Abdallah Oumbadougou

After a famine in 1984 and amid growing repression of the Kel Tamasheq by the government, he went into exile in Algeria and Libya.

[2] He formed a group, Tagueyt Takrist Nakal (also "Takrist'n' Akal",[3] meaning "building the country"), and between 1991 and 1995 recorded a number of songs which circulated throughout the region illegally on cassette.

[3] Oumbadougou is regarded as the "godfather of all the present-day Tuareg musicians in Niger"; many of them played with him before going on to have touring careers in the United States and Europe.

[4] He is cited as an important influence by musicians including Mdou Moctar, who built his own guitar after listening to Oumbadougou and others.

[7] His album Anou Malane, produced in Benin and released on cassette in 1994/1995, was re-released by Sahel Sounds in 2019.