Fatima Tabaamrant - Finally!

 

It's about time we got around to posting about La Tabaamrant! Fatima Tabaamrant (b. 1962) is a powerhouse singer, songwriter, and activist for Amazigh and women's rights. In addition to being a pivotal figure in Soussi music, she served as a representative in the Moroccan parliament from 2011-2016, where she became the first person to ever pose a question in the Amazigh language. 

After a troubled childhood and early marriage, Tabaamrant turned to poetry and music as a mode of expression. (Her early life is dramatized in the 1994 film Tihiya, in which she stars.) She spent time working in the troupes of several different rwais (Rais Jami’ Al-Hamidi, Said Ashtouk, Moulay Mohamed Belfaqih, and Mohamed Demsiri) before ultimately striking out on her own in the early 1990s. She was not the first female artist to lead her own troupe in the field of Soussi amarg poetry and song: Rqiya Demsiriya and Fatima Tihihit were two notable predecessors. Tabaamrant, however, distinguished herself by not only singing and leading her own troupe but also composing her own poetry. 

 

Her work has addressed many themes and issues over the years, primarily connected to and in support of Amazigh identity. These include: marginalization, Amazigh culture, land, language and traditions, women's rights, education and parenting, rural vs urban life, history and religion, love and marriage and contemporary topical issues. (She released a song in 1998 mourning Kabyle singer/songwriter Matoub Lounes, who was assassinated in Algeria that year.)

I picked up this cassette in 2012, I believe in Rabat. (Tabaamrant's YouTube channel dates it to 2000.) I don't speak Tachelhit, so I don't know what these songs are about. The main musical style here is a sort of tagroupit augmented with ahwach sounds. On first listen, I thought it was the typical tagroupit electric guitar plus banjo or bouzouki. On second listen, I think it's actually 2 electric guitars: one plucky twangy one and a second warm/fluid one. Additionally, all tracks feature drum accents and punctuations typical of ahwach performance, and the final track adds flutes and clapping to the mix for a big ahwach finale. For fans of quintuple meter (like me), the title track (Track 2) is 14 and a half minutes of fivey goodness!

Fatima Tabaamrant continues to produce new music consistently, incorporating different musical configurations as times change, but always anchored in her poetry and vocal delivery. Follow her on Instagram and/or Facebook, and subscribe to her YouTube channel, where she dropped this new track AN HOUR AGO:

Fatima Tabaamrant  فاطمة تبعمرانت
Nekkay Igan Anafal نكى أيڭان أنفال
Afraou Cassette 295 افواو كاسيط

 

A1 Tezwit Rzmed Ousafar تزويت رزمد أسفار
A2 Nekkay Igan Anafal نكى أيڭان أنفال
B1 Ikhfnouhan Ikhfinou أيخفنوهان إخفنو
B2 Alalla Noumad Oufigh أللانوماد أفيغ

FLAC | 320

 

SOURCES CONSULTED:

• Femmes du Maroc (FDM).  "Fatima Tabaamrant: 'c’est le public qui donne le ton à mes concerts'". 2022-07-16. https://femmesdumaroc.com/archives/fatima-tabaamrant-cest-le-public-qui-donne-le-ton-a-mes-concerts
• Hawamich. "فاطمة تبعمرانت.. من طفولة قاسية إلى صوت للهوية الأمازيغية [Fatima Tabaamarant.. From a cruel childhood to a voice for Amazigh identity]". 2025-09-22. https://hawamich.info/10504/
• Oudadene, Hassane. "Rwāys and Tirruyssā: A Symbolic Site of Amazigh Identity and Memory." Jadaliyya, Nov 1, 2021. https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/43446
• Talmenssour, Abdelâali. "Rraysa Fatima Tabaâmrant: Figure emblématique de la chanson amazighe traditionnelle du Sud marocain", Moenia, 20 (2014), 215-230. https://hispadoc.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=7541628