Alex Hughes. Encyclopedia of Contemporary French Culture

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had work performed in the country

(Abdelkader Ben Hachmy, Ahmed Belhachmi).

Most recently, however, francophone drama-

tists have found their audiences and publish-

ers in France. Abdelkébir Khatibi’s The Veiled

Prophet (Le Prophète voilé) was performed in

1979. Tahar Ben Jelloun’s La Fiancée de l’eau

(Water Bride), staged in April 1984 at the

Théâtre Populaire de Lorraine, evokes the ten-

sions of the village communities left behind

by the migrant workers.

In Tunisia, Arab tradition is more important

than francophone influence in all areas of lit-

erature, despite the country’s relative openness

to Western culture. The popular plays of Habib

Boularès were usually written and staged in

Arabic, but Le Temps d’El Boraq (The Time of

Dreams), staged in Tunis in November 1969,

was published in French and Arabic versions in

1979. The members of a Tunisian family in a

fishing village, shaken by contemporary social

conflicts, articulate their very different aspira-

tions and interests (the educated children, with

their urban ambitions and socialist values; the

parents, with their reluctance to abandon their

patriarchal Islamic conservatism, the basis of a

hard-won and precarious sense of security). An

uneasy compromise is reached, at the expense

of the women. Realistic, often comic language

alternates with lyrical dream-voice episodes,

with voices and persons speaking in isolation

or caught back into communion, forced to ex-

change discourses by the pressure of history, fig-

ured in the simple plot. The linguistic anarchy

models the ferment produced by the introduc-

tion of Western subject positions, represented

as critical and revolutionary, into traditional hi-

erarchies. Fawzi Mellah’s Néron ou les oiseaux

de passage (Nero or Birds of Passage) from

1975, and Le Palais du non-retour (The Palace

of No Return) of 1975, use violent satirical

melodrama to denounce a decolonization proc-

ess which has left Western capitalism more

firmly entrenched in the Third World. The West-

ern audience written into the text is harangued

from the stage for its collusion in genocide.

Mohammed Moncef Métoui’s Messieurs…je

vous accuse (Gentlemen… You Stand Accused),

an attack on the effects of absolute power, Eu-

ropean influence and francophonie in Tunisia,

was published in France (in French) in 1982.

Most francophone dramatic activity has

come from Algeria—the work of writers who

operate either in Algeria when conditions per-

mit, or otherwise in France and the rest of

Europe, playing both to immigrant communi-

ties and to avant-garde European audiences.

There is keen ideological debate whether the

activity of Maghrebin writers who made

France their primary base (Camus, for exam-

ple) can be included in the history of

Maghrebin culture. In any event, the most sig-

nificant dramatic activity begins in the period

1955–70, stimulated by the call of the Alge-

rian Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) on

20 August 1956, for plays, poems and prose

in support of the armed struggle. Mustapha

Kateb became director of the Troupe du FLN

in 1958, and during the Algerian war toured

the world with his militant productions. Di-

rector of the Théâtre National Algérien (at in-

dependence) and joint organizer of the Institut

National d’Art Dramatique (INAD) from 1964

to 1973, he withdrew in 1972 in opposition

to the decentralization of the theatre, and then

returned as head of the national theatre at the

end of the 1980s. INAD reopened in 1986.

Dramatists in the 1950s and 1960s concen-

trated on topics related to the war: from Henri

Kréa (pseudonym of Cachin), who published

Le Séisme (Earthquake) in 1958 and Théâtre

algérien (Algerian Theatre) in 1962, to Kadour

M’Hamsadji’s 1959 La Dévoilée (Woman

Without a Veil), Mouloud Mammeri’s Le

Foehn ou la preuve par neuf (The Foehn),

staged in 1967, and Assia Djebar and Walid

Garn’s Rouge l’aube (Red the Dawn), per-

formed in Arabic and then published in French

in 1969.

