Chris Silver on Mahieddine Bachetarzi, Dalila Taliana, and Cheikha Aicha La Hebrea

Chris Silver is blogging for Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Here he takes up recordings from the thirties by Mahieddine Bachetarzi, Dalila Taliana, and Cheikha Aicha La Hebrea. Remarkable music, great commentary.

On Cheikha Aicha La Hebrea: Cheikha Aicha La Hebrea has left barely an archival trace but a number of her recordings survive on Gallica. What is remarkable about this record is that it reminds that international labels like Pathé were keen to record popular music as much as the Andalusian high art repertoire. In fact, what we have here is one of the many covers of the Algerian Jewish artist Lili Labassi’s wildly popular “Mamak", recorded for Columbia Records in 1930 and which then spread like wildfire across North Africa. Indeed, one French composer at the time noted that every shoeshine boy from Algeria to Morocco was known to sing the tune. Among other things this recording provides us with a sonic glimpse into the North African popular music charts of the 1930s.

Claudia Cardinale, born in Tunisia, in Goha (1958), starring Omar Sharif

Claudia Cardinale, born in La Goulette, Tunisia, had her first film role at the age of 20 in Guha (1958), starring Omar Sharif. The film was made in Tunisia, directed by Jacques Baratier. Claudia had a minor role as Amina. Cardinale was raised speaking Arabic, French and Sicilian, and she only learned Italian later, when she started appearing in Italian films. When I first learned about this film, I had hoped that it would show Claudia speaking Arabic, but alas, the film is in French.

Claudia Cardinale (middle) in Goha

Like many people of my age, I had seen Cardinale in several films (among them, The Pink Panther, Once Upon a Time in the West, and Fitzcarraldo), but never knew she was born in Tunisia. Until I saw Tunisian director Férid Boughedir's 1996 film, Summer in La Goulette, where Cardinale makes an appearance, as herself. The best treatment I know of the various European populations of Tunisia is Julia Clancy-Smith's magisterial Mediterraneans: North Africa and Europe in an Age of Migration, C. 1800-1900 (2010). Highly recommended.

Wild 45 rpm record jackets: Cheikh El Afrit

I have no idea why this recording of Cheikh El Afrit appears in a record jacket featuring what looks to be a women's underwear ad.

Cheikh El Afrit was a well respected Tunisian Jewish singer (born Issim Israël Rossio) who lived from 1897 to 1939. Listen to his song "Ya nas hmelt" here. Nothing salacious about it. About his name, Chris Silver writes: "his adoption of the name Cheikh El Afrite (roughly translating as Master of the Devil) paid homage to his wit and was perhaps also a play on the word ‘ivrit, which happens to mean Hebrew in Hebrew." 

I've no idea about the label ZEY that put this disc out. It is, as Gomer Pyle would say, a poser.

Habiba Messika, Arab Nationalism, Baidophone

 Habiba Messika on the front cover of L'Éclaireur du dimanche, 3 February 1929. Courtesy Gallica-BnF.

The invaluable Chris Silver has published yet another piece on Tunisian-Jewish singing star Habiba Messika, in History Today. What struck me about it in particular was what we learn about Messika's recordings for the Lebanese record label Baidaphone, headquartered in Berlin, in 1928. Messika was able to take advantage of the company's excellent recording equipment, but also, Silver informs us,

recording in Berlin had another advantage: she could do so away from the watchful eye of the French authorities. While she continued to make records with suggestive titles, like ‘Ala sirir el nom’ (‘On my bed, spoil me’), she also recorded a number of marches dedicated to King Fuad in Egypt, King Faysal in Iraq and the Bey of Tunis, Muhammad VI, as well as anthems extolling Egypt and Syria.

Silver continues:

With Baidaphon, Messika seemed to strike a nationalist rallying cry. At the end of one such recording, ‘King Fuad’s March’, Messika and her orchestra could even be heard shouting ‘Long live the King’ and ‘Long live Egypt’ alongside thunderous applause. Hearing of Egyptian sovereigns and sovereignty, Tunisians could imagine their own. This record and others in a similar style would be her most popular in terms of sales. That popularity quickly drew the attention of French officials.

