Noura, "Amirouche" (+ a Scopitone)

Isn't the jacket for this 45 rpm amazing?

The song "Amirouche" (listen here), a tribute to Amirouche Aït Hamouda, a hero of the Algerian war of independence. A lieutenant in the Army of National Liberation (ALN) and head of the Third Wilaya, he was killed in battle with the French colonial forces on March 28, 1959.  Read more about him here. The record was released on the Algerian label La Voix Du Globe -- I'm not sure in what year.

Noura (1942-2014) was one of Algeria's great female artists, who recorded over 500 sides, in Arabic, Berber (Kabyle/Taqbaylit) and French and in a variety of genres, in both France and Algeria, between the fifties and the eighties. Read more here.

And please check out this Scopitone from Noura, "Ammi Belkacem."

Salah Sadaoui's Scopitone: "Nezouedj Ouahdi"

I love this Scopitone from 1968. The Algerian Kabyle singer Salah Sadaoui, who migrated to France in 1954 and made his career as a singer there, appears in this scopitone as an Algerian immigrant who gets all dressed up, goes out, picks up a blonde chick, gets into a fight with a guy over the girl, beats him up, is arrested and jailed, and gets beat up by the French police. He shows a comic flare through the piece. It all happens in 2 minutes and 19 seconds.

Sadaoui often sang about the problems of the migrant, including the difficulties that ensued from trying to hook up with European women. The title of the song, "Nezouedj Ouahdi," means, roughly, "I'll get married on my own," that is, I'll arrange my marriage by myself, like a "modern" European. It won't be an arranged marriage. The real point, however, seems to be the very typical mistreatment of Algerian immigrants by French police. I find it surprising that Scopitone allowed the filming of such blatant racist cop violence. 

Read more about Sadaoui here. And here for a documentary in French about Scopitones in Arabic and Berber, called Trésors des Scopitones.

Cheikh Hasnaoui, "Bnat essohba" (rumba)

Ya bnat essohba

Ya bnat el ghorba

We-chtih er-rumba
Ihabou lbal

We-chtih er-rumba 
(corrected April 15)

(Filles de compagnie 

Filles de l’exil 

Elles aiment le bal  

Et la danse de la rumba)

A rumba from Cheikh Hasnaoui

Cheikh Hasnaoui, born Mohammed Khelouat (1910-2002). One of Algeria's great chaabi singers, from a small town near Tizi Ouzou in Kabylia. Much of his career was spent in France, from 1938, and he is considered one of the great Algerian singers of the exile experience. He recorded in both Arabic and Berber, and is regarded as both a great master of chaabi and one of the originators of modern Kabyle music.

El Menfi (Banishment): Akli Yahiaten & Rachid Taha

Rachid Taha first recorded "Menfi" on his 1998 album Diwân. He reprised it on his Rachid Taha Live album (2001), giving it a real kick-ass rock treatment (listen here), and by he also performs it with Khaled on Faudel on the famous 1-2-3 Soleils album (1999) (you can listen here).

I just came across a version of the original, which you can check out above. The song was written by Algerian Kabyle composer and singer Akli Yahiaten, who migrated to Paris in 1952, was a supporter of the FLN (the Algerian National Liberation Front), and composed "El Menfi (Banishment)" while in prison (for the second time), in 1959, for collecting funds for the FLN.

I located a transliteration of the Arabic lyrics here. And a translation of most of the lyrics here, where there are also some more versions of the song. I've tried to correct some mistakes in both the transliteration and translation, but there's a lot more to be done, and I'm sure I've made mistakes. So this is a work in progress -- and I hope someone will see this who knows Algerian dialect and will help out.

UPDATED, April 16, 2012. I came across this article, which has a better transcription, and translation (in French), of verse three, so I've made some more changes: Hadj Miliani, "Variations linguistiques et formulation thématiques dans la chanson algérienne au cours du XXe siècle: Un parcours," in Jocelyne Dakhlia, ed., Trames de langues: Usages et métissages linguistiques dans l'histoire du Maghreb, Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 2004, p. 433.

REFRAIN
Goulou lemmi ma tebkish Ya el menfi (Tell my mother not to cry/O banishment)
Weldak rebbi ma yikhelik Ya el menfi (God will look after your son/O banishment)

Aw ya dakhal fi wast bibaan Ya el menfi
Aw al-saba‘a fih el gadaan Ya el menfi  (bis)
Aw galouli kashi al-doukhaan ya el menfi
Wana fi wasthum dehshaan ya el menfi

REFRAIN

Aw ki dawni le tribunal Ya el menfi (When they took me to court)
Aw djadarmiya kbaar wa sghaar Ya el menfi (Gendarmes large and small)
Aw tisensla tewzen qantar Ya el menfi (And the chain weighs a ton [one qintal, 100 kg.)
Aw derbouni b‘aam wa nhaar Ya el menfi (And they beat me for a year and a day)

REFRAIN

‘Ala dekhla haffuli al-ras Ya el menfi (When I entered they shaved my head)
Aw ‘atawni zura wa paillasse Ya el menfi (And gave me a blanket and a straw-filled mattress)
Wel prévôt ‘alaya ‘assaas Ya el menfi (The military police who surveils us)
‘Ala tamenya tesma‘a silence Ya el menfi (At eight you hear: silence)

REFRAIN

Ah ya gelbi wash dak taif Ya el menfi (My heart is revolted)
Aw el-soupa dayman kif-kif Ya el menfi (The share [of food] is always the same)
Aw el gamila ma‘amra bi el ma Ya el menfi (The bowl is filled with [mere] water)
Aw li gralou ionim [?] fiha Ya el menfi (And cockroaches swim in it)

And here is a link to some more vids from Akli Yahiaten.