Back to the villageI followed Idir’s songs back to his home village At Lahcène (At Yenni) in the Djurdjura mountains. I also spoke at length with the poet with whom Idir collaborated in the early years, Mohamed Benhamadouche (better known as Ben Mohamed). How could Idir and Ben Mohamed show their own traditional practices through a new lens? Idir’s songs would also set the stage for the more politicised music that would accompany the Berber Cultural Movement of the 1980s. It was also the first Algerian song to play on French national radio, in 1975, coinciding with the first visit of a French president (Valéry Giscard d’Estaing) to Algeria since Algerian independence in 1962.

Source: The North Africa Journal July 06, 2020 15:22 UTC