The most important work has been that of

Kateb Yacine, initially in collaboration with

the director Jean-Marie Serreau, who helped

introduce Brecht to Parisian theatre in the

1950s. Banned in the 1950s for their criticism

of French colonial policies, Kateb’s first plays

turned to Greek theatre (Aeschylus) as much

as to Brecht for inspiration and techniques to

harness the national imagination to political

francophone performing arts: North Africa

229

issues. The trilogy published as Le Cercle des

représailles (1959) is an exercise in militant

mythologizing: Le Cadavre encerclé (Corpse

Surrounded), first performed in Carthage and

Brussels in 1958 and in Paris in 1959; and the

fairy-tale/farce La Poudre d’intelligence (Clev-

erness Dust) and Les Ancêtres redoublent de

férocité (Savage Ancestors), both staged in

Paris in 1967. In the trilogy, Kateb uses sound

and lighting to spectacular effect, marries a

lyrical and symbol-laden rhetoric to realist dia-

logue, and disrupts narrative time with dream

discontinuities and flashback, in order to rouse

the emotions of the audience. At the same

time, he gives a central place to a chorus and

its leader to comment on and analyse the ac-

tion. In these plays, humanity is always col-

lectivized and the group is the real focus of

performance. The individual ‘heroes’ (male

and female) who carry the action forward are

stereotyped in the Brechtian fashion and their

activity is always referred to the interests of

the group—a familiar feature, after Kateb, of

Maghrebin drama. Kateb returned to Algeria

in 1972 to experiment with political theatre

in popular Arabic, under governmental aus-

pices. Mohammed, prends ta valise (Moham-

med, Pick Up Your Suitcase), first played in

Algerian Arabic (Birkadem 1971), toured in

France February to June 1972, in migrant

workers’ hostels and maisons de la culture.

L’Homme aux sandales de caoutchouc (The

Man in Rubber Sandals), which sets choruses

of French workers, Chinese, and Black Ameri-

can revolutionaries around an epic history of

anti-colonial struggle in Vietnam, was per-

formed first in Algiers and then at the Théâtre

du Cothurne in Lyon, in 1971. The mayor of

Lyon cut the theatre’s subsidy. La Voix des

femmes (Women’s Voice)—staged in 1972 in

spoken Arabic, which uses female voices to

celebrate an amalgam of ancestral and social-

ist values, was staged in French in Tlemcen,

also in 1972. From 1977, Kateb’s iconoclasm

encountered renewed hostility from the Alge-

rian political and religious authorities. Le

Bourgeois sans culotte, ou le spectre du Parc

Monceau (The Middle-Class Revolutionary,

or the Ghost of the Parc Monceau) is a satire

written in French for the Bicentenary and per-

formed at the Avignon Festival of 1989, jux-

taposing the politics of 1789 with the colonial

experience of Indochina and New World.

Since the early 1970s, Algerian drama has

moved away from the themes of war and in-

dependence into social satire, gender issues and

international liberation. With few exceptions,

plays performed in Algeria have been in Alge-

rian Arabic; francophone writers find their

audiences in France. Noureddine Aba, whose

plays have been presented on ORTF as well as

in the live theatre, handles psychological and

epic modes with equal skill. L’Annonce faite à

Marco, ou a l’aube et sans couronne (The An-

nunciation to Marco, or Uncrowned at Dawn)

(1983), set in a village cafe in Algeria in the

summer of 1957 and mixing colloquial French

with snatches of Arabic, shows how divided

interests and loyalties fuel both sides of the

conflict. Tell el Zaatar s’est tu a la tombée du

soir (Silence at Nightfall in Tell el Zaatar), from

1981, is a spectacular dramatization of the

history of the Palestinian tragedy, charting the

displacement of the inhabitants of Palestine by

the Balfour declaration, their exploitation by

the United States, Britain and the oil sheikhs,

and the continuing resistance by individuals,

guerrilla groups and terrorists, backed finally

by international popular uprisings. A cast of

dozens of episodic characters fills a sequence

of tableaux casting backwards and forwards

in time, using film and sound recordings, the

full gamut of lighting and explosive sound ef-

fects, music and dance. The action is held to-

gether by a love story, which recounts the per-

sistence of personal and national loyalties

down the generations, and by a framing tech-

nique drawn, with a novel twist, from the most

traditional mode of Arab performance art. A

tale-teller from Algeria himself turns into a

frame for another narrator, a woman, who tells

the full story—in this fight for liberation, the

women take up the word, as they took up the

guns. There is the same recognition of wom-

en’s changed role, established through the war

of independence, in Mohammed Dib’s black

comedy, performed at the Avignon Festival in

1977, Mille houras pour une gueuse (Cheers

francophone performing arts: North Africa

230

for the Skirt). The female voice comes to the

foreground, urging on the despairing revolu-

tionaries, marching alongside them and, in a

striking reversal of the traditional nurturing

maternal role, abandoning individuals to die,

when necessary, for the sake of the Revolu-

tionary cause. New ground has now been bro-

ken by the first woman dramatist, Fatima

Gallaire, whose work explores the efforts of

post-Revolutionary women to free themselves

from the hierarchies of the patriarchal family,

mediated by a colluding matriarchy—for ex-

ample, Princesses, ou ah! vous êtes venus…là

où il y a quelques tombes (Princesses, or You’ve

Come Among the Tombs), staged in New York

in 1988 and Paris in 1991, and Les Co-Épouses

(Joint Wives) performed in Paris in 1991).

JENNIFER BIRKETT

Further reading

Auclaire-Tamaroff, E. and Auclaire-Tamaroff,

B. (1986) Jean-Michel Serreau: découvreur

de théâtres, Paris: A l’Arbre Verdoyant (a

text that includes numerous references to

Serreau’s collaboration in the development

of North African drama, especially his

work with Kateb).

