The Graying of the Raven : Cultural and Sociopolitical Significance of Algerian Folk Poetry

154 Pages·2001·6.05 MB·English

by  Aida Adib Bamia

The Graying
of the
Raven
This page intentionally left blank
Winner of the
AUC Middle East Studies Award
2000
The Graying
of the
Raven
Cultural
and
Sociopolitical Significance
0
Algerian Folk Poetry
Aida Adib Bamia
The American University in Cairo Press
Cairo New York
Copyright © 2001 by
The American University in Cairo Press
113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt
420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
www.aucpress.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
Dar el Kutub No. 7136/01
ISBN 977 424 667 5
Designed by Moody M. Youssef/AUC Press Design Center
Printed in Egypt
To the Algerian People
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Note on Transliteration xi
Introduction 1
Directions of This Study 6
A Source of History 6
Folk Poetry as Nostalgia 6
Map of Northern Algeria 9
1: The Power of Folk Poetry 11
Poetry as Messenger 12
Historical Overview 14
Folk Poetry as an Expression of National Identity 15
Folk Poetry as History 18
Folk Traditions and War 20
Folklore and French Colonialism 21
2: The History of the Malhun 23
Algerian Malhun: An Overview 23
Defining Malhun Poetry 23
Origins of the Malhun 25
Forms of Algerian Malhun 26
The Malhun: Memory of the People 27
The Good Fortune of Malhun Poetry 30
Fighting Oblivion 32
Poetic Folk Genres 34
Hawfi and Buqala: The Voices of Women 34
Ray: The Revival 34
Themes of Algerian Folk Poetry 34
The First Phase 35
viii —Content -
The Second Phase 36
The Third Phase 39
The Setif Massacres: A Turning Point in Algeria's History 42
Colonized Mentalities 44
The Mturni 48
3: Muhammad bin al-Tayyib cAlili: A Man for All Seasons 49
The Man 49
An Atypical Peasant 52
The Poet's Period 53
4: cAlili's Repertoire 57
The Poet 59
The Poems of Strength 60
Al-Qadum: An Array of Rural Traditions. 60
Al-Rawz: The Image of the Present and a Vision of the Future 68
The Trials of Tulba and Marabouts 79
Al-Humma fi Bu Halwan: Setting the Stage 79
Arab Versus Berber 86
Bidun cUnwan: Ethnic Tensions 86
The Kabyle Myth 89
The Poems of Weakness 92
The Poet and French Colonialism 92
Bayet fi cAfrun: Seeking a Wall 92
Al-Wagfa: The Reversal 96
Conclusion 101
The Poems 103
The Hoe 105
Rice 110
Burning Fever in Bu Halwan 114
Untitled Poem 118
Sleeping in cAfrun 120
Drought 121
Notes 125
Bibliography 129
Index 137
Acknowledgments
The completion of this book was possible thanks to the help of many people.
I would like first to express my heartfelt thanks to Walda Metcalf, who kind-
ly read the manuscript and made valuable suggestions, and insightful and
challenging comments. My thanks to Salma Jayyusi for her advice on the
rhythm and rhyme of Muhammad Bin al-Tayyib cAlili's poems. I am
extremely grateful to my friend Josette Le Doeuff for her hospitality during
my often lengthy visits to Paris and for graciously acting as a messenger
between me and Mohammed Hadj-Sadok. I am deeply grateful to Anissa
Masoudan for her help in gathering information on the buqala game and doc-
umenting traditional Algerian costumes and jewelry.
It is thanks to Yamina Kebir, a common friend of Mohammed Hadj-
Sadok and myself, that I met Hadj-Sadok. It is to Mohammed Hadj-Sadok,
however, that I owe my deepest gratitude, for sharing with me his large col-
lection of unpublished folk poems, those of Bin al-Tayyib cAlili and others
that await their turn to be published. I particularly thank him for his help in
deciphering and transcribing the poems, and for providing me with back-
ground information on the poet, his birthplace, and the persons with whom
he interacted and whose names appear in some of the poems. In a special
way he is the co-author of this book. My fervent thanks go to Mrs. Hadj-
Sadok as well, who in her own way adopted this project and supported her
husband's efforts.
A grant from the American Philosophical Society (1993) made this
research possible by providing me with financial support to spend one month
in Paris to consult with Hadj-Sadok. A Humanities Enhancement Scholarship
from the University of Florida allowed me to dedicate the summer of 1998 to
writing the first draft of this work.
I am grateful to my students at the universities of Constantine and
Annaba, with whom I often traveled through eastern Algerian villages to
collect folk texts. To all the Algerian families who opened their homes and
their hearts to share their memories with me I would like to extend my sin-
cerest thanks.