Danto Aya is a Libyan musician and one of only two Tuareg people known to be currently living in the UK. A talented professional, he is a solo singer who plays the guitar, as well as being a composer who writes his own songs.
I myself met Danto in Manchester when he was living near there. He had been taking part in many concerts and festivals following his first arrival in 2007. His story, including his life as a Tuareg under the Qaddafi regime and his struggle to become an artist has been a challenging one. In the following few lines I try to explore his life, first as a child in Libya and then as a musician, as I talk to him about his experiences, including his life here in the UK as a former Sahara nomad.
Q. First of all I want to thank you for sparing us time to talk to us exploring your life. Then the first question I want to put to you is this: "How do you personally define yourself?"
A. (with a laugh): I’m simply Danto Aya, a Tuareg musician from Ghat in the south of Libya. I’m 38 years old, and currently living in London, and I work as a solo artist. I play acoustic guitar: steel-stringed acoustic guitar, and all-electric guitar also.
Q. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood?
A. I was born in 1977 in a small village near Ghat and had two
brothers and [two?] sisters. I was brought up as a nomad, but both my parents died when I was only 5. Then an aunt and some cousins had to share the responsibity for looking after me, along with my brothers and sisters. I was mainly looked after by the aunt.
Q. How would you describe the life that you lived in those days?
A. (with a sigh): People had next to nothing to live off because of the great drought that struck the Sahara between the years 1977 and 1984 although they still had a pride and dignity which are all too rare these days. My father had died following an attack of measles. That was at a time when he was trying to save the last ten of our surviving goats, and our mother died quite soon after that. It was when those Tuareg who had lost their animals in the prolonged drought began to migrate to towns and villages in Southern Algeria and Libya. My guardian's family decided to move further North than others, as far as Ghat, where I spent most of my childhood and early adulthood.
Q. How difficult was it as nomads to live in a town in those days?
A. It was very difficult for us, everything was completely different. At the beginning we moved to a village where there was a refugee camp that Qaddafi's regime had built for the Tuareg people, particularly in the 1970s and on into the late '80s. The camp was set up on the outskirts of the town of Tahala. As children we had no chance of schooling, not at any age, due to our complete lack of documents and papers. But what Qaddafi’s regime did offer to the Tuareg was military training. He was planning to send people to Chad and the Lebanon. And although he promised nationality and housing in a famous 1980 speech, those things have never become a reality, not even now, right up to the day when we're speaking.
Q. What made you move to England and what’s the main difference between being here and the Sahara desert?
A. I used to sing in the Tuareg language and to do gigs, but this was all forbidden under Qaddafi's regime. I was arrested, and imprisoned and tortured a few times, just for singing in my own language, although that was all I could speak back then. Then in 2007, out of the blue the Qaddafi regime increased the pressure on non-Arabic speakers like Berbers. I found myself back in prison, and for the same reason, all over again. But this time I decided to run away once and for all
Akli: last not least I would like to thank you again for your time for making this interview possible
Danto: No, problem!