Corvin, M. (1991) Dictionnaire

encyclopédique du théâtre, Paris: Bordas

(an invaluable and up-to-date reference

book, with useful detail on the socioeco-

nomic conditions of theatrical performance

as well as particular works and writers).

Déjeux, J. (1992) La Littérature maghrébine

d’expression française, Paris: PUF and

(1993) Maghréb. Littératures de langue

française, Paris: Arcantère Editions (the in-

dispensable reference works for a summary

but informative overview and discussion of

all aspects of Maghrebin writing).

Tomiche, N. (1993) La Littérature arabe

contemporaine, Paris: Maisonneuve et

Larose (a rich and informative work; needs

to be read in conjunction with any reading

of francophone culture in the Maghreb to

obtain some insight into the cultural nego-

tiations involved).

francophone performing arts:

Switzerland

The performing arts in French-speaking Swit-

zerland began to come into their own in the

mid-nineteenth century. The Romands were

noted for attempts, in the lineage of Rousseau,

to popularize a theatre in which song and

dance were an integral part. In the first part of

the twentieth century, many theatrical compa-

nies were created in keeping with this spirit;

René Morax’s Théâtre du Jorat (1908), for

instance, was founded in a barn. Plays shown

in such spaces incorporated music, like Le Roi

David (1921), with a score by Honegger, and

exploited popular themes, like Tell (1914),

with music by Gustave Doret. Contemporary

traditional theatre has benefited from the in-

ternational renown of German-speaking Swiss

authors such as Dürrenmatt and Frisch, espe-

cially through the increase in funding avail-

able.

After World War II, new companies were

founded to complement existing municipal

theatres. Most notable examples are: La

Compagnie des Faux-Nez (Lausanne, 1948)

under Charles Apothéloz; the Théâtre de

Carouge (1957), which merged in 1972 with

the Théâtre de l’Atelier (Geneva, mid-1960s);

the Théâtre de Poche (Geneva, late 1940s),

which became the Nouveau Théâtre de Poche;

and the Théâtre Populaire Romand or TPR

(Neuchâtel in 1959, and now based in La

Chaux-de-Fonds). French-Swiss theatre is of-

ten experimental or, at least, untraditional by

Parisian standards. Themes tend to be surreal

or farcical—for example, Henri Dubluë’s

1962 Le Procès de la Truie (The Trial of the

Sow), Louis Gaulis’s Capitaine Karagheuz

(1960)—or are centred on issues of Swiss

francophone performing arts: Switzerland

231

identity. Contemporary theatre has developed

these characteristics in plays by, and adapta-

tions of, contemporary writers in other genres

(Anne Cuneo, Éric Schaer, Amélie Plume,

Michel Viala).

Substantial patronage from the Swiss Art

Council (ProHelvetia) led to the creation in

1991 (in conjunction with the Swiss Society

of Authors, or SSA) of the Parloir Romand,

an organization encompassing five companies

(Arsenic, Osses, TPR, St-Gervais and

Yverdon). New plays can be showcased

through the Parloir, thereby gaining a degree

of international recognition (see, for instance,

the work of Claude Delarue and Jean-Daniel

Coudray). In the 1990s the SSA has also sup-

ported the showing of new plays at the

Théâtre du Grütli in Geneva. The merging of

different art forms within Swiss theatre helps

transcend language and socioeconomic barri-

ers, and is in keeping with the Swiss spirit of

popular art. Mime, self-evidently not re-

stricted to one linguistic area, is very popular:

the famed school founded by the mime

Dimitri is in Italian-speaking Ticino, and the

international fame of the Mummenschanz

transcends more than mere language barriers.

Physical performance is traditional, as illus-

trated by the work of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze,

the creator of danse rythmique (now part of

the romand primary school curriculum). Po-

etry, literature, music (from the traditional

Ranz des vaches to the modernism of

Honegger and Frank Martin), dance, film,

mime, puppetry (Théâtre des Marionnettes de

Genève) and circus (Knie) all feed into the di-

versity of the Swiss performing arts, and the

collaboration of Ramuz and Stravinsky in

1918 on the Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s

Tale) is an illustrious early example. Today

dance and theatre are closely linked, with the

Béjart school (Rudra-Atelier) in Lausanne

teaching not only dance and kendo, but also

percussion, singing, theatre and music, so as

to produce performers whose understanding

of dance as a language is not restricted to cho-

reographic annotations. The Arsenic Thea-

tre’s director, Jacques Gardel, collaborated

with Linga to produce Alma Mahler, benefit-

ing from the open attitude of companies cre-

ated by ex-Béjart dancers (Linga, Buissonière,

Nomades).

