Lounès Matoub (
KabyleKabyle refers to*the Kabyle people, an ethnic group in Algeria*the Kabyle language*the Kabyle ethnic homeland, a region called Kabylie in French*the Kabile city, an ancient Greek colony...
:
Lwennas Meɛṭub,
TifinaghTifinagh is an alphabetic script used by some Berber peoples, notably the Tuareg, to write their language. The Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. It is not in widespread use as a means of daily communication, but often serves to politically and...
:
ⵍⵡⴻⵏⵏⴰⵙ ⵎⴻⵄⵟⵓⴱ,
al-Wanās Ma'ṭūb, often credited as
Matoub Lounès in
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
sources) (January 24 1956 – June 25 1998) was a famous
BerberThe Berbers are an ethnic group in North and West Africa. Their music is widely varying across the area they inhabit, but is best known for its place in Moroccan music, the popular Kabylian and chawi music of Algeria and the widespread Tuareg music of Algeria, Burkina Faso, Niger and...
KabyleThe Kabyles The Kabyles The Kabyles (Iqvaylyen or Leqvayel in Kabyle, are a Berber people whose traditional homeland is highlands of Kabylie (or Kabylia) in northeastern Algeria....
singer and mondol player
http://bahmaduzeggane.blogspot.com/2008/07/celebrating-lounes-matoub-berber.html who was a prominent advocate of the
BerberBerbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are discontinuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke various Berber languages, which together form a branch of the...
cause and
secularismSecularism is the concept that government or other entities should exist separately from religion and/or religious beliefs.In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and freedom from the government imposition of religion upon the people, within a...
in
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
throughout his life.
He is revered as a hero and martyr in
KabylieKabylie or Kabylia , is a historic and ethnic region in the north of Algeria.It is part of the Tell Atlas and is located at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea...
and the
Berber WorldTamazgha is a Tamazight word employed for the area more often known as the Maghreb or North Africa, covering the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Niger River, from Siwa Oasis to the Canary Islands. Although the root MZGH is very ancient, Tamazgha as a country name is modern. It appeared...
but reviled by most of the Arab population in Algeria for his
irreligionIrreligion is an absence of religion, indifference to religion, and/or hostility to religion. Depending on the context, it may be understood as referring to atheism, deism, nontheism, agnosticism, ignosticism, antireligion, skepticism, freethought, or secular humanism. Irreligious people may have...
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjwnk_matoub-interview and blasphemous songs (like
Allahu Akbar"Allahu Akbar" is a song written by Lounès Matoub. The song illustrated Matoub's contempt for the Islamic religion.Allahu Akbar is Arabic for "God is the greatest."The chorus in English is as follows:"Allahu Akbar" is a song written by Lounès Matoub...
) and his militant advocacy of Berber rights, therefore unpopular among both warring parties during
Algerian Civil WarThe Algerian Civil War was an armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups which began in 1991. It is estimated to have cost between 150,000 and 200,000 lives....
.
Lounès Matoub (
KabyleKabyle refers to*the Kabyle people, an ethnic group in Algeria*the Kabyle language*the Kabyle ethnic homeland, a region called Kabylie in French*the Kabile city, an ancient Greek colony...
:
Lwennas Meɛṭub,
TifinaghTifinagh is an alphabetic script used by some Berber peoples, notably the Tuareg, to write their language. The Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. It is not in widespread use as a means of daily communication, but often serves to politically and...
:
ⵍⵡⴻⵏⵏⴰⵙ ⵎⴻⵄⵟⵓⴱ,
al-Wanās Ma'ṭūb, often credited as
Matoub Lounès in
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
sources) (January 24 1956 – June 25 1998) was a famous
BerberThe Berbers are an ethnic group in North and West Africa. Their music is widely varying across the area they inhabit, but is best known for its place in Moroccan music, the popular Kabylian and chawi music of Algeria and the widespread Tuareg music of Algeria, Burkina Faso, Niger and...
KabyleThe Kabyles The Kabyles The Kabyles (Iqvaylyen or Leqvayel in Kabyle, are a Berber people whose traditional homeland is highlands of Kabylie (or Kabylia) in northeastern Algeria....
singer and mondol player
http://bahmaduzeggane.blogspot.com/2008/07/celebrating-lounes-matoub-berber.html who was a prominent advocate of the
BerberBerbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are discontinuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke various Berber languages, which together form a branch of the...
cause and
secularismSecularism is the concept that government or other entities should exist separately from religion and/or religious beliefs.In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and freedom from the government imposition of religion upon the people, within a...
in
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
throughout his life.