 Three months after Messika's tragic murder in 1930, Silver informs us,

French officials in Morocco began receiving urgent messages from civil controllers across the country. Messika’s records – purchased widely and listened to in communal settings like cafés – were stirring up nationalist feelings. Intelligence agents found Moroccans singing along to Messika’s music, ‘in-sync with the phonograph’, while accompanying themselves on oud. In response, French authorities imposed draconian policies to slow the import of, and soon ban, Messika’s discs across the Maghreb.

What I wanted to add to Silver's discussion about Baidaphone and French authorities is that French colonial authorities' worries about the company's recordings only increased during the 1930s.

A bit later in the decade of Messika's death, colonial police became further alarmed by the travels undertaken during the 1930s in France's North African colonies by “Doctor” Michael Baida (who founded the company with two brothers and two cousins 1906). Accompanied by his German sound engineer, Baida signed recording contracts with local artists and established a network of distributors for the company's discs. The colonial police suspected the “doctor” of being a German agent, but they were never able to tie him directly to any political activity. But so concerned were the authorities about the role of imported music in the spread of dangerous ideas that in 1938 they forbade the import into Algeria of records in any “foreign” languages (including Arabic), and the French Army banned all Baidophone records from the cafés maures it used to hire for the purpose of entertaining “native” troops in North Africa as well as in France (Rebecca Scales, “Subversive Sound: Transnational Radio, Arabic Recordings, and the Dangers of Listening in French Colonial Algeria, 1934-1939.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 52(2):398-399, 414, 2010).

The move made by the French authorities in 1938, of course, was motivated in part by the fact that since Messika's death, the Nazis had taken power in Germany, where Baidaphone was headquartered and where Michael Baida lived (in Berlin). And no doubt the Nazis had no problem with Baidaphone's promotion of recordings in Arabic that were critical of French or British colonialism. How interesting it is that, prior to the rise of the Nazis, a Jewish-Tunisian artist played an important role in Baidaphone's subversive music production.

The Jewish-Arab victims of the Paris massacres (Charlie Hebdo and the kosher supermarket)

For some reason, the Maghrebi origins of many of the victims of the massacre has not been getting much play, especially in the English language media. (Other than this article in Ynet which reports that all four of the victims of the kosher market shooting will be buried in Israel, and whose chief point seems to be the dangers posed to Jews by living in France).

It is not much remarked that about 60% of the French Jewish population of 600,000 are 'Sephardic,' that is, of Middle Eastern/North African origin -- mostly from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt.

Much more has been written about the Charlie Hebdo victims than the kosher supermarket victims to date. That may be a function of the fact that the kosher market events are more recent. Or it may be, as Gil Hochberg noted on FaceBook, the fact that secular Jews (who are among the Charlie Hebdo dead) are more familiar than the more religious Jews shopping for kosher.

Of the 12 dead in the Charlie Hebdo attack were two Jews of Tunisian origin: Georges Wolinski, 80, a cartoonist at the magazine, born in Tunis, and Elsa Cayat, 54, a journalist at CH and a psychoanalyst, whose father, Georges Khayat, was from Sfax, Tunisia. (And another of those killed was the Algerian-born Kabyle [Berber] Moustapha Ourrad, copy editor.)

Of the 4 dead at the kosher supermarket, three have positively been identified as being of Maghribi origin, i.e., Jewish Arabs.

Yoav Kattab, 21, was the son of the grand rabbi of Tunis, Tunisia, Benyamin Hattab. He was born in La Goulette and raised in Djerba. After completing his bacalaureat in Tunis, he had gone to Paris to study marketing and international commerce. He had recently, and proudly, voted in Tunisia's presidential elections.