The most spectacular and popular merging

of performance arts occurs every twenty-five

years for the Fête des Vignerons in Vevey. The

last festival of this kind was in 1977 and was

written by Henri Dubluë, with a musical score

from Jean Balissat and costumes by Jean

Monod. The 1977 Fête was directed by

Charles Apothéloz, a doyen of mainstream art

theatre who also successfully directed other

popular celebrations: La Pierre et l’esprit

(1975) (The Stone and the Spirit), La Fête du

blé et du pain (1978) (The Feast of Corn and

Bread) and Terre nouvelle (1979) (New Land).

No performance in Switzerland can equal the

scale of the Fête des Vignerons, originally a

parade that became partly a stationary show

in the nineteenth century. It has grown in size

over the years to become, in 1977, a two-

week-long spectacle (coinciding with National

Day) comprising more than 4,000 performers

in an open-air arena (seating 15,800) over-

looking Lake Léman. The performers were

non-professional (a choice made by

Apothéloz, after the snub received by organiz-

ers of the previous Fête, in 1955, when the

Corps de Ballet of the Paris Opéra refused to

participate in the parade), and comprised

more than 1,000 children. The representation

of the four seasons featured modern and popu-

lar dance, poetry, music (from orchestra to

Alpenhorn), and traditional, patriotic romand

songs (including the Ranz des vaches) sung

tearfully by the whole audience. Such specta-

cles are the apotheosis of the performing arts

in Switzerland.

VÉRÈNE GRIESHABER

See also: francophone cinema (Switzerland);

francophone performing arts (Belgium);

francophone writing (poetry, fiction): Switzer-

land

Further reading

Louis, N. and Béatrice, P. (eds) (1993) Théâtre

francophone performing arts: Switzerland

232

en Suisse: Visions, Société Suisse du Théâtre

(SST).

Mimos (quarterly journal of the Société Suisse

du Théâtre).

Schweizer Theaterjahrbuch (an annual publi-

cation).

francophone popular music:

DOM-TOMs

Martinique and Guadeloupe, the two Carib-

bean DOMs (départements d’outre-mer, or

‘overseas departments’), share the same cul-

tural identity. Although French is the official

language, Creole is the vehicle for artistic ex-

pression. In musical terms their culture is

rooted in West Indian, therefore West African

heritage.

In the 1960s and 1970s public entertain-

ment generally took place in the paillottes,

straw huts often located on the seaside. Local

groups or individual artists would come and

play traditional West Indian rhythms, live of

course. In the 1980s a new musical form crea-

tively fusing old idioms and contemporary

forms of swing, rock and funk emerged: the

zouk. The seminal exponent group Kassav’

exported it to France, to Africa and to the

world, and with this new form came coinci-

dentally the decline of the paillottes, and the

appearance of nightclubs with heavy acoustic

equipment and play-back facilities (to the

point where live music entertainment had

more or less disappeared). In the early 1990s,

Kali and his group in Martinique were the

exception that confirmed the play-back rule.

But, apart from the fact that market forces

imposed exile to mainland France on the am-

bitious local zouk or jazz-biguine groups,

things were changing. Besides the official tem-

ples (Maison des Arts et de la Culture, in

Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, and Le Carbet in

Fort-de France, Martinique), bars and clubs

open their doors to their local zouk artists. In

Guadeloupe, where it all began, you can hear

Patrick St Eloi and Jean Michel Rotin, as well

as the most established stars like Zouk Ma-

chine, Energy and Tanya St Val. In

Martinique, one finds Kwak and Taxi-Kreole

(exponents of pure zouk), Max Ramsay and

the group Malavoi, which explore the biguine

and sounds of the 1950s reborn. After years

of neglect, some traditional forms of music

and events on these islands are back in force;

for example, the gwo-ka as well as the lewoz,

where workers on the sugar plantations would

sing of their troubled existence and commemo-

rate their African roots. These vie neg styles

(Creole for ‘old Negroes’) bear witness to the

vitality of traditional music and are an anti-

dote to the invasion of ragamuffin music im-

ported by exiles from France or Jamaica.

Further south along the Atlantic coast,

French Guiana is a singular country which, from

an old penal colony, became a high-technology

capital without much transition; a disparate

group of immigrants from Brazil, Surinam,

Haiti, Europe came to the new Eldorado. Each

community endeavours to keep its own cultural

identity. There is an extraordinary musical

patchwork—American tradition, Creole koesco

and biguine, jazz sessions and Brazilian-style

carnival—and the organic link between these

traditions is reggae. Compared to the French

West Indies, there is no singular or original fea-

ture such as the zouk, but French and/or Creole

are used by a myriad of artists, who explore a

variety of genres from progressive music (Azica),

reggae (Marcel Blood, Wailing Roots, Nikko),

traditional Guianese (Ayne Gabrielle), latino-

jazz (Jorland), latino-african (Gilda Rey), to

chanson (Edward Blasse) and bossa nova (José

Ultet).

