AMAZIGH (BERBER) BEAT BOX
NORTH AFRICA'S BESIEGED NATIVE MUSES
by Mitch Ritter

Not all of North Africa's besieged native muses become, in the words of the new edition to the Rough Guide to World Music reference book, "The Bards of Immigritude." While Andy Morgan's chapter focuses on Kabylia, the central Mediterranean coastal range of Algeria, exiled Amazigh (Berber) artists seeking the freedom to express their ancient culture, pre-Islamic history, and suppressed Tamazight language have also been exiled from regimes with strict Arabization policies in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania. Those artists who choose to remain in their traditional homelands, referred to as Tamazgha, or "Land of Free People," tend to work underground and distribute their work by way of their own secure trade routes. Great artists such as the Malian band TARTIT [Network Discs, EU] of nomadic Tuareg, are the exceptional cases where emigration from Mali led to circulation of Kel Tamashiq ("Tamazight People") songs beyond the normal trade route. Such far-ranging artists, from the non-nomadic native Mzabites, Chaouis, and Aurès mountain dwellers of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia to the keepers of the oldest literary and mythological tradition in North Africa, the persecuted Adrar Nphussans of Libya, must carefully conceal their art and ritual life from the Arabo-Islamist security forces.

Some Amazigh artists may agree to work within the proscribed boundaries of primitive tribalism, as represented in the recordings of Institut du Monde Arabe or Club du Disque Arabe. These are state-backed distributors and exporters who rarely note in the accompanying booklets that what is being heard is an oral literature in a language that pre-dates Arabic in the region. The oral literature goes without translation or meaningful comment to the outside world and increasingly to the Imazighrren (plural of Amazigh) themselves as their children lose connection to their language, which is excluded from school and public life.

Two new compilation discs represent the stiffest Amazigh resistance yet to the imposed language and culture of North Africa. While Kabylie Mouv' les étoiles berbéres/Kabylia Movement: The Berber Stars [Atoll/Musicrama Distribution] is the heavier collection in terms of consistently high quality material, both recent Amazigh Algerian star samplers introduce an astonishing diversity of musical styles. La Kabylie Au Coeur [Virgin France/Musicrama] actually is "The Kabylia of the Heart," as its bards and recording artists have immigrated and often organically assimilated into the western and Mediterranean cultures in which they've sought refuge. France's post-modern studios have replaced the legendary Barbary Coast havens of expression, from conquered Spain and its traditionally Celtic north coast to Marseilles and Bayonne.

"Scottish Mezwzed" by Mugar is one of three tracks that merges Tamazight's natural lingual buzz (three separate letters in the Tifinagh alphabet, which consists of 39 letters, represent variations on our "z" sound) with Highlander and Celtic bagpipes' drone. Bone- or fleshy palm and fingertip-beaten skins of the bendír and bodhrán form the rhythmic foundation. These circular frame drums use sun-dried and stretched sea ray or goatskin. The mondol, a lute that bridges Greek lyre and Arabo-Persian oud, uses distinctive modal fret spacing and 10 strings of either catgut or silk. In the case of innovator Takfarinas, a unique double-necked mondol lends acoustic subtlety to a broad Mediterranean harmonic palette sailing comfortably and in easy harmony between Near-Eastern and Western scales. Young Djaffar Aït Menguellet is the son of the legendary contemporary Kabylian Bard Laureate Lounes Aït Menguellet, who appears here as the most traditional-sounding artist. Aït Menguellet père sets his steel guitar strings a-buzzin' on his moonlit wail "Tighri N-Tasa," as Djaffar Aït Menguellet regrettably leaves his bagpipes behind in the North African blue mountains only to descend to Parisian pop dregs on "Matilid Yidi/Will You Be With Me?."

This is an excerpt from issue #96.