Students in Professor Matthew Kirwin’s Africa Identities course took in a concert by Niger’s guitar maestro Bombino at the Hamilton Live On September 15th. The students were able to attend thanks to the “Professor on the Town” program. This initiative, which allows faculty to introduce students to events all around Washington, D.C., exposed the students to an artist who sings about the plight of the Taureg, a nomadic ethnic group that resides primarily in the Sahara region of Niger, Mali and Algeria. Bombino recently released his new album Sahel and many of his songs address the humanitarian and security challenges that the Taureg face. Bombino shared his thoughts on recent political events in Niger offering that in instances such as these the poor are the ones who suffer the most. The Bombino concert was also covered by NPR’s Leila Fadel on Morning Edition. Senior Honors Program student Lucas Souza remarked that “Bombino’s music was a great opportunity to take a trip somewhere very far from Foggy Bottom.”