Yohan Cohen, 22, born in Enghien-les-Bains. His parents were from Algeria, settled in Sarcelles, France, in the 1960s. He was a grandson of a famous Jewish-Tunisian singer, Doukha, who passed away in December. He liked rap, particularly French rapper Booba -- one of France's great rappers, who frequently raps against racism, is a 'non-practicing' Muslim, and whose father is Senegalese. Cohen reportedly died when he tried to tackle gunman Amedy Coulibaly, in order to save a three year old child.

 Yohan Cohen

Cohen's grandfather Doukha was a passionate fan of the great Syrian singer Farid El Atrache as a boy, and got his start in music singing the songs of Farid in the group of the celebrated Tunisian-Jewish singer Raoul Journo. He was a master of the Judeo-Tunisian, the Judeo-Algerian, and the Egyptian repertoire. Check out his rendition of a "Tunisian folklore" song here.

Doukha

François-Michel Saada, 63, a retired senior executive, whose children live in Israel, was born in Tunis, Tunisia.

I have not yet found information on the background -- Maghrebi or otherwise -- of the fourth victim, Philippe Braham, 45. According to his brother-in-law, Shai Ben-David, "He was a man who always wore a kippah, a Zionist whose dream was to make aliyah and he never made it. Every time he used to tell me, 'God willing we'll come, we'll make aliyah soon.'"

Kesang Marstrand sings Najat Al-Saghira's "Ana Ba'ashiq al-Bahr" or "I Love the Sea" (أنا بعشق البحر)

This is kinda amazing, that a US folksinger would essay a song in Arabic. And I think she does a creditable job. Here's the original, by Egyptian singer Najat al-Saghira. My guess is the song dates from the fifties or sixties. 

Kesang Marstrand, who is of Danish-Tibetan background, uploaded the song in August 2009, shortly before she moved to Tunisia in December. Where, amazingly, she lived until recently. She's now back in the US.

Marstrand was reportedly active in the cultural life of Tunisia during the revolution, and while there she recorded a version of the Tunisian national anthem, "Humat al-Hima." Below is a video clip of Marstrand being interviewed on Tunisian television about her time in Tunisia and her experiences during the revolution. As you can see, she is quite fluent in French, and she understands some Tunisian Arabic. Apparently she performed her version of the anthem publicly in Tunisia, and the gesture of solidarity was much appreciated.

Finally, a clip of her doing a musical preview on Tunisian t.v., singing in English, before concerts she did in Djerba, Tunisia, on October 12-13, 2012.

According to her website, Marstrand's fourth album is about to drop soon.

Robert Crumb plays his North African 78s

The iconic cartoonist R. Crumb is well-known as a collector of 78s, many of which he has picked up during his residence in southern France, where he has lived since 1993. (He owns around 5,000 of them.)

He has appeared a number of times over the last year on John's Old Time Radio Show, most recently to play a number of 78s in his collection recorded by North African musicians.

It's really an amazing show, and the music quite remarkable. I was quite surprised at how good those old 78 rpms sounded. I highly recommend that you download the podcast and listen repeatedly.

Some of the artists on the session are quite well known, such as the Jewish-Arab singer Habiba Msika from Tunisia, about whom I recently posted. (Unfortunately, the track is not identified, presumably because the title is written in Arabic on the album label. I urge you to post a comment, asking that R. Crumb post photos of the labels of the songs in question, so that those of us who read Arabic can identify the songs.)

There is the great Morrocan singer Hocine Slaoui, who recorded the famous song “Dakhlau Al-Merikani” (The Coming of the Americans), a comment on the arrival of Allied Troops in North Africa in 1942. It includes the recurring refrain in English, “All I hear is ‘Ok, Ok. C’mon. Bye-bye.’” (It's also known as "El Marikan Ain Zerka" (The American with the blue eye)). Check it out here.

And there is the celebrated violinist Sami Shawa, who was born in Syria but whose career was in Cairo, who was known both for his solo recordings (here is his "Taqsim Hijaz") and also for his work with great singers like Umm Kalthoum.

And according to JewishMorocco, there are two other Tunisian Jewish singers on the set, besides Habiba Msika: Fritna Darmon (here's another track from her) and Asher Mizrahi.

The rest of the artists, I've been unable to track down any information about.

