a Volkswagen model. Today, at least in some circles, Touareg is known as a vital, oft-oppressed "people without a country," right alongside the Roma and the Kurds. And inarguably,Tinariwen have had a lot to do with that. With its third album, 'Aman Iman: Water is Life,' released in 2007, the group solidified its status as one of the global-music sensations of recent years, the most prominent ambassador of Touareg culture to the world, and a force of pride and political progress for its people at home.