1998, ISBN: 9781156223062

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: … More...

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Lounès Matoub (Kabyle: Lwennas Meub, Tifinagh: , often credited as Matoub Lounès in French sources) (January 24, 1956 June 25, 1998) was a famous Berber Kabyle singer and mondol player who was a prominent advocate of the Berber cause and secularism in Algeria throughout his life. He Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Lounès Matoub (Kabyle: Lwennas Meub, Tifinagh: , often credited as Matoub Lounès in French sources) (January 24, 1956 June 25, 1998) was a famous Berber Kabyle singer and mondol player who was a prominent advocate of the Berber cause and secularism in Algeria throughout his life. He is revered as a hero and martyr in Kabylie and the Berber World but reviled by most of the Arab population in Algeria for his atheism and the alleged blasphemy of some songs (like Allahu Akbar) along with his militant advocacy of Berber rights, therefore unpopular among both warring parties during Algerian Civil War. His assassination, in circumstances which remain unclear, provoked violent riots in Kabylie. Berber Algerians still accuse the Algerian regime of killing Matoub Lounes. Some Algerian regime's figures accused the islamist terrorists of this crime. Lounes Matoub was born on 24 January 1956 in the village of Taourirt Moussa in Kabylie. 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 19631964. In 1968 the Algerian government introduced a policy of Arabization in the education system. Matoub reacted by skipping school; his memoirs 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. Matoub began his singing career under the patronage of the established Kabyle singer Idir. He recorded his first album Ay Izem (The Lion) in 1. Books, , People-Murdered-In-Algeria~~Books-Llc, , , , , , , , , , Books LLC<