Malam Mamane Barka talked of the music he plays with his band, and the instruments and sounds he uses.

Barka told t5m that “I play sacred music” of the Boudouma tribe, a people of fishing nomads from the shores of Lake Chad in the East of Niger. His tool is also sacred, “an instrument who’s name is the biram.” The percussion is an essential part of the music of the Boudouma, and he is accompanied by Omar, his drummer.

Malam Mamane Barka described the biram as “a sort of harp which has five strings.” Because of it’s unique heritage as a part of boudouma culture, “if you see the biram, it is like a boat because it is a fisher’s instrument of music in my country.”

Barka came upon the biram when he heard that there was only one geriatric master of the instrument left in all the world. He devoted years of his life to becoming an initiated master, as that is the only way one can play the sacred instrument. Today, Malam Mane Barke is the only biram master.

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