Editing Lounès Matoub

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Short description|Algerian musician (1956–1998)}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name              = Lounès Matoub
| background        = solo_singer
| image             = Lounès Matoub (ANP).jpg
| image_size        = 
| alt               = 
| caption           = Matoub during his military service from 1975 to 1977
| native_name       = معطوب الوناس
| birth_name        = Lounès Matoub
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1956|01|24|df=y}}
| birth_place       = [[Beni Douala|Aït Douala]],  [[French Algeria]]
| origin            = 
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1998|06|25|1956|01|24|df=y}}
| death_place       = [[Béni-Aïssi, Tizi Ouzou Province|Aït Aïssi]], 
 Algeria
| genre             = [[Chaabi (Algeria)|Chaabi]]
| occupation        = Singer, songwriter, musician, poet, political activist
| instrument        = [[Algerian mandole]], [[guitar]]
| years_active      = 1978–1998
| label             = 
| associated_acts   = 
| website           = 
| image_upright     = 
}}

'''Lounès Matoub''' ({{Langx|ar|معطوب الوناس}}; 24 January 1956 &ndash; 25 June 1998) was an Algerian [[Kabyle people|Kabylian]] singer, poet, and thinker who sparked an intellectual revolution, and [[mandole]] player who was an advocate of the [[Berber people|Berber]] cause, human rights, and [[secularism]] in Algeria throughout his life.

Matoub is despised by most Algerian Arabs for his [[secular]], [[atheist]] politics, his militant advocacy of Berber rights and blasphemous rock songs,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bullivant |first1=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=93VoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA722 |title=The Oxford Handbook of Atheism |last2=Ruse |first2=Michael |author-link2=Michael Ruse |date=2013 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780191667398 |location=Oxford |page=722 |accessdate=11 December 2017}}</ref> making him unpopular among both warring parties during the [[Algerian Civil War]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Messaoudi |first=Khalida |author-link=Khalida Toumi |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Unbowed/Q8Ty2UdljAcC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=lounes%20matoub%20despised&pg=PA104&printsec=frontcover |title=Unbowed: An Algerian Woman Confronts Islamic Fundamentalism |last2=Schemla |first2=Elisabeth |date=1998 |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |isbn=978-0-8122-1657-8 |pages=104 |language=en}}</ref> His assassination, claimed by the [[Armed Islamic Group]] (GIA), in unclear circumstances, provoked violent riots in Kabylia.

==Early life==
[[File:Lounès Matoub.en 73.jpg|thumb|Matoub in 1973]]

Lounes Matoub was born on 24 January 1956{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}} in the village of [[Aït Mahmoud|Taourirt Moussa]] belonging to the {{Ill|Aït Aïssi|lt=Aït Mahmoud|fr|Aït Aïssi}} in [[Kabylia]].<ref name=":0" /> He was raised by his mother and grandmother in the absence of his father.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Reed-Danahay |first=Deborah |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Auto_ethnography/KnwSEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=matoub%20left%20school&pg=PT88&printsec=frontcover |title=Auto/ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social |date=2021-01-07 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-000-32425-9 |language=en}}</ref> When he turned 9, he built his first guitar from an empty car oil can and composed his first songs as a teenager. In his youth, Matoub was particularly fond of the [[White Fathers]], who were French Catholic missionaries who were in charge of schools in Kabylia with a secular curriculum, because they spoke [[Kabyle language|Kabyle]] and spoke to him about Berber history especially the Berber king [[Jugurtha]]. His political and cultural identity was awakened by armed confrontations between [[Kabyle people|Kabylians]] and government forces in 1963&ndash;1964. In 1968, the Algerian government introduced a policy of Arabization in the education system. Matoub reacted by skipping school; his memoirs recall: "We had to give up Berber and reject French. I said no! I played hooky in all my Arabic classes. Every class that I missed was an act of resistance, a slice of liberty conquered. My rejection was voluntary and purposeful."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Joris |first=Pierre |author-link=Pierre Joris |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Poems_for_the_Millennium_Volume_Four/VKZt6Cs8d94C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=We%20had%20to%20give%20up%20Berber%20and%20reject%20French.%20I%20said%20no!%20I%20played%20hooky%20in%20all%20my%20Arabic%20classes.%20Every%20class%20that%20I%20missed%20was%20an%20act%20of%20resistance,%20a%20slice%20of%20liberty%20conquered.%20My%20rejection%20was%20voluntary%20and%20purposeful&pg=PA542&printsec=frontcover |title=Poems for the Millennium, Volume Four: The University of California Book of North African Literature |last2=Tengour |first2=Habib |author-link2=Habib Tengour |date=2013-01-31 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-95379-6 |pages=541-542 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Aïtel |first=Fazia |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/We_Are_Imazighen/n37SEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=matoub%20first%20guitar&pg=PA182&printsec=frontcover |title=We Are Imazighen: The Development of Algerian Berber Identity in Twentieth-Century Literature and Culture |date=2014-11-04 |publisher=[[University Press of Florida]] |isbn=978-0-8130-4895-6 |pages=182 |language=en}}</ref> By 1975, he had abandoned formal education.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}} He left for France in search of work.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Silverstein |first=Paul A. |author-link= |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Nation_Society_and_Culture_in_North_Afri/QcaPAgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=lounes%20matoub&pg=PA98&printsec=frontcover |title=Nation, Society and Culture in North Africa |date=2004-08-02 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-135-76106-6 |editor-last=McDougall |editor-first=James |editor-link=James McDougall (academic) |pages=98 |language=en |chapter=Martyrs and Patriots: Ethnic, National and Transnational Dimensions of Kabyle Politics |chapter-url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13629380308718498}}</ref>

