Larbi Batma, Nass el-Ghiwane and Postcolonial Music in Morocco

Established in 1971, Nass el-Ghiwane is a legendary musical group that transformed the Moroccan music scene in the last decades of the 20th century.
The charismatic founding member Larbi Batma (1948–1997) through his lyrics brought to light Moroccan folklore and obscure poetry. His autobiography Al-raḥīl, blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction and deals with social issues plaguing post-independence Morocco. Providing a reading of Al-raḥīl, this book is the first in English to examine the work of Nass el-Ghiwane, as well as the emergence of al-Ūghniya al-Ghīwāniya as a musical genre and the social conditions that fostered its growth.

Lhoussain Simour is an assistant professor of English and cultural studies at Hassan II University, Casablanca, Morocco. His research interests include cultural studies, colonial discourse analysis, and postcolonial literature.

Lhoussain Simour

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 220
Bibliographic Info: 27 photos, discography, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2016
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6414-9
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2581-2
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments v
Foreword by Alessandra Ciucci 1
Preface 3
Introduction 7
I. Disturbing the Canon: ­Non-Canonical Voices in Postcolonial Moroccan Writing 21
II. Narrating Marginality and ­Reinventing the Periphery: Larbi Batma’s Al-raḥīl (The Departure) between ­Self-Narration, Individual Agony and National Allegory 35
III. Euphonious Voice(s) from the Margin: Nass ­el-Ghiwane and the Making of Alternative Popular Music 93
Conclusion 177
Discography 185
Chapter Notes 191
Bibliography 201
Index 209