Taos Amrouche

Marie-Louise-Taos Amrouche was born on the 4^th March 1913 in Tunis, Tunisia; she died on the 2^nd April 1976 in Saint-Michel-l'Observatoire, France. She was a writer and a singer from Algeria. She became the first woman to publish a novel in the country in the year 1947.

source of picture: algerienetwork.com

Biography

She was conceived to the family of Kabyle Roman Catholic convert, the only sister in the family of 6 boys. Her family had relocated to Tunisia to dodge the persecution after their conversion into the Christian world.

Her mother Fadhma Ait Mansour, who was a popular Kabyle singer impacted positively to her life and her literary pattern reflected the oral tradition of Kabylie berber people of her mother’s heritage. She got her primary education as well as her secondary education in Tunis, and in the year 1935, she went to France to study at the École Normale at Sèvres. From the year 1936, together with her elder brother, Jean Amrouche and her mother, she collected and started to interpret the Kabyle music. In the year 1939, at the Congrès de Chant de Fès, she got a scholarship to study at the Casa Valasquez in Spain, and it was there that she made research on the ties between the Berber and the Spanish popular songs.

Her first Autobiographical novel called Jacinthe Noir, was published in the year 1947 and is one of the earliest French novel to be published in the Northern Part of Africa. With her collection of tales and poems called La Grain magique, which was done in the year 1966, she took the nom de plume Marguerite-Taos, Marguerite being the Christian name of her mother.

While she was writing in French, she was also singing in Kabyle. The first album she dropped called Chants berbères de Kabylie (1967) that was a heavy success, as a compilation of the traditional kabyle songs, which had been translated into French by her Brother Jean. She recorded many albums, including the Chants sauvés de l’oubli, incatations, méditations et danses sacrées berbères (1974), as well as the Chants berbères de la meule et du berceau (1975).

Amrouche was an activist in the Berber problems and she was among the founders of the Académie berbère in the year 1966.

Amrouche died in Saint-Michel-l'Observatoire in France.

Bibliography

Ø  Jacinthe noire (1947) - reprint Joëlle Losfeld (1996), ISBN 2-909906-63-9

Ø  La Grain magique (1966) - reprint La Découverte (2000), ISBN 2-7071-2578-4

Ø  Rue des tambourins (1969) - reprint Joëlle Losfeld (1996), ISBN 2-909906-62-0

Ø  L’Amant imaginaire (1975)

Selected discography

Ø  Chants berbères de Kabylie (1967)

Ø  Chants De L'Atlas (Traditions Millénaires Des Berbères D'Algérie) (1970)

Ø  Incantations, méditations et danses sacrées berbères (1974)

Ø  Chants berbères de la meule et du berceau (1975)

Ø  Au Theatre De La Ville (1977)