R. Crumb put out a collection in 2003 called Hot Women: Women Singers from the Torrid Regions of the World, with tracks culled from his 78s collection. (He airs his rather antediluvian geographical theories about what produces "hot" music on the radio show as well.)

It contains three tracks from North Africa: (1) "Guenene Tini" by Cheikha Tetma (1930). Cheikha Tetma was a singer and 'ud player from Tlemcen, Algeria, who performed in the hawzi genre, the brand of Andalusian music specific to Tlemcen. Listen here. (2) "Khraïfi" by Aïcha Relizania (1938): listen here). I know nothing about her, but the name indicates that she was from Rélizane (Arabic, Ghalīzān), a village of European colonizers in the Oran region of Algeria. It's the same town that rai star Cheikha Rimitti (who originally recorded as Cheikha Remitti Relizania) grew up in. (3) "Yama N'Chauf Haja Tegennen" by Julie Marsellaise (1929). Again, I have no information about her, other than that she is from Tunisia, and I've not yet heard the song in question, but here's another recording by her, "Ya Helaouet el-Clap." (The video for that song shows the record in question, and it appears that her full name might be Julie Marsellaise Mahieddine.)

[Correction added December 9, 2013, thanks to Chris Silver (see comments below). Julie Marsellaise should be spelled Marseillaise -- the misspelling is from the Crumb collection, and is no doubt what is written on the record label. She got her name (and is also known as Julie La Marseillaise) from a stint she did at the Alcazar Theater in Marseille. No surprise, there was lots of cultural traffic, then and now, between North Africa and France. Julie's family name was Abitbol, and her daughter Ninette Abitbol was married in 1941 to the great Tunisian singer, oudist, and composer, Hédi Jouini. Ninette was a singer and dancer in her own right, who took the stage name of Widad. (Jouini, born Hédi Belhassine, has been called the "Frank Sinatra" of the Arab World, and his granddaughter Claire Belhassine has recently made a film about him called "Papa Hedi.") 

The "Mahieddine" that I saw on the Julie Marseillaise record label refers to the great Algerian singer and actor Mahieddine Bachetarzi, who also managed many acts.]

Let's pray that another collection, devoted to music of North Africa, is forthcoming. It would be great if an expert on North African music could be hired to work on the notes!

Tunisian rapper Weld El 15 sentenced to jail for 4 months

The author of the infamous and incendiary song "Boulicia Kleb" (Cops Are Dogs) has turned himself in (December 5) to Tunisian authorities, and will serve a 4 month prison sentence, after his 21 month sentence for "insulting the authorities" was reduced. (As reported by Informed Comment.)

I've posted previously about Tunisian rappers (including Weld El 15) and their struggles with the authorities, post-revolution, here and here.

And, as noted previously, Pussy Riot continue to receive lots of publicity and support in the West. Tunisian rappers: almost none.

10 taboo Arabic songs: Habiba Msika

The very fine on-line publication Ma'azef (in Arabic, and because I read Arabic very very slowly I haven't explored nearly enough) recently published a piece called 10 taboo songs: ١٠ أغاني محرّمة.

I was most interested in item 4, a song by the Tunisian Jewish singer Habiba Msika called "'Ala Sarir al-nawm dala'ni."

Habiba Msika (1903-1930) was quite the sensation in Tunis in the twenties, wearing Paris fashion when the norm was for respectable women to be covered up, taking up with lovers in a fairly public fashion. In 1925 she appeared onstage in a production of Romeo and Juliet, playing Romeo opposite the Libyan Jewish actress Rachida Lotfi's Juliet. Their onstage kiss caused an uproar, and her côterie of fans, known as the "soldats de la nuit," who included many young Tunisian dandies, had to rescue her from outraged members of the audience.

In 1930 a jealous ex-lover entered her flat, poured gasoline on her, and set her on fire. She died the next day. (And you can read more about her fascinating career here.) Tunisian director Salma Baccar made a film about her, La Danse du feu (1995), which I would love to see. (This might be a clip from the film.) And the blog Jewish Morocco reflects on how Habiba Msika is "remembered" in Tunisia today, here.

