“We prefer to call ourselves Kel Tamashek, which means the people who speak the Tamashek language. The name Touareg was given to us by foreigners; we would never call ourselves this.” (Ousmane Ag Mossa)

Tamikrest are the next generation of blues musicians to emerge from the Sahara (Clyde Macfarlane)

"We started playing music together just to pass time. We were students, and we only played music for our own benefit" (Ousmane Ag Mossa)

"Kel Tamashek rebelled against the government, and because of the resulting difficulty in studying we decided to form Tamikrest" (Ousmane Ag Mossa)

"It doesn’t matter if our land is officially part of Mali or Algeria- we want the right to decide who is going to exploit, and to have the power to stop them if we’re not happy with it." (Ousmane Ag Mossa)

Ibrahim Ag Ahmed Salam, the energetic percussionist, whacks his calabash with a merciless side chop that echoes around the courtyard. (Clyde Macfarlane)

"we don’t have equal rights in our own homeland. We don’t have civil rights" (Ousmane Ag Mossa)

"Western countries are exploiting the desert; they mine for uranium in Arlit, Niger, and they exploit gold throughout the desert (Ousmane Ag Mossa)

"We can’t keep living our traditional way of life" (Ousmane Ag Mossa)

"I don’t feel like a Malian citizen because I don’t have all the rights that they have. I don’t feel free. Even though I have a Malian passport, I don’t feel like a citizen." (Ousmane Ag Mossa)