Marguerite-Fadhma Aït Mansour Amrouche ( in Tizi Hibel,

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

– July 9, 1967, in

Saint-Brice-en-Coglès Saint-Brice-en-Coglès (, pronounced as ''Saint-Brice-en-Cogles''; ) is a former commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Maen Roch.France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

) was a poet and folksinger.

Biography

She was born in 1882 in a

Kabylie Kabylia or Kabylie (; in Kabyle language, Kabyle: Tamurt n leqbayel; in Tifinagh: ⵜⴰⵎⵓⵔⵜ ⵏ ⵍⴻⵇⴱⴰⵢⴻⵍ; ), meaning "Land of the Tribes" is a mountainous coastal region in northern Algeria and the homeland of the Kaby ...

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 , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...

school. Later, when she was with the

Sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to ref ...

s at Aït Manguellet hospital, she converted to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. 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 Marie-Louise-Taos Amrouche (March 1913 – 2 April 1976) was an Algerian writer and singer. In 1947, she became the first Algerian woman to publish a novel. Biography She was born in Tunis, Tunisia, into a family of Kabyle people, Kabyle ...

, but only two of the children were still alive at the time of her death. The family first moved to

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

, where Taos was born, and then to 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 by Jean in 1939 as ''Chants berbères de Kabylie''. In 1967, Taos made a

music album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th centur ...

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, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

Biography

References

Further reading