Marguerite-Fadhma Aït Mansour Amrouche ( in Tizi Hibel,

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

– July 9, 1967 in Saint-Brice-en-Coglès,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

) was a poet and folksinger.

Biography

She was born in 1882 in a

Kabylie Kabylia ('' Kabyle: Tamurt n Leqbayel'' or ''Iqbayliyen'', meaning "Land of Kabyles", '','' meaning "Land of the Tribes") is a cultural, natural and historical region in northern Algeria and the homeland of the Kabyle people. It is part of ...

village, the illegitimate daughter of a widow. Facing harsh discrimination from within her surroundings, she left her village to study at a

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

school. Later, when she was with the Sisters at Aït Manguellet hospital, she converted to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. She met another Kabyle Catholic convert, Antoine-Belkacem Amrouche, whom she married in 1898 or 1899. They had eight children together, including writers Jean Amrouche and Taos Amrouche, but only two of the children would remain living by the time of her death. The family first moved to

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

, where Taos was born, and then France. During her lifetime, she made a considerable impact on the works of Jean and Taos. The folk songs she sang to her family were compiled and translated to

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

by Jean in 1939 as ''Chants berbères de Kabylie''. In 1967, Taos made a music album in Kabyle bearing the same title as Jean's folk song collection. Her autobiography ''Histoire de ma vie'' was published posthumously in 1968. This book discusses mainly about the life she lived as a woman living in two different worlds: between the traditional Kabyle life and language and the colonial power France, its language, and particularly its predominant religion,

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...

Biography

References

Further reading