Gigi - Ejigayehu Shibabaw

I am audio browsing through the discography of Gigi, perhaps Ethiopia's most well known contemporary songstress.

There are many sensational Ethiopian women singers out there but Gigi will remain my favourite for sure.

There's another world that few singers open, an outworldly place where the voice resonates further than what lyrics can ever hope to reach and pass on, when words become scales in order to allow the calligraphy of vocals, messages that transcend language, so that all is clear, intelligible, beauty full ... or maybe I'm just making do with not understanding :-) .

Anyways, thanks Gigi for this beautiful song 'Ethiopia' that for me comes at a time when I was seriously considering dropping my project. Ethiopia is still far, but perhaps not that far.

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Books on the 'Hirak' - fiction, poetry, and non-fiction

(photo credit: Yacine Bouaziz ) Every Friday, for the past 38 weeks*, men and women with their children have been peacefully demonstrating in Algeria, reclaiming public space and demanding a complete overhaul of the political landscape. In the country, these demonstrations are described as part of a larger whole: the " hirak " (less often harak ), 'the movement'. It was of course only a matter of time before the hirak became the main subject in books. So far, non-fiction leads with analyses and commentaries of this nationwide movement, written in Arabic and French, by single authors or collectives, published as early on as May 2019 (demonstrations began on 16 February 2019). The hirak has also crossed into poetry and fiction. Khaled Ben Salah's poetry collection " diary of an African man who wears a floral shirt and smokes L&M's in the time of the revolution " was published by El Mutawassit editions in October (see an excerpt...

Moufdi Zakaria - The Algerian Ilyad

I am over the moon to have found a PDF version of the original Algerian Ilyad by the great Algerian war poet Moufdi Zakaria. As it is the original version, it is in Arabic HERE (thanks to archive.org, a fantastic e-resource for old books, you should check it out). You can access the book in other formats too HERE . The Algerian Iliad - إلياذة الجزائـر - l' Iliade algé rienne is a 1,000 line poem retracing Algeria's history in great historical details. Throughout, Cheikh Zakaria recounts all the names that have shapped the Algeria's history. He goes through all the regions' history and their greatest most emblematic figures. This poem is so valuable and beautiful. It should be on the curriculum of any Arabic and history cursus in Algeria. Perhaps it is and/or you know this poem? Who is Cheikh Moufdi Zakaria? Well, on 5th of July, three days from now, Algeria will celebrate 50 years of independence. A tremendous poem wa...

Waciny Laredj

Waciny Laredj's Les Fantômes de Jérusalem [The ghosts of Jerusalem]. This novel looks like it is this author's latest translated novel to have appeared in French. It was out on 4 May 2012 published by Actes Sud. Cant' wait to get my hands on it, definitely my next read after Aziz Chouaki . Waciny Laredj (al-3aradj الأعرج ) is a contemporary Algerian novelist who writes in Arabic. Born in 1954. He has been translated in French quite widely but no English. I mean NONE (that I can find). Darn it, can someone please translate him into English! The fantastic ArabLit blog compiled an excellent profile for him HERE .

Machaho Tellem Chaho

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