(And someone please help me with a vernacular translation of that song!)

Added, a few hours later. See the comments from Hammer. The song could be translated as "On My Bed He Spoiled Me." I.e., he shtupped me. Hence the "taboo" nature of the song.

Tunisian rappers form union; Klay BBJ acquitted

Tunisia's rappers, of all Arab hip-hop artists, continue to be the most politicized. At least it would so appear.

BBC News reported on October 15 that Tunisian rappers are forming a union to defend their interests. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, "Born under the guidance of a minor trade federation called the CGL, the rappers union has little to do with work contracts and a lot to do with sending a signal to the powers that be. These appear unable to take any criticism, no matter where they come from, and especially if they call for social change."

Klay BBJ

 Meanwhile, AhramOnline reported on October 19 that rapper Klay BBJ (named after boxer Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali), had been acquitted on appeal, after serving six months of his jail sentence of 21 months. He had been convicted of insulting government officials, undermining public morals, and defamation, based on a performance he did together with rapper Weld El 15 during a concert at a sea resort south of Tunis. Weld El 15, notorious for his song "Boulicia Kleb" (Cops Are Dogs), was also convicted, but remains at large. (I wrote a brief post on Weld El 15 in April, here.)

 Aymen El-Fikih (l), Mustapha Fakhfakh (r) photo: AFP

Tunisian rappers Mustapha Fakhfakh and Aymen El-Fikih for their part are about to go to trial for "insulting public officials" and "affronting morals" in the course of protests surrounding the trial of Weld El 15.

Orient-Institut Studies 2 (2013) - Inverted Worlds: Cultural Motion in the Arab Region

Volume 2 of Orient-Institut Studies (put out by the Orient-Institut Beirut and the Orient-Institut Istanbul) recently came out (the journal is published only online). It's the Proceedings of the Conference, "Inverted Worlds: Cultural Motion in the Arab Region," Beirut, October 4–8 2012. I've not had time to do more than skim some of the articles, but they are all about the Arab uprisings and culture. Since my main area of interest is music, I thought these essays seemed particularly interesting:

Yves Gonzalez-Quijano: Rap, an Art of Revolution or a Revolution in Art?

Ines Dallaji: Tunisian Rap Music and the Arab Spring: Revolutionary Anthems and Post-Revolutionary Tendencies

Stephan Procházka: The Voice of Freedom: Remarks on the Language of Songs from the Egyptian Revolution 2011

Simon Dubois: Street Songs from the Syrian Protests

Nader Srage: The Protest Discourse: The Example of “Irhal” (Go/Get Out/Leave)

And there are more articles on graffiti, poetry, jokes and more. All the articles are online. Please check it out.

Andalusian music responsible for the fall of Arab Spain, says the Imam of Zeitouna mosque (Tunisia)

In fact, Cheikh Houcine Laabidi put it this way, according to Tuniscope (14 September, 2013): reckoning that the Arabs were too preoccupied by their music, he argued that malouf (the brand of Andalusian music played in Tunisia) had contributed to the fall of the Islamic state of Andalusia. It seems he was exercised by the fact that Tunisian national television had broadcast concerts by the Tunisian malouf artist Zied Gharsa.

Malouf is the 'classical' Andalusian tradition as it is done in both Tunisia and in the city of Constantine in Algeria, and it is said to originate from Seville. Cheikh Raymond Leyris was a famous Jewish Algerian malouf practitioner from Constantine.

Here is Zied Gharsa:



PS (added September 25): This post got tweeted and a gentleman from Constantine commented that malouf is played throughout the Maghreb, not just Constantine. So I should clarify: Andalusian music is played throughout the Maghreb and malouf is the name for the Tunisian and Constantine variant. Elsewhere it's known variously as hawzi, gharnati, andalusi...

would supporters of Pussy Riot care about Al Haqed, Oday Khatib, Weld El 15?

