This Timbuktu group was founded in 1995 in exile between refugee camps in Mauritania and Burkina Faso. All members come from the Timbuktu region, specifically the Goundam Circle. The group has a single goal: to sing about exile, love, peace, and the political situation of the Tuareg. Tartit was founded to preserve traditional Tuareg music, which was slowly disappearing. It consists of female voices through an organization called Tartitn'Chetma (Union of Sisters).

Tartit's concerts are an invitation to a journey into the desert. Inviting and almost hypnotic, this music inevitably leads you into the mystical world of the Kel Tamasheq (people who speak Tamasheq, the language of the Tuareg). The magic of the performance is enhanced by the beauty of the traditional clothing and authentic instruments: the tende (a mortar drum covered with goat or sheep skin), the tahardent (a three-stringed plucked inland spear lute), the kel, and the imzad (a one-stringed bowed lute made from a calabash, with a horsehair string). The songs are a blend of traditional and modern melodies.