Anana Harouna, founder and frontman of the band, was born in Agadez in the north of Niger. Originating from a touareg society in the Sahara which went through a strong political marginalisation, he went on exile with his family to Lybia at the age of 12 and followed military training. At 17, he engaged himself into the first touareg rebellion in the 1990’s. This rebellion was fought by young touaregs against the States of Mali and Niger for the respect of nomad populations in the Sahara. In this period he found music as a way to denunciate the injustice against his people without shedding any blood and now uses another weapon: the music. Anana is a regular member of Tinariwen but with Kel Assouf, Anana expresses his own musicial ideas, opinion and feeling