Last August I posted a complaint about the vast discrepancy in Western media coverage and popular and celebrity solidarity between the case of Pussy Riot and that of Al Haqed. I've been ranting about the cases below on Facebook. A friend said I should consider asking the legions of Pussy Riot supporters and admirers to pay attention to these cases rather than mocking them for not doing so. So that's what I'm doing: Please, lovers of Pussy Riot (and I include myself in that camp), note these cases and publicize them, if you love music and the freedom of expression.

1. The Moroccan rapper Al Haqed (Mouad Belghouat) was released from prison on March 29, after serving a year's sentence for insulting a public official in his video, "Dogs of the State."



Predictably, not much publicity in the Western media. At least this from Huffington Post.

2. Sandy Tolan has been blogging about the 22 year-old Palestinian singer Oday Khatib,  who has been arrested and charged with throwing stones, which could send him to prison for up to 10 years. According to Tolan the evidence is ambiguous. Read about the case here. (The trial keeps getting postponed: the scheduled date is now April 17.) Nicola Perugini also reported on Oday for the LRB Blog.

Check out Oday's singing, backed by Ramzi Aburedwan.



3. Amira Masrour reported on tunisia live that Tunisian actress Sabrine Klibi and cameraman Mohamed Hedi Belgueyed were sentenced on March 21 to six months in prison for defaming police officers and contributing to civil disobedience, through their role in the video "Cops Are Dogs" (Boulicia Kleb) by rapper Weld El 15 (Ala Yaakoubi). Weld El 15, who is on the run, was sentenced to two years in absentia. HipHopDX reports that Tunisian rapper Emino, who was thanked in the credits section at the end of the music video, also received a two year sentence. He's on the run too. 

 

According to, Weld El 15, Masrour reports, the song was inspired by his prison experiences after the 2011 revolution and the treatment he received at the hands of the police. “‘Cops are Dogs’ is a song based on metaphors with which I wanted to send a message to policemen,” Yaakoubi said. “I wanted them to respect people so that people respect them.”

 

How about some solidarity from Ice Cube, a member of NWA? NWA's classic song "Fuck the Police" was massively condemned, and even prompted a letter of complaint to NWA's label, Priority, from the FBI director of public affairs. Cops throughout the country refused to provide security at many of NWA's concerts.

Or from Ice-T, whose group Body Count released the song "Cop Killer" in 1992. The song inspired so much outrage, ranging from President George Bush the First to various law enforcement agencies, that Ice-T felt compelled to recall the Body Count album and re-release it without "Cop Killer."

Both the Ice-T and the NWA cop songs are way, way more incendiary than Weld El 15's.

Where's the solidarity, folks?

El Général and Shadia Mansour at BAM, March 9

 Yes, the El Général from Tunisia. I have been going on for more than a year about how the role of hip-hop in the Arab Spring has been way overblown. Here, among other places. But if there is one rapper who has been really and truly integral to the Arab Spring, it is El Géneral. In November 2010 he put out the song “Rais Lebled” which fearlessly attacked the problems that Tunisia’s autocratic president (rais) Ben Ali had imposed on his people. “Rais Lebled” appeared on Youtube immediately before the protests that ensued after Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation, and it led to El Général’s imprisonment.Demonstrators in Tunisia are said to have chanted the words to “Rais Lebled” as they called for the release of El Général and for the end to Ben Ali's rule. (The blog Revolutionary Arab Rap posted an excellent account of El Général as well as links to vids and lyrics, in Arabic and English.)

So, this is a major occasion, the appearance of El Général at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and it's not to be missed--if tickets are still available.

Palestinian rapper Shadia Mansour has performed several times in the US, but she is well worth seeing too, especially on such a bill. (You may recall that I had my issues--ideological rather than artistic--with her song/video, "The Kufiya Is Arab," but I do admire her work a great deal.)

Also on the bill, Egyptian rapper El Deeb, with whose work I am less familiar, and Malian rapper Amkoullel, about whom I know very little.