In the Indian Ocean, the island of Reunion—

a French territory since 1638, which became a

DOM in 1946—offers an even wider form of

métissage of cultures. As it developed over two

centuries, immigrants came: slaves from Africa,

colons from Europe, traders from China, In-

dia, Madagascar and the Middle East. The

specificity of Reunion is born out of this clash

of cultures. Compared to his/her West Indian

cousin, the Réunionnais is more inhibited; he/

she has so many cultures to contend with, but

the common language apart from the official

French is the popular Creole (which is used

francophone popular music: DOM-TOMs

233

almost exclusively for the lyrics of any musical

expression). Reunion music is born of tradition

akin to the other Indian Ocean islands (Mauri-

tius, Seychelles), a mixture of binary and ter-

nary rhythms. The two seminal styles of music

on the island are maloya (synthesis of traditional

music from Madagascar and East Africa) and

sega (black African dance and music mixed with

white European rhythms and instruments). Up

to the 1980s, sega was officially encouraged,

while maloya became the protest voice of po-

litical opposition and, until 1981, was censored.

During the Mitterrand era, maloya became the

focus of the young generation, and local groups

like the Camaleons, TI Fock and Ziskakan, as

well as the more established figures (Danyel

Waro and Gramoun Lélé, Jacques Farreyrol and

Bernadette Ladauge), have syncretized the an-

cient art of maloya and modern electric sup-

port to create an authentic Reunion sound. This

musical explosion in terms of production is a

sign of extraordinary vitality and diversity.

New Caledonia has seen the rise of Kanak

cultural identity and has received the financial

support of both the DAC (official French cul-

tural office) and the ADCK (local structure).

Too often ignored by the Caldoches (Europe-

ans who represent one-third of the whole

population), the musical heritage of this island

is now systematically explored and mixed with

modern-day techniques. The concept of

kaneka (rhythms of the Kanaks) appeared in

1986 as a variation of a Pacific reggae with

traditional percussion instruments. Almost all

local artists sing in French and in one of the

twenty-eight different Kanak languages: Lifou,

Drehu, Laai… This mode of pop music is only

beginning to flourish.

French Polynesia has 200,000 inhabitants

disseminated across 130 small islands over 4

million square kilometres, with Tahiti at the

centre of cultural and musical enterprise. The

mixture of races and cultures over the centu-

ries is even more inextricable and reflected in

the languages used by the most successful art-

ists established in Tahiti: French, Spanish, Ta-

hitian, Rarotongian, Creole and…English.

The richness of traditional music and instru-

ments (ukelele, Tahitian guitar) is enthusiasti-

cally mixed with French variété, Californian

pop, rock and jazz, and (inevitably) reggae, to

form a powerful eclectic sound where ances-

tral Taupiti celebrations are perpetuated.

GÉRARD POULET

See also: francophone performing arts: Indian

Ocean; francophone writing (fiction, poetry):

DOM-TOMs ; francophone writing (fiction,

poetry): Indian Ocean; parties and movements

in francophone countries: DOM-TOMs; song/

chanson

Further reading

Hidalgo, F. (1993) ‘La Réunion, l’ile à grand

spectacle’, Chorus 4:106–8 (an informative

retrospective of forty years of music on the

island).

Zone Franche (eds) (1995) Sans visa, Paris

(700 pages of rich information on the mu-

sic of the francophone connection through-

out the world).

francophone popular music:

Europe

Belgium and Switzerland are the main sources

of popular music in francophone Europe, in

terms of both production and distribution.

Politically and culturally, Belgium’s two

main communities—Flemish and French-

speaking—live in dynamic tension rather than

in harmony. The French-speaking community

mainly inhabits Brussels and southern Belgium

(Wallonie). In popular music terms, Jacques

Brel has put Belgium on the map since 1959.

His monumental presence overshadowed a

rich pattern of young talent, some of it ephem-

eral, such as Philippe Anciaux, Paul Louka in

Charleroi, Hustin, Watrin and Piérot. Others

mentioned below have lasted longer and still

participate in the present scene. The survival

of la chanson as one of the most popular and

authentic expressions of French-speaking Bel-

gian identity encounters many obstacles: the

francophone popular music: Europe

234

geographical context is too restricted, there are

few venues which offer regular slots to pop,

variété or rock artists, the record/CD market

is small, media support weak, and foreign im-

pact important. Even the home audience of-

ten expressed attachment to pop artists only

after success in France. In general terms, pro-

duction and distribution of cultural products

is concentrated in the hands of non-French-

speaking multinationals, and the danger of

uniformity of music culture across the planet

is all too real: francophone pop music repre-

sents under 3 per cent of the world recording

market. Nevertheless, there is a framework to

support artists of the Communauté Française

de Belgique (CFB) from Wallonie and Brus-

sels. Funding exists to support participation

in main festivals in what is usually known as

the espace francophone: in France, the

Printemps de Bourges, the Francofolies de La

Rochelle and the Chaînon-Manquant in

Tours; elsewhere, the Festival International

d’Été de Québec, the Francofolies de Montréal

and the Coup de Coeur Francophone, all in

Montreal; in Switzerland, the Paléo Festival

de Noyon. Such participation is vital because

of the decline of local events since the heyday

of the 1960s and 1970s.

