Dimi Mint Abba

Dimi Mint Abba (25 December 1958 – 4 June 2011)^[1] was Mauritania's most famous musician. She was born Loula Bint Siddaty Ould Abba in 1958 into a low-caste ("iggawin") family specializing in the griot tradition.

Life and career

Dimi's parents were both musicians (her father had been asked to compose the Mauritanian national anthem), and she began playing at an early age. Her professional career began in 1976, when she sang on the radio and then competed, the following year, in the Umm Kulthum Contest in Tunis. Her winning song "Sawt Elfan" ("Art's Plume") has the refrain "Art's Plume is a balsam, a weapon and a guide enlightening the spirit of men", which can be interpreted to mean that artists play a more important role than warriors in society.

Her first international release was on the World Circuit record label, following a recommendation from Ali Farka Touré. On this album, she was accompanied by her husband Khalifa Ould Eide and her two daughters.

Later she composed famous and popular Mauritanian songs like "Hailala" and "Koumba bay bay". She died in June, 2011, in Casablanca, Morocco following a stage accident in Aioun ten days earlier when she was singing for Sahrawi public. Her death invoked a political embarrassment to the government of Mauritania who did not show any sign of sympathy towards the death of the popular musician.

Discography

• Khalifa Ould Eide & Dimi Mint Abba, Moorish Music from Mauritania. World Circuit WCD 019, 1990.
• Dimi Mint Abba, Music and Songs of Mauritania, Auvidis Ethnic 1992.

See also

Music of Mauritania

References

1. ^ "Mauritanian traditional singer Dimi Mint Abba dies in Morocco hospital at 52". Associated Press. 4 June 2011. 

External links

• The Independent: Dimi Mint Abba: Musician known as 'la diva du désert' and hailed by Ali Farka Touré as Africa's greatest singer
• BBC Press Release on her 2006 appearance in The Proms.
• BBC Recording of her 2006 appearance at WOMAD.
• BBC Report on her 2004 appearance at WOMAD.
• Mondomix
• Afropop worldwide
• Culturebase (in German)

Persondata
Name	Abba, Dimi Mint
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	25 December 1958
Place of birth
Date of death	4 June 2011
Place of death