Agadir’s Timitar Festival Continues to Honour Berber Culture

by Daniel Brown

Article published on the 2009-06-19 Latest update 2009-07-12 14:15 TU

The Atlantic town of Agadir is better known for its mass tourism than its rich Berber traditions. Yet, for the past six years, the Timitar music festival and its Artistic Director Brahim El Mazned have been transforming decades of neglect and ignorance into huge annual gatherings around Berber groups like Amarg Fusion and international stars like Alpha Blondy. World Tracks previews the sixth edition by talking to these two artists who did much to make the 2008 festival such a success.

Timitar remains one of Africa’s most popular free festivals. It is set in the Moroccan resort town of Agadir, better known for its sordid concrete coastline and never-ending stream of European tourists keen on enjoying cheap package holidays.

Timitar could not be further than that reality. It promotes a unique mixture between local Berber music and sounds from around the world. And once again this July, heavy machinery will grace the Al Aamal square, where last year up to 100,000 people gathered in an atmosphere that came close to being delirious…

Organisers are again promising five days and 40 concerts with the likes of Carlinhos Brown and Max Romeo, Titi Robin and Menwar, the Kenyan

Alpha Blondy
(Photo: D Brown)

Makadem and VBH of Cameroon… not to mention the dozens of local Berber stars that sometimes make these concerts feel like football games.

Timitar’s artistic director Brahim El Mazned will again try to contain this energy which sometimes comes dangerously close to degenerating into violence.

Just months after crowd panic killed nine people at Rabat’s Mawazine festival, he is working closely with security officials to contain any excesses.

Toudart
(Photo: D Brown)

As those of you who followed last year’s programme know, Timitar means “signs” in the local Beber language called “shleuh”. Its promotion of “shleuh” music has been one of its most encouraging signs of cultural investment in the region. But there is also a steadfast refusal to make this development hermetic.

One of the groups which has opened up to reggae music, for example is Amarg Fusion. Their second album Argan d’Oufgan, coproduced by Timitar, mixes the local argan oil culture with reggae beats. Incidentally, Amarg Fusion’s founding member Foulane Bouhssine is once again playing at this year’s festival.

Amarg Fusion’s lead singer Ali Faeq lives in a small village 75 kilometres south of Agadir. There, he says, the problems of drought and deforestation is devastating the region leaving a bleak perspective for future generations. Much of his band’s lyrics focus on this imminent ecological disaster.

There is a similar engagement in Alpha Blondy’s 28 year career. The Ivorian was in petulant form in Agadir after his 2008 concert at Timitar. He saw obvious musical links between West and North Africa.

“For me, it’s the same, big, diverse African culture,” he told World Tracks after his concert. “It’s what I tried to show in my latest album Jah Victory where you can hear the darbouka (percussions), the Oriental lute called the ‘oud and the belly-dancing flute (sic.).

I wanted to create cultural bridges between different African music cultures. We’ve got the biggest diversity on the globe, a real cultural rainbow.”

Alpha Blondy’s 18^th album, recorded in the Côte d’Ivoire, France and Jamaica has been highly praised. But it is somewhat spoiled by a track called “Mister Grande Gueule,” or “Mister Big Mouth.” This is a scathing and rather puerile attack against rival reggaeman Tiken Jah Fakoly that completely misses its mark. It only reveals Blondy’s wild changes of mood and unforgiving nature. It’s so far from the spirit of reconciliation and Jah Love he so promotes.

Quiz of the week.

What is the name of the village that Amarg Fusion singer Ali Faeq hails from? It is 75 kilometres south of Agadir.

The answer is in the programme. You are invited to listen to it and send your answers to [e-mail].