While Brel was enjoying success in France,

in Brussels some assertive voices were heard,

such as Freddy Zegers, Jules Beaucarne and

Salvatore Adamo. At the same time, rock and

roll surged through both linguistic communi-

ties—three francophone groups were The

Cousins, Wallace Collection and, in the 1970s,

Machiavel—together with a general trend to-

wards social and regional protest songs. Rep-

resentative voices of that period are André

Bialek and Claude Semal, who gave perhaps a

more accurate image of contemporary Belgian

identity than Brel himself in Plat Pays (1960).

More socially aware were Christiane

Stefanski, Guy Harmel and Ann Gaytan,

among others. Young talent of the 1970s has

since established itself in the 1980s and 1990s,

such as Philippe Lafontaine, Maurane and

Pascal Charpentier. Of these, Maurane had

success in France, Quebec and Switzerland.

Her songs, full of humour, tenderness and en-

ergy, are appreciated there as much as at the

Cirque Royal in Liège. She heads a new gen-

eration of artists, including Pierre Rapsat,

Stella, Odieu, Marka and the Frères Mansion

who, year after year, attempt to renew style

and repertoire. In the 1990s, the extraordinary

voices of Zap Mama and Khadja Nin, from

Zaire and Burundi, impose their private

worlds and rhythm on the old colonial me-

tropolis, on Montreal and in the USA.

The Festival International de la Chanson

Française in Spa was a fertile forum for new

talent between 1963 and 1984. Since then,

hopefuls must attend festivals in France, Que-

bec or Switzerland or start at the Botanique in

Brussels in the shadow of established artists,

as in the festival of September 1993 (‘Le

Botanique fait la rentrée chanson’). On the

airwaves, the Anglo-American steamroller pre-

vails: there is no prescribed quota for French

songs as in France and Quebec, even though,

for a while, Pierre Collard-Bovy had a radio

show dedicated to Belgian artists. Popular ven-

ues in Brussels are: the Os à Moelle, the

Samaritaine and the Soupape and, in Liège,

Les Forges, Georges Fassotte or Six Corale,

where the new generation can be heard—

Audrey Englebert, Etienne Dontaine, Légétime

Démence, Pascal Vyvère and Vaya Con Dios.

The French-speaking community in Swit-

zerland has a long singing tradition and its es-

sential voice is undoubtedly Michel Bülher. In

the mould of Brel and Brassens, he is the re-

bellious troubadour who questions our times

and echoes the uneasy hopes of the Suisse

romande youth. His 1993 album, L’Autre

Chemin (The Other Path), shows consistency

in his message over twenty years, even if some

lyrics are in the more trendy idiom of rap suisse.

A sign of the times is that Évasion, the com-

pany which had produced Swiss-French sing-

ers since the 1950s, went bankrupt in 1995.

In an eclectic musical environment, where jazz

is particularly fertile, a few artists are perpetu-

ating francophone song: for example, Sens

Unik (a group of young rappers), Carlos and

his band, Valérie Lou and Sakharyn. They re-

main a minority with little airtime on local

French-speaking radio. However, two annual

francophone popular music: Europe

235

events are used as a forum for artists from the

francophone world in a variety of musical

styles: one is exclusively francophone (the

Francomanias in Bulle, since 1990) and the

other the Paléo-Festival at Noyon, which gives

a substantial slot for French performers and

repertoire. Switzerland is a microcosm of Eu-

ropean cultural diversity. There is evidence of

this cross-fertilization in the work of Stephan

Eicher, a German-speaking Swiss gypsy now

highly successful on the international scene

singing in French, English and German.

GÉRALD POULET

Further reading

Chenot, F. (1994) ‘Brel et après’, Chorus 6:

110–18 (on pop music in French-speaking

parts of Belgium; informative and well il-

lustrated).

CMCFB (eds) (1995) Dictionnaire de la

chanson francophone belge, Brussels (semi-

nal work on the history of French-speak-

ing songs in Belgium since 1830).

Dumortier, G. (ed.) (1993/4) Consonances,

dissonances (two special numbers of a

termly review published by the Ministry of

Culture for the French-speaking commu-

nity; in 1993, Spécial Chanson, and in

1994 Spécial Rock, constitute a series of

pertinent, critical articles written by local

experts).