He is revered as a hero and martyr in
KabylieKabylie or Kabylia , is a historic and ethnic region in the north of Algeria.It is part of the Tell Atlas and is located at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea...
and the
Berber WorldTamazgha is a Tamazight word employed for the area more often known as the Maghreb or North Africa, covering the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Niger River, from Siwa Oasis to the Canary Islands. Although the root MZGH is very ancient, Tamazgha as a country name is modern. It appeared...
but reviled by most of the Arab population in Algeria for his
irreligionIrreligion is an absence of religion, indifference to religion, and/or hostility to religion. Depending on the context, it may be understood as referring to atheism, deism, nontheism, agnosticism, ignosticism, antireligion, skepticism, freethought, or secular humanism. Irreligious people may have...
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjwnk_matoub-interview and blasphemous songs (like
Allahu Akbar"Allahu Akbar" is a song written by Lounès Matoub. The song illustrated Matoub's contempt for the Islamic religion.Allahu Akbar is Arabic for "God is the greatest."The chorus in English is as follows:"Allahu Akbar" is a song written by Lounès Matoub...
) and his militant advocacy of Berber rights, therefore unpopular among both warring parties during
Algerian Civil WarThe Algerian Civil War was an armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups which began in 1991. It is estimated to have cost between 150,000 and 200,000 lives....
. His assassination, in circumstances which remain unclear, provoked violent riots in Kabylie. Berber Algerians still accuse the
AlgerianAlgerian may refer to:* Something of, or related to Algeria* A person or people from Algeria, or of Algerian descent. For information about the Algerian people, see Demographics of Algeria and Culture of Algeria. For specific Algerians, see List of Algerians....
regime of killing Matoub Lounes. Some Algerian regime's figures accused the islamist terrorists of this crime.
Early life
Lounes Matoub was born on 24 January 1956 in the village of Taourirt Moussa in
KabylieKabylie or Kabylia , is a historic and ethnic region in the north of Algeria.It is part of the Tell Atlas and is located at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea...
. At 9 years of age he built his first guitar from an empty car oil can and composed his first songs as a teenager. His political and cultural identity was awakened by armed confrontations between Kabyles and government forces in 1963–1964. In 1968 the Algerian government introduced a policy of Arabization in the education system. Matoub reacted by skipping school; his memoirs
http://amazighworld.net/history/lounesmatoub/matoub_memoirs.php/ recall: "We had to give up Berber and reject French. I said no! I played hooky in all my Arabic classes. Every class that I missed was an act of resistance, a slice of liberty conquered. My rejection was voluntary and purposeful." By 1975 he had deserted formal education. He migrated to France in search of work.
Musical career
Matoub began his singing career under the patronage of the established Kabyle singer
IdirIdir is an Algerian musician.- Biography :Idir was born in Aït Lahcène, a Berber village in Haute-Kabylia. This farmer's son started studying Geology and was destined for a career in the petroleum industry before his rise to stardom...
. He recorded his first album
Ay Izem (The Lion) in 1978; it was a phenomenal success. He went on to record 36 albums, as well as writing songs for other artists. He gave his first major concert in April 1980, at the time of the "Berber Spring" protest movement in Kabylie.
His music mixes oriental Chaabi orchestration with politicized Berber (Tamazight) lyrics, and covers a broad variety of topics including the Berber cause, democracy, freedom, religion, Islamism, love, exile, memory, history, peace and human rights. Unlike the Amazigh poet/musicians who preceded him, Matoub's style was direct and confrontational. Fellow musician Moh Aileche recalls, "He went straight. He criticized a president. He mentioned the president of Algeria right at the beginning of his career. He goes black and white. He was very, very clear in his songs, and he is the only singer – not only Algeria, but in all of North Africa – who criticized the government and criticized clearly. He would never become afraid."
http://www.afropop.org/multi/feature/ID/112/Berber+Rising! Despite being banned from Algerian radio and television, Matoub became, and remains, an extremely popular Kabyle singer.
Political events
During riots in October 1988, Matoub was shot five times by a policeman and left for dead. He was hospitalised for two years, requiring 17 operations including the insertion of an artificial sacrum and the contraction of his leg by 5 cm. His 1989 album
L'Ironie du sort describes his long convalescence.
During the civil war, which began in 1992, the Islamist
Armed Islamic Group (GIA)The Armed Islamic Group is a Muslim organisation that wants to overthrow the Algerian government and replace it with an Islamic state...
added his name to a hit list of artists and intellectuals. Matoub remained in Algeria. On 25 September 1994 he was abducted. He was held for two weeks in a GIA mountain stronghold and condemned to death. He was released following a large public demonstration in which his supporters threatened "total war" on the Islamists.