==Musical career==
[[File:Lounès Matoub 1975.JPG|thumb|Matoub with his [[Algerian mandole]] in 1975. He was an Algerian singer of Kabyle music.]]

Matoub began his singing career under the patronage of the established singer [[Idir (singer)|Idir]].<ref name=":1" /> He recorded his first album ''Ay Izem'' (The Lion) in 1978; it was a phenomenal success. He went on to record 36 albums,<ref name=":0" /> as well as writing songs for other artists.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}} He gave his first major concert in April 1980, at the time of the "Berber Spring" protest movement in Kabylia.<ref name=":1" />

His music mixes Algerian Andalucian [[Chaabi]] orchestration with politicized [[Kabyle language|Kabyle]] ([[Tamazight|Berber]]) lyrics,<ref name=":1" /> and covers a broad variety of topics including the Berber cause, democracy, freedom, religion, Islamism, love, exile, memory, history, peace and human rights. Unlike the [[Amazigh|Berber]] poet/musicians who preceded him, Matoub's lyrics were direct and confrontational towards the Algerian government and those who stood against his principles.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Porter |first=David |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Eyes_to_the_South/HjPzey0Y7yEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=direct%20and%20confrontational%20matoub&pg=PA536&printsec=frontcover |title=Eyes to the South: French Anarchists and Algeria |date=2011 |publisher=[[AK Press]] |isbn=978-1-84935-076-1 |pages=536 |language=en}}</ref> Fellow musician Mohamed Alileche recalls:<ref>{{cite web |title=Berber Rising! |url=http://www.afropop.org/multi/feature/ID/112/Berber+Rising! |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20020702022437/http://www.afropop.org/multi/feature/ID/112/Berber%2BRising%21 |archivedate=2 July 2002 |publisher=Afropop Worldwide}}</ref>

{{quote|quote=He went straight. He criticized a president. He mentioned the president of [[Algeria]] right in the beginning of his career. He goes black and white. He was very, very clear in his songs, and he is the only singer &ndash; not only Algeria, but in all of North Africa &ndash; who criticized the government and criticized clearly. He would never get afraid.}}

Despite being banned from Algerian radio and television during his life, Matoub became, and remains, an extremely popular [[Kabyle people|Kabylian]] singer.

==Political events==
During the [[1988 October Riots|riots in October 1988]], Matoub was shot five times by a policeman<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 June 2019 |title=Remembering Lounes Matoub on the 21st Anniversary of his Assassination |url=https://insidearabia.com/remembering-lounes-matoub-on-the-21st-anniversary-of-his-assassination/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122225657/https://insidearabia.com/remembering-lounes-matoub-on-the-21st-anniversary-of-his-assassination/ |archive-date=22 January 2022 |access-date=26 May 2022 |website=Inside Arabia |language=en-US}}</ref> and left for dead on the side of the road.<ref name=":1" /> He was hospitalised for two years, requiring 17 surgeries, including the insertion of an artificial scrotum and the contraction of his leg by {{cvt|5|cm}}. His 1989 album ''L'Ironie du sort'' describes his long convalescence.