Zone Franche (eds) (1995) Sans visa, Paris (in-

dispensable guide to music styles of the

espace francophone and the world, giving

up-to-date information, addresses of artists,

associations, venues and agencies for rel-

evant countries).

francophone popular music:

North Africa

The Maghreb (Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria)

is a land of ancient civilizations where succes-

sive contributions from Mediterranean neigh-

bours have produced a burgeoning and

conflictual context, favourable to a rich and

varied musical texture. Three main languages

commonly used are Arabic, Berber and

French. The French colonial presence varied

in length in its three countries: 44 years in

Morocco, 75 years in Tunisia and 132 years

in Algeria. Since then, throughout North Af-

rica (though less markedly in Algeria),

francophone musical expression has mainly

been imported and native talents have re-

mained loyal to their ancestral roots and tra-

ditional languages:Arabic and Berber.

In Morocco the African-Andalusian musical

tradition is the dominating influence. Evidence

of this can be found in the numerous Écoles de

Musique (Oujda, Meknes) or Instituts de

Musique (Fez, Tétouan, Tangier), which spe-

cialized in that type of music, originally from

Granada and Córdoba. The language of instruc-

tion might sometimes be French, as in the Institut

National de Musique et de Danse in Rabat, but

the musical idiom is not.

Apart from this central tradition, represented

in the 1990s by Bajedoub Mohamed, there are

many other influences that never really converge

in the creation of an authentic Moroccan sound:

Berber, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Bambara and

International variété. Nevertheless, in the 1970s

Nass El Ghowan and Jil Jilala were instrumen-

tal in attempting a characteristic Moroccan style.

A younger generation (the Bouchnak brothers,

for example) emulated their Algerian neighbours

in promoting their own version of raï, and to-

day the leading artist is Cheb Mimoun El Oudji

from Oujda. The Berber tradition is centred in

Agadir with Ahihi Moulay Ahmed and

Izenzaren.

Any Moroccan talent that wishes to use

French as a vehicle of expression tends to end

up in France. The best example of this kind is

Sapho. Born in Marrakesh in the Jewish com-

munity, she came to France in 1968 and

brought with her the memories of the rich

sounds of her childhood. If at first she rejected

her background to embrace the values and

culture of the Western world, using rock and

jazz to express her torn experience and her

francophone popular music: North Africa

236

sense of revolt, in 1987 she added rhythms

which are close to those of the gnawas, ‘musi-

cian-therapists’ who entrance the crowds in

Casablanca and Marrakesh using traditional

drums, Bambara-style. Idolized in Japan, she

has invented a kind of ethno-rock, merging

her disparate roots—Jewish and Maghrebin

culture and French language.

Tunisia is also a land of extraordinary mu-

sical vitality rooted in long tradition and in-

fluenced by a Turkish presence established for

100 years as well as Andalusian nouba. In the

1960s, apart from the academic malouf, more

popular styles were developed like the recita-

tive fondo. The 1970s saw the beginning of a

rich period in the singing tradition, illustrated

by Lofti Bouchenak (who gave concerts in

France) and Ahmed Hamza. Ridha Hjouini

from Tunis is the only artist of the 1980s and

1990s who performs in French as well as in

Arabic and is the prolific writer of more than

3,000 songs. The new trends are the bisquit

(from the French biscuit) meaning ‘commer-

cial’ and the mezwed (whose name is derived

from the Breton bagpipe). Popular Tunisian

tunes rarely cross the Mediterranean.

After 1962, Algeria experienced an ebullient

period, when a strictly state-controlled cultural

policy of Arabization, and of instruction in

Andalusian traditional musical style (perceived

as ‘politically correct’), did not prevent some

artists from exposing their modern-day Alge-

rian-style pop music, mainly in Algiers and

Oran. The new styles emerged from the poorer

suburbs. Around Oran there was a modern

version of raï, created in the 1920s and from

the Algiers casbah, the chaâbi, a sort of Alge-

rian traditional blues, which pervaded this

young country whose population more than

doubled in twenty years. The central planning

of cultural policy became more marked in

1965, with the arrival of Boumedienne as presi-

dent, but, nevertheless, the international pop

and rock movement did permeate somehow,

and the introduction of the acoustic guitar al-

lowed a new breed of artists (Aït-Menguellet,

and Idir with his famous hit, A vava Inouva)

to express outside official channels the trou-

bled existence and aspirations of Algerian

youth. Fifteen years later, at the end of the

1970s, a new breed nourished on traditional

raï but exposed to rock, pop and reggae came

on the scene from the same suburbs of Oran.

This was a social phenomenon first, then a

musical movement which grew clandestinely

to express in its vitality the spirit of a whole

generation, at once joyfully exuberant and

freely melancholic. They called themselves

chebs (meaning ‘young’), they crossed the sea,

and took Paris and France by storm in 1986,

adding an extraordinary dimension to the

French musical landscape.

