Berbers, Islam & Christianity

New English Review ^ | 17 January 2008 | Hugh Fitzgerald

[najida]

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=836

Out of Algeria has come Rai music, the ‘rebel’ or liberal (its a good word for us) music that has caused many to move to Paris for safety and a few to be killed by extremists.

[forkinsocket]

Ah, rai!* I love it, but most of my Maghrebiyya music is Chaabi. It’s very similar!

*I don’t know if you know, but rai means something like “yeah!” Kinda like the Arabic wallah.

[najida]

I think Rai is my absolute, can’t go wrong on a bad day, music. Cheb Khaled, Rachid Tayha, Cheb Mami, Faudel etc are mainstains in my music library. It’s just pure plain good! Abdel Kadir is one of those songs that my students love and automatically like to dance to.

I’ve heard that Rai also means “our voice” which can also be like “yallah” (granted, that’s what I heard years ago)

[najida]

Oh!
Speaking of chaabi—— then you know Hakim?? :)

[forkinsocket]

It literally means “opinion,” so I guess I see how you can get “our voice” from that. I’m a Mashreqiyyah, so I don’t know for sure, but I think that Rai was originally Bedouin folk before it was influenced by different traditions.

Yeah, yallah is one of those exclamatory words that can mean a lot of different things, but I’d match rai more closely with wallah.

Right now I’m listening to Manich Mana sung by Cheba Zina. Awesome song to dance to!

[forkinsocket]

Chaabi Habibi Hakim? Why yes, I do. *plays it right now* :)

[forkinsocket]

Chaabi Habibi Hakim? Why yes, I do. *plays it right now* :)

[Traveler59]

Thanks for posting this. I had been temporarily assigned to the Middle East a number of times (CENTCOM) and was aware of some differences, say between the Egyptians and the Saudi's or between the Kuwaitis' and the Iraqi's. But I was unaware that the Berber culture was still dominate in large areas of North Africa.

I made a statement and I'll stand by it, that the most intelligent articles and open/honest debates happen on Free Republic. I'm glad I found it...

-Traveler

[najida]

Thanks for the heads up!

She’s on You Tube— WHOO HOO! Thanks so much.

[forkinsocket]

Let me know if you want me to mail you the mp3 of my favorite raks baladi song. I don’t know if all her songs are on youtube.

[najida]

Yes!

Sending you a freepmail.

[null and void]

She’s on You Tube

How about a link for the rest of us?

[forkinsocket]

Nourhan.

Cheba Zina.

Enjoy!

[najida]

Sorry
Two by Cheba (girl singer) Zina

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HbTxdji-rk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83AZALOtEUM

And my favorite by Chebs (guy singers) KHALED-RACHID TAHA - FAUDEL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0Q1MDce6OY

[najida]

Habibi ya Einy! That is the perfect song....about 6 changes in rhythm, slow, fast, slurpy sections....great drums....cute lyrics....

(Once upon a time, about 10 years ago, we worked on a choreo to the older version of that song....took us so long to perfect it, we hated it when we had it right :) )

[forkinsocket]

Classic song. I’ve never heard a version of it that I didn’t like, but this one is the one I’ve been dancing to constantly lately.

Have you heard musiqa Mizrahit?

[najida]

Nope! got a link :)?

[ZULU]

“For what is Islam if not a vehicle of Arab imperialism, and what are the Berbers, if not the victims of that Arab imperialism, an imperialism far more potent and long-lasting than the European kind, for it attempts to efface the historic identity of whole peoples?”

This is effectual genocide. There is a reason the Muslims are so intent upon destroying the past in countries Islam has invaded and areas whose cultures they have destroyed.’

This is a perfect example.

The Berbers had a civilization pre-dating the Romans. The Libyans served in the armies of the Pharaohs (when they were not fighting them), the Tauregs (from Arabic “accursed of God) call themselves by another name and practice a superficial form of unorthodox Islam.

MORE attention should be given to these people. MORE pressure should be exerted against their Saudi Wahhbist directed masters and LESS time should be spent prancing arm in arm and sword on shoulder with fanatical anti-Semitic and anti-western dictators grown fat on oil profits provided by the west.

But there are more than mere companies who have incestuous relationships with these enemies of western civilization and their subject people.

[null and void]

One good music referral deserves another:

Yé Ké Yé Ké

Haven't a clue what to call the genre, nor the language, but I like it...

[ZULU]

They are related branches of the Afro-Asiatic Lingusitic Family. Berber and ancient Libyan, as well as some north Africa langauges fall into this family and are all closely related to Ancient Egyptian. The Semitic Langauges form an eastern subdivision of this same lingusitic family.