A new book translates Amazigh songs into Arabic, revealing that some of the lyrics are attributed to their singers rather than those who wrote and composed them. It was signed by the poet Mohamed Mostaoui, with the poems being recorded in their original language, written in Arabic letters.
These verses were sung by Moroccan musical groups and musicians, including prominent names such as: “Ousmane”, “Iznzarne”, Amouri Mubarak, “Laryash Group”, “Ikhwan Mustaoui”, Abdelmajid Karabi and Ali Shohad “Arshach”. The poems were translated, although “the rose will not retain its beauty if it is plucked from its source (…) and the fish loses its vitality and life as soon as it leaves its birthplace”; however, “no one, whether poet or prose writer, has the right to keep them, because the word is human before it is national”, and “the word was, is and will remain a link between individuals and groups; and thus between humanity’s past, present and future”.
This book, dedicated “to those who do not want what is not theirs, those who do not steal what is not theirs, whether it is words or anything else,” was opened by its author with “a poet’s cry,” in which he says: “When I published the collection of poems, Asays Al-Marqas, in 1988, I referred in an appendix to the collection to an inherited pathological phenomenon, which is the phenomenon of backwardness among many artists (…) from the category of Rawis and Taraisin and some contemporary groups (…) I documented most of the poems that were stolen in my collections without consulting me, and without mentioning the name of the poet Mohamed Mostaoui in writing or voice. I resorted to this court and that against the companies that promoted the tapes containing my words, and the judiciary ruled in my favor according to the law.”
The poet Mohamed Mostaoui added: “The groups, or most of them, continued to ignore the copyright (…) which made me record some of my sung poems in this book, and they were registered in the civil status of others,” while warning him of the “moral and psychological harm” he suffered because of listening to a sung masterpiece without mentioning the name of its poet, such as: Tabrat, Amta Ouhou, Mamenk Ouriala, Ijder Wakaal Ajdik, Kitigd Ajdik Oumlil, and Tillas.
The book highlighted the danger of this phenomenon to the Moroccan musical memory as preserved by academic research: “When a student transcribes tapes and other materials to complete a university study, he of course does not find the names of the poets; so the poetic text is attributed to this singer or that one who does not master the correct pronunciation of what they unjustly attributed to themselves.”
Thus, “we have carried corruption from the corrupt to university studies, and the student researcher is not to be blamed because he dealt with the one in front of him, and the citizen listener is not to be blamed when he thought and thinks that the song so-and-so was sung by him and his group, or by the so-and-so leader and the so-and-so leader, and the lyrics are not, for example, by the poet Hajj Ahmed Rabah and the poet Omar Barghout, for their silence and their acceptance that the daughters of their thoughts be registered in the civil status of others for a symbolic fee, and without any fee.”
Among those who bear responsibility for this sin against Moroccan poetic memory are “the receiving public, especially the educated, and the audio-visual and written media; everyone must work to eradicate this malignant inherited tumor, to protect those with rights, the psyche of creators, and university studies,” knowing that this problem that the Soussi, Atlas, and Rifian Amazigh song suffers from is also suffered to a lesser degree by Moroccan popular song in the vernacular, “and the specialists in it must expose what is hidden.”
The new book, which calls attention to the need to care for the artists of the rais and study their moral and material situation and protect their art from the distortion claimed to be “development”, includes among its messages a message to the “Amazigh artist” in which the author Mohamed Mostaoui says: “You must abandon the heritage that says: You will not be an artist unless you are a poet, a composer and have an acceptable voice. If you have one of the three pillars, then you are an artist, and you must cooperate with those who have what you do not have.”
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2024-08-31 15:08:21