In 1994 he published his autobiography entitled
Rebelle (Paris: Stock, 1995).
Prizes
- On 6 December 1994 Matoub received Le Prix de la Mémoire (Memorial Prize) from Mrs Danielle Mitterrand
Danielle Mitterrand is the widow of François Mitterrand and president of the foundation France Libertés Fondation Danielle Mitterrand.-Biography:...
, President of La Fondation France Libertés (French Freedom Foundation) in Paris. The prize recognises those who devote their existence to recording and preserving the impact of political events on ordinary lives.
- On 22 March 1995 the journalists's organisation S.C.I.J.(Canada) awarded him Le Prix de la Liberté d'Expression (Freedom of Expression Prize).
- On 19 December 1995 he received Le Prix Tahar Djaout (Tahar Djaout
Tahar Djaout was an Algerian journalist, poet, and fiction writer. He was assassinated by the rebel Armed Islamic Group because of his support of secularism and opposition to what he considered fanaticism. He was attacked on May 26, 1993, as he was leaving his home in Bainem, Algeria. He died on...
Prize) from La Fondation Nourredine Abba (The Nourredine Abba Foundation) at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The prize is named after an Algerian writer who was assassinated by Islamists in 1993.
Assassination and its aftermath
On 25 June 1998 at approximately 12:30 pm local time, Matoub's car was stopped at a roadblock while he was driving along a mountainous road in eastern Algeria. The car was fired upon by masked gunmen, killing Matoub and wounding his three female passengers. Within hours, news of Matoub's murder had spread throughout Kabylie and thousands of angry mourners gathered around the hospital where his body was taken. The crowd shouted
"Pouvoir, Assassin" ("Government, Assassins"). A week of violent riots followed his death
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnwza_matoubarchives-tv-francealgerie. Young demonstrators clashed with riot police and attacked government property. On 28 June 1998 tens of thousands people attended his funeral in front of his house in his native village. He was buried between a fig tree and a cherry tree, opposite the house he was born in. Matoub's family played them a scathing parody of the Algerian National Anthem which came from Matoub's final album
Lettre ouverte aux... ("Open letter to..."), released after his death (Gold-Disc). Matoub's assassination occurred a week before a law excluding languages other than Arabic from public life was due to come in to effect. Matoub had been an outspoken critic of this law. On 30 June 1998 the GIA claimed responsibility for the assassination of Lounes Matoub.
On the first anniversary of his death a general strike was observed in Kabyle's capital Tizi-Ouzou and thousands protested on the streets. Protesters broke into the town's court room and tore down its scales of justice. The BBC reported that many Berber activists blamed the government for his death and rejected the claim that Islamists were responsible.
Around 20,000 people marched in Tizi-Ouzou to mark the third anniversary of the assassination.
His family have created a foundation in his name to promote his memory, throw light on the circumstances of his assassination and promote the values he defended. Two streets in France have been named after Matoub, one in Grenoble and one in Lyon.
Political views of Matoub
Matoub Lounès spoke out in favour of
federalismFederalism is political philosophy in which a group of members are bound together with a governing representative head. The term federalism is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent...
,
secularismSecularism is the concept that government or other entities should exist separately from religion and/or religious beliefs.In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and freedom from the government imposition of religion upon the people, within a...
,
democracyDemocracy is a system of government in which either the actual governing is carried out by the people governed , or the power to do so is granted by them...
,
freedom of speechFreedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship or limitation. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to indicate not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
, the recognition of
BerberThe Berber languages are a group of very closely related languages and dialects spoken in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and the Egyptian area of Siwa, as well as by large Berber communities in parts of Niger and Mali. A relatively sparse but very old population extends into the whole Sahara and...
as a national and official language, and the
decentralization__FORCETOC__Decentralization or Decentralisation is the process of dispersing decision-making governance closer to the people and/or citizen. It includes the dispersal of administration or governance in sectors or areas like engineering, management science, political science, political economy,...
of public schools.
For a period of time, he was a member of the
RCDThe Rally for Culture and Democracy , RCD, is a political party in Algeria. It promotes Laïcité and has its principal power base in parts of Kabylie, a Berber region...
, a secularist and Berberist political party, although he had left the party by the time of his death.
"Religion," he said, "is imposed, and I never accept something that is imposed upon me. I am a rebel, therefore I am not a Muslim".
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjwnk_matoub-interview
External links