Rounding out the bill, advertised as a rap event, is the Moroccan musician Brahim Fribgane. I've seen him over the years playing electric guitar in Hassan Hakmoun's band at the Essaouira Gnawa Festival in 1999; playing 'ud and guitar and doing vocals with La Mar Enfortuna at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music in September 2006; backing up Moroccan jazz singer Malika Zarra at Boom Restaurant in New York City in March 2007; and performing on 'ud with Gnawa artist Majid Bekkas in Fayetteville, Arkansas (yes! my hometown!) in October 2012. Fribgane is an all-around, extremely versatile talent, so you might expect any numbers of musical functions from him at BAM.

Fribgane and Bekkas were here as part of the Fall 2012 Caravanserai program. Caravanserai's artistic director is Zeyba Rahman, and she was here with the musicians in Fall. And she was even interviewed on Ozarks at Large.

It's the same Zeyba who is curating the BAM event. Way to go, Zeyba.

"Inverted worlds" - Congress on Cultural Motion in the Arab Region

I haven't had a chance to watch/listen to the papers yet, but I wanted to call this event to readers' attention. In October 2012, the Orient Institut Beirut sponsored a very interesting conference on Arab culture called "Inverted Worlds." I of course am particularly interested in the papers on music, but there is much more, papers on social media, graffiti, youth, visual art, humor, and so on.

Here are the music papers; they all sounded interesting to me:

Yves Gonzalez-Quijano(Université de Lyon): Arab Rap: a Culture of Revolution and a Revolution in Culture (check out Yves' excellent blog here)

Mark LeVine (University of California, Irvine): "Scripting" the Revolution: Music, movement, and the Arab Spring’s Auratic Momentum

Jackson Allers (Cultural writer and film maker): Arab Hip Hop – Rhymes and Revolution (Jackson covers the scene in Beirut, his blog is here)

Nicolas Puig (URMIS/CEMAM, USJ): Critical Sounds from the Periphery: Palestinian Electro in Lebanon (a list of Puig's pubs is here)

Ines Dallaji (University of Vienna): Tunisian Rap Music and the Arab Spring: Revolutionary Anthems and Post-Revolutionary Tendencies (Dallaji's dissertation in progress is: "Die Stimmen der Revolution. Tunesisch-arabische Rap-Musik als Ausdruck des Protests gegen das Regime Bin ʿAlī und die politischen Umbrüche in Tunesien 2010-11")

Stephan Prochazka (University of Vienna): The Voice of Freedom – Egyptian Revolution Pop: Provocation or Encouragement (a list of Prochazka's articles is here)

Simon Dubois (Université Lumière Lyon II): Street Songs from the Syrian Protests

PLUS: Discussion with members of Hip Hop Project Khat Thaleth, moderated by Ahmed Khouja aka Munaqresh. Participating artists: El Rass (Lebanon), Sayyed Darwish (Syria), Watar (Syria), El Far3i (Jordan), Zeid Khemiri (Armada Bizerta, Tunisia), Ahmed Galai Ezzar (Armada Bizerta, Tunisia).

Check it out here.

BBC World Service: Arab Jews - A Forgotten Exodus, Episode 2

Inside El Ghriba synagogue, Djerba, Tunisia

First broadcast on October 20, 2012.

Jewish communities that have survived in Arab countries for centuries are under a new threat. In the second part of a two part series Magdi Abdelhadi tells the story of the last few thousand Jews that remain in Arab countries and how they are surviving in “hostile” territory.

Travelling to Tunisia, he visits one of the oldest and most traditional Jewish diasporas in the world, a society that has stared threats in the face for centuries and is now being endangered once again. 

Following the revolution that took place in the country eighteen months ago, an alarming brand of extreme Islamism has emerged. There have been a number of Salafist demonstrations calling for death to the Jews and attacks on synagogues, which have spread fear and concern amongst this 1500 strong Jewish community. 

Magdi looks at how they are coping, whether their existence is under threat and what the future now holds for them as this new Islamist threat increases. 

Listen here. 

