Klun Kaighenni 3la l-Bukimun - Clown Sings about Pokémon

 
Spring 2001. Pokémon was still new and fun. There were only about 150 of them, so you could actually of memorize the names and characteristics of most of them. They'd been big for a couple years in the states, but were only just hitting it big in Morocco via cartoons dubbed into standard Arabic. And like everywhere, marketing was huge - each pull-off top of Danon yogurt had a picture of a Pokémon and could win you a prize. There were shoes, backpacks, t-shirts, everything (though I don't actually recall seeing the video game itself...)

Now I'm as critical of cross-promotional marketing to kids as anyone. As for Pokémon, I recognized it as such but at the same time sort of reveled in it.  I liked the cartoon, and my Japanese side was tickled to see a Japanese cartoon sweeping the US. But I'm totally OK with critiques of the mass invasion of Pokémon products in general, and certainly in Morocco.

What I couldn't accept was the rise of "Pokémon is haram" discourse that was bubbling up in various newspapers around the Muslim world. If it had been merely a shariah-couched critique of mass international capitalist targeting of kids, that would have been one thing. Or a critique of it as a frivolous waste of time and money and diversion from the remembrance of God would have made some sense. But the word going 'round, courtesy of fatwas from Grand Mufti of Egypt Dr. Nasser Farid Wassel and Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi was that the Pokemon phenomenon was actually a Zionist and/or Masonic plot to subliminally undermine and insult Islam and to introduce Darwinian ideas (pikachu "evolves" to raichu after gaining experience in battles - demonstrating his fitness, right?). Among the more spurious assertions were that the names of some of the Pokemon were directly attacked Islam - "I am a Jew" (Pokemon), "God is weak" (Charmander) and "Be Jewish" (Pikachu).

As a Japanese-Ashkenazi-American Muslim, I found it alternately insulting and absurd. If you know English, it's pretty easy to understand the etymological derivation of "Pokémon" (pocket monsters) and animal names like Charizard, Charmander and Charmeleon (all fire-breathing lizard monsters - lizard, salamander, chameleon - duh?). Pikachu and Raichu were, I think, the only ones that retained Japanese-derived names in their English (and dubbed Arabic) versions. Pikachu means something like "sparkle mouse noise" and Raichu means something like "thunder mouse noise".

Nevertheless, fatwas were issued in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and even in Morocco. Now a fatwa is a legal opinion based on one scholar's interpretation of the shariah, and although some folks accepted the interpretation, others did not. Pokémon certainly remained popular and continued to be broadcast in Morocco.


 

There were other responses to the Pokemon phenomenon. My fave was this silly cassette it's a basic singalong dkitikat percussion/call-response vocal with a little keyboard-banjo thrown in for good measure. The lead vocal is comedic (I guess that's the clown) and response vocal group sounds like adults trying to sound like kids. Starts out catchy and ends up ridiculous with the substitution of Pokémon into traditional wedding chants