During the civil war, which began in 1992, the Islamist Armed Islamic Group added his name to a hitlist of artists and intellectuals. Despite this, Matoub remained in [[Algeria]]. On 25 September 1994, he was abducted. He was held for two weeks in a GIA mountain stronghold and condemned to death. He was released only after a large public demonstration in which his supporters from the {{Ill|Mouvement culturel berbère|lt=MCB|fr|Mouvement culturel berbère}} threatened "total war" on the Islamists and when he swore an oath to discontinue his musical career.<ref name=":1" />

In 1994, he published his autobiography entitled ''Rebelle'' (Paris: Stock, 1995).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sueur |first=James D. Le |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Algeria_since_1989/RPxiDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=lounes%20matoub%20Rebelle%201994%20autobiography&pg=RA1-PA1921&printsec=frontcover |title=Algeria since 1989: Between Terror and Democracy |date=2013-04-04 |publisher=Zed Books Ltd. |isbn=978-1-84813-610-6 |language=en}}</ref>

==Prizes==

[[File:Matoub Lounès (in the middle ) with his friends.jpg|right|270px|thumb|Lounès (in the middle with the white shirt) with his friends, notably Mourad Nechab, known to be his favorite, and family in [[Kabylia]].]]

*On 6 December 1994, Matoub received ''Le Prix de la Mémoire'' ("The Memorial Prize") from Mrs. [[Danielle Mitterrand]], President of ''La Fondation France Libertés'' ("The French Liberties Foundation") in Paris; the prize recognises those who devote themselves to recording and preserving the impact of political events on ordinary lives.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aïtel |first=Fazia |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/We_Are_Imazighen/n37SEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Le%20Prix%20de%20la%20M%C3%A9moire%20matoub&pg=PA161&printsec=frontcover |title=We Are Imazighen: The Development of Algerian Berber Identity in Twentieth-Century Literature and Culture |date=2014-11-04 |publisher=[[University Press of Florida]] |isbn=978-0-8130-4895-6 |pages=161 |language=en}}</ref>
*On 22 March 1995, the Canadian journalists' organisation SCIJ awarded him ''Le Prix de la Liberté d'Expression'' ("The Prize for Freedom of Expression").<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ilahiane |first=Hsain |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Historical_Dictionary_of_the_Berbers_Ima/aRYuDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Le%20Prix%20de%20la%20Libert%C3%A9%20d'Expression%20matoub&pg=PA144&printsec=frontcover |title=Historical Dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen) |date=2017-03-27 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |isbn=978-1-4422-8182-0 |pages=143-144 |language=en}}</ref>
*On 19 December 1995, he received ''Le Prix Tahar Djaout'' ("The [[Tahar Djaout]] Prize") from ''La Fondation Nourredine Abba'' ("The Nourredine Abba Foundation") at UNESCO headquarters in Paris; the prize is named after an Algerian writer who was assassinated by Islamists in 1993.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sueur |first=James D. Le |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Algeria_since_1989/RPxiDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |title=Algeria since 1989: Between Terror and Democracy |date=2013-04-04 |publisher=Zed Books Ltd. |isbn=978-1-84813-610-6 |pages=188 |language=en}}</ref>

==Assassination and aftermath==
[[File:Voiture de Lounès Matoub.jpg|thumb|Matoub's car riddled with bullets during his assassination on 25 June 1998]]
On 25 June 1998, at approximately 12:30 pm local time, Matoub's car was stopped at a roadblock while he was driving along a mountainous road in eastern Algeria ([[Kabylia]]). The car was fired upon by masked gunmen, killing Matoub and wounding his wife, Nadia Matoub,  and two sisters-in-law. Within hours, news of Matoub's murder had spread throughout Kabylia and thousands of angry mourners gathered around the hospital where his body was taken. The crowd shouted ''"Pouvoir, Assassin"'' ("Government, Assassins"). A week of violent riots followed his death. Young demonstrators clashed with riot police and attacked government property. On 28 June 1998 tens of thousands of people attended his funeral in front of his house in his native village. He was buried between a fig tree and a cherry tree, opposite the house he was born in. Matoub's family played a scathing parody of the Algerian national anthem, which came from Matoub's final album ''Lettre ouverte aux... '' ("Open letter to..."), released after his death (Gold-Disc). Matoub's assassination occurred a week before a law excluding languages other than Arabic from public life was due to come into effect. Matoub had been an outspoken critic of this law.