Gay Tunisia Kufiya

This is the cover of issue two of a new monthly gay publication out of Tunisia. Check out Gayday's online site. I guess that the kufiya here serves as a sign of cultural legitimacy. 

Robin Wright on Arab/Islamic Hip-Hop

Merip has a brand new blog, launched today. I intend to contribute posts on a regular basis--but I will not be abandoning hawgblawg by any means. My first was a meditation on how Robin Wright celebrates Arab/Islamic hip-hop in her book, Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World. Read it here.

And please check out the blog regularly. As of today, there are also posts by Chris Toensing and Laleh Khalili. Content will continue to flow.

Asian Dub Foundation, "History of Now" video: Tunisia and Egypt

Great song, great images of the struggles in Egypt and Tunisia



Here are the lyrics:

I give up I live up I fill up
Gotta keep my mind in motion
Gotta keep motion in my mind
Cut it out Leave it out take it out
All the things that make confusion
And diversions in these times
Breathing out Hold it out hold it down
buttoning down frustration out of neutral into drive
ray of hope keep afloat take a note
Need another survival strategy just to keep myself alive
Too many ideas buzzin round inside my brain
Live in the history of now
And I'm feelin like there's
Nothing left that I can really explain l
Live in the history Live in the history Of now
In a maze In a haze In a rage
Can't tell the difference between
My TV internet or me
Who is that Who is this Who said that
America's next top strictly dancing ghost celebrity
And I'm always phasing between blinding lights and the deafening sound
And I can't even make out the words
Or make them match up with the mouths
Too many ideas buzzing round inside my brain
Live in the history of now
And I'm feeling like there's nothing left that
I can really explain
Live in the history
Live in the history Of now

Eye to Eye
Gotta get back to the desert
Gotta get right back to my soul
Burning sky
Where every drop of rain Is a blessing to behold
Cos I can't be be a relay
On an expanding circuit board
My mind won't fit on a server somewhere I could never afford
You can't download the sun
You can't download the sea
You can't download the sun
You'll never download me
Too many ideas buzzin round inside my brain
Live in the history of now
And I'm feelin like there's
Nothing left that I can really explain l
Live in the history
Live in the history of Now

Tunisian rapper Hamada Ben Amor (El Général) arrested for releasing song online critical of Tunisian president

View El Géneral's powerful video here:

As Charles, who alerted me to this, remarked: if this were Iran, the US and European media would be all over the story.

Here's what Reuters writes about the story (via al-Arabiya), Friday, Jan. 7:

TUNIS (Reuters)

Tunisian police have arrested a rap singer who released a song critical of government policies as protests against President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's rule shook the North African nation, his brother said on Friday.

Police arrested 22-year-old Hamada Ben-Amor late on Thursday in the Mediterranean Sea coast city of Sfax, Hamdi Ben-Amor told Reuters.

"Some 30 plainclothes policemen came to our house to arrest Hamada and took him away without ever telling us where to. When we asked why they were arresting him, they said 'he knows why'," he said.

Ben-Amor is known to fans as The General. Last week he released a song on the internet titled 'President, your people are dying' that talks about the problems of the youth and unemployment.

The song came out as students, professionals and youths mounted a series of protests over a shortage of jobs and restrictions on public freedoms.

The protests have grown into the most widespread and violent flare-up of dissent of Ben Ali's 23-year rule.

Tunisian authorities on Thursday also arrested Aziz Amami, a well-known blogger, opposition militant Sofiene Chourabi said.

Security technology company Sophos said on Monday that "hacktivists" from a group calling itself 'Anonymous' had struck some official Tunisian websites, including those of Ben Ali, the government and the Tunisian stock exchange.

Tunisian officials had no immediate comment on either arrest.

I've only just been turned onto this website, featuring rap music from the Tunisian city of Bizerte. Check it out.

And here is more on El Général's arrest here, from al-Jazeera.

And...here is a translation of the opening of the song, courtesy this post.

“Mr President, today I speak to you in my name and in the name of all the people who live in suffering and pain. This is 2011 and yet, there are people who die in hunger, while others still look for a job to survive. But their voices are unheard…”