GÉRARD POULET

See also: beur music; francophone performing

arts (North Africa); francophone writing (fic-

tion, poetry): North Africa

Further reading

Coulomb, S. and Varrod, D. (1987) Histoires

de chansons 1968–1988, Paris: Balland

(some entertaining and pertinent pages on

the upsurge of raï love music in France in

1986).

Seck, N. and Clerfeuille, S. (1993) Les Musiciens

du beat africain, Paris: Bordas (essential

guide to African artists of renown from

North to South Africa, alphabetically classi-

fied, usefully completed by a concise presen-

tation of the different musical styles, e.g. raï).

francophone radio:

DOM-TOMs

Radio audiences in the départements

d’outremer (DOM) and the territoires d’outre-

mer (TOM), France’s overseas departments

and territories, depend mainly on programmes

broadcast by Radio France Outre-Mer (RFO,

whose headquarters are at 5 avenue du

Recteur Poincaré, 75016 Paris), which em-

ploys a full-time staff of over 1,000. This sub-

sidiary of Radio France, whose official title is

the Société Nationale de Radio et de Télévision

francophone radio: DOM-TOMs

237

Française d’Outre-Mer, was created in 1982.

Short-wave radio broadcasts to former French

colonies began as early as 1931, on the occa-

sion of the opening of the Colonial Exhibition

in Paris. In 1955, DOM-TOM radio services

were taken over by a new organization,

SORAFORM (Société de Radiodiffusion de la

France d’Outre-Mer), which became OCORA

(Office de Coopération Radiophonique) in

1964. From 1975 to 1982, the service was

controlled by FR3, the television channel.

There are nine RFO stations, each avail-

able on FM networks: Martinique,

Guadeloupe, Guyane, Réunion, St Pierre-et-

Miquelon, Polynésie (Tahiti), Nouvelle-

Calédonie, Wallis-et-Futuna and Mayotte.

Since 1991 RFO programmes have been

broadcast via the Télécom 2B satellite. Pro-

grammes are planned centrally (but 75 per

cent are produced locally) and concentrate on

reflecting local culture, traditions and social

and economic affairs. Programmes

retransmitted from Radio France stations are

provided free to RFO. Advertising on RFO

stations has been authorized since 1984—in

1993, 14.5 per cent of RFO’s total revenue

came from advertising—but the major part of

its income (over 70 per cent) was provided by

the redevance (radio and television licence-fee

payments). The state occasionally contributes

subsidies.

In most overseas departments and territo-

ries, France-Inter programmes are also avail-

able on FM. There is also a popular private

périphérique radio station, Radio Antilles,

which is available to most French Caribbean

listeners (Guadeloupe and Martinique), and

transmits from the nearby British island of

Montserrat.

Overseas francophone listeners can also

tune into France’s world service news broad-

casts on short wave, many of which are in

French. This service, which has an estimated

regular audience of 30 million, is provided by

RFI (Radio France Internationale), another

subsidiary of Radio France. France’s world

service dates back to 1935: RFI was created in

1975 and became an autonomous organiza-

tion in 1983.

ALAN PEDLEY

See also: francophone radio: Europe; parties

and movements in francophone countries:

DOM-TOMs

francophone radio: Europe

According to the most recent estimates, over

61 million Europeans use French as their first

language. Many more can understand it and

speak it as a second language. Radio, which is

unaffected by national frontiers, makes a sig-

nificant contribution to the maintenance of

francophonie, which extends in Europe be-

yond French borders into Belgium, Switzer-

land and Luxembourg.

France’s 23 national radio stations (includ-

ing networks), 39 state-owned local radio sta-

tions and estimated 1,600 private local radio

stations provide the bulk of francophone ra-

dio in Europe. Some of these stations, the so-

called radios périphériques, do not even trans-

mit from within French borders: RTL (formerly

known as Radio Luxembourg), the most popu-

lar station in France since 1982 (with 17.6 per

cent of the national audience), has its long and

short-wave transmitters in the Duchy. Europe

I, the other main private périphérique station

(attracting 10 per cent of French radio listen-

ers), transmits from the Sarre in Germany. Both

these long-wave stations are listened to by

many Belgians, Swiss and Luxembourgers. In

the southern half of France, two other private

périphérique stations broadcast non-special-

ized programmes similar to those of RTL and

Europe 1: RMC (Radio Monte-Carlo), claim-

ing over 4 per cent of the national audience,

and Sud Radio, which transmits from the Prin-

cipality of Andorra.

The French state broadcasting company,

Radio France, also runs a non-specialized na-

tional station, France-Inter (commanding 11.2

per cent of the national audience), both on FM

and long wave, so capturing many listeners in

Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg and even

Britain. Radio France also runs five other na-

tional stations of a more specialized nature:

francophone radio: Europe