On 30 June 1998 the GIA claimed responsibility for the assassination of Matoub.

On the first anniversary of his death, a general strike was observed in the [[Kabyle people|Kabylian]] city of [[Tizi Ouzou|Tizi-Ouzou]] and thousands protested on the streets. Protesters broke into the town's court room and tore down its scales of justice. The BBC reported that many Berber activists blamed the government for Matoub's death and rejected its claim that Islamists were responsible.

Around 20,000 people marched in Tizi-Ouzou to mark the third anniversary of Matoub's assassination.

His family have created a foundation in his name to promote his memory, cast light on the circumstances of his assassination and promote the values he defended. Two streets in France have been named after Matoub, one in [[Grenoble]] and one in [[Lyon]].

On 18 July 2011, two men, Malik Madjnoun and Abdelhakim Chenoui, were convicted of killing Matoub, and sentenced to 12 years in jail. The one-day trial was suspended twice when Matoub's family interrupted to insist the suspects were innocent.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2011/07/18/01003-20110718ARTFIG00509-algerie-le-proces-tronque-des-assassins-de-matoub-lounes.php |title=Algérie - le procès tronqué des assassins de Matoub Lounès |work=Le Figaro |language=French |date=19 July 2011}}</ref> As Madjnoun and Chenoui had been in prison awaiting trial since 1999, they were released in 2012, having served their time.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://noticias.terra.com/internacional/argelia-restringe-las-libertades-basicas-de-expresion-reunion-y-asociacion,6108221da0dce310VgnCLD2000000ec6eb0aRCRD.html |title=Argelia restringe las libertades básicas de expresión, reunión y asociación |publisher=Terra |date=22 May 2013 |language=French}}</ref>

==Political views of Matoub==

Matoub spoke out in favour of [[federalism]], [[secularism]], [[democracy]], [[freedom of speech]], the recognition of [[Berber languages|Berber]] as a national and official language, and the [[decentralization]] of public schools in Algeria.

For a period of time, he was a member of the [[Rally for Culture and Democracy]],  an opposition party in Algeria, although he had left the party by the time of his death.

==References==

{{Reflist}}
{{Refbegin}}
*[http://matoub.kabylie.free.fr/biographie2.htm "Matoub Lounès : Biographie"] {{in lang|fr}}. Kabylie – A La Memoire De Lounes Matoub. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
*Silverstein, Paul A. (Fall 1998). [https://web.archive.org/web/20060619202258/http://www.merip.org/mer/mer208/silver.htm " Rebels and Martyrs: The Mobilization of Kabyle Society and the Assassination of Lounes Matoub"]. ''Middle East Report'' '''28'''.
*Snowdon, Peter; Lallami, Hamid (2–8 July 1998). [https://web.archive.org/web/20051023012539/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1998/384/re6.htm "The birth of Matoub Lounes"]. ''Al-Ahram Weekly Online'' '''384'''.
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/377504.stm "Algerian police fire on Matoub protesters"]. BBC News. 24 June 1999.
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1406390.stm "Berbers mark death of protest singer"]. BBC News. 25 June 2001.
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Lounès Matoub}}

*[http://matoub.kabylie.free.fr/ La Kabylie de Matoub Lounes], a Kabyle cultural website dedicated to Matoub's memory.
*[http://matoub.rebelle.free.fr/ Matoub Lounes], a website dedicated to Matoub's memory; includes photos and songs. It is written in French and some Kabyle.
*[http://www.echo.ucla.edu/Volume5-issue1/al_taee/al_taee2.html Page with a good paragraph talking about Matoub's use of music in politics.]

{{Authority control}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Matoub, Lounes}}
[[Category:1956 births]]
[[Category:1998 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Algerian poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Algerian male actors]]
[[Category:20th-century Algerian male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Algerian male singers]]
[[Category:Algerian critics of religions]]
[[Category:Algerian mondol players]]
[[Category:Algerian atheists]]
[[Category:Algerian male poets]]
[[Category:Assassinated activists]]
[[Category:Assassinated Algerian people]]
[[Category:Berber activists]]
[[Category:Berber poets]]
[[Category:Berber musicians]]
[[Category:People from Aït Mahmoud]]
[[Category:Kabyle people]]
[[Category:Kidnapped Algerian people]]
[[Category:People murdered in Algeria]]
[[Category:People killed by Islamic terrorism]]
[[Category:Arabic-language singers of Algeria]]