The hot summer in Kyiv continues, punctuated by thunderstorms and rain because of hot air coming from Africa, the meteorologists tell us.
Several times since the spring, we have been warned of strong winds bringing sand from the Sahara. It seems incredible that a wind can carry sand over four thousand kilometers – which perhaps puts the recent 1,800 kilometers attack by a Ukrainian drone on the Olenya airfield in Russia’s polar north into context.
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During the war, cultural phenomena have also been traveling far and fast. On the evening of July 27, near the entrance to a bar in the center of Kyiv a group of young people gathered around a smartphone, listening attentively to music with obvious North African rhythms.
“This is Tinariven,” a funky-looking young person aged around 18 years old said. “They are the coolest Tuareg group! But there is also Terakaft. I'll find you a clip by them now.”
On the evening of the day on which Tuareg forces ambushed a detachment of Wagner Group mercenaries, the musical tastes of some Ukrainian youth had already shifted.
News of the ambush, which occurred in the Malian region of the Sahara Desert, on the border with Algeria, spread like wildfire and soon Ukrainian social networks were hosting discussions about the Tuareg people, their fight for independence, and their culture.
On Facebook memes appeared showing a Tuareg Volkswagen surrounded by the bodies of dead Wagner Group Russian mercenaries along with a selection of easily acceptable Tuareg music.
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Something similar happened in early 2022, at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, but in the opposite direction. As Ukrainian troops forced Moscow’s troops away from Kyiv making them flee back to Belarus, from where they had comel. At that moment, the world suddenly became interested in all things Ukrainian.
From the comments under the Tuareg music video clips on YouTube, I can see that it is not just Ukrainians who have started to follow this cultural phenomenon. Viewers from many countries express support for the Tuaregs in their fight against the visiting “musicians” - the Wagner Group calls itself an “orchestra” and its fighters, “musicians.” “Join our orchestra!” is one of the PMC’s advertising slogans.
Representatives of the Wagner Group in Russia admitted losses in Africa, while Russian “military bloggers” have insisted that the Tuaregs were assisted by Ukrainian intelligence and that among the Tuaregs who ambushed the Russian mercenaries there were Ukrainian special forces.
Soon after the battle, a photo of armed Tuaregs holding two flags, one of which was Ukrainian, appeared on social networks. This may or may not have been the result of a of photo-shop, but since the Tuaregs are fighting the military dictatorship in Mali which is being supported by the Russian mercenaries, the Tuareg’s receiving assistance for Ukraine would come as no surprise.
The blaze of interest in Tuareg music here is also unsurprising. Ukraine has a tradition of appreciating foreign culture, if it is not being rammed down our throats. For example, the Japanese haiku, a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, has become a popular medium among Ukrainian military personnel who love literature and feel the need to write poems about life at the front, the war, and the state of the soul.
I happen to know some of these haiku authors here are some nice examples:
Looking at the sunset
Together with sunflowers.
How can we reach our positions alive?
(by Andrii Panasiuk)
A samurai has no goal
But paperwork
Cannot wait
(by Pavlo Bilous)
I will give a full report
How I contemplate the cherry blossom
No extraordinary events (on the frontline)
(by Ostap Kryvdik)
I imagine that the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Mr. Masahito Moriyama, who recently made an official visit to Kyiv, will have been told about this new literary passion among Ukraine’s soldiers.
Japanese culture and literature were quite popular in Ukraine even during Soviet times. Now Russian aggression has brought Japan and Ukraine much closer, and Moriyama has invited Ukrainian youth to enroll in Japanese universities to study Japanese culture and language as well as technical subjects.
As the war rages on, Ukraine’s youth can perhaps take some comfort from discovering new forms of music, such as Tuareg rock, and the promise of more opportunities to study abroad, once the war is over.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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