In 1975 her parents were forced to flee their homeland in Western Sahara when war against the occupying forces of Morocco broke out. In May 2016, Brahim released her latest album, Abbar el Hamada (Across the Hamada).
The release held a special significance for Brahim. “On this date, we reached 41 years of the illegal occupation, Diaspora and resistance on the exile at the desert,” she says. “We became the oldest refugee population in the world and the evaluation of all those years could be treated with the blues because it is a very sad story.”
Although the armed conflict ended in 1991, Saharawi citizens are still subjected to abuse, detention and mistreatment at the hands of the Moroccan administrators. The unresolved political situation continues to separate families and has displaced 160,000 people.
As a young teenager Aziza travelled to Cuba for her secondary school studies. There she experienced firsthand the deep Cuban economic crisis of the ‘90s and the subsequent denial of her request to pursue a university degree in music. She returned to the Saharawi camps in Algeria and began singing and playing in different musical ensembles, a process that continued when she moved to Spain in 2000.
Despite never seeing her homeland, Brahim has an acute sense of belonging to the Western Sahara. She hopes that her music will rouse the international community to her people’s plight.
“I need to express myself and spread awareness of my people’s struggle and vindications,” says Brahim. “I wanted to put the focus on this issue as a shaming failure of international justice.”
Brahim sings mainly in her mother tongue Hassaniya and also plays the tbal, a traditional instrument that symbolises the prominent position Saharawi woman hold in society and culture. “My grandmother, Ljadra Mint Mabruk is a great poet, a leading figure of Saharawi culture,” she says.
“When I was a child she shared with me her love for poetry and music. She praised my voice and always encouraged me to sing. She gave me her poems to make tunes and sing them. I feel I have to care for her legacy and follow her example as an artist, as a woman and as human being.”
Brahim’s music explores the connection of cultures between her homeland and the surrounding areas. Abbar el Hamada has hit #1 on Europe’s world music chart, arriving as a wholly persuasive example of Brahim’s vision. It’s her most compelling and varied album to date.
“I wanted to create a dialogue between different musical territories that are near to my culture and into my musical influences: Ali Farka Touré and Salif Keita, for instance,” says Brahim. “The music of Mali, especially the desert blues, has always been and still remains an ongoing process of discovery and a constant source of learning”
Despite the daunting hardships faced during her upbringing, Brahim discovered that creativity could prevail. “It wasn’t a propitious environment for the art. But on the other side, art could help to resist in the most unfavorable situations. I understand music as a resistance strategy, because since I was a child, music helped me to tolerate different inclemencies.”
Brahim is looking forward to performing material from Abbar el Hamada with her band at The Brunswick Music Festival. “I hope to discover a wonderful land, to transmit good waves and to connect with the public.”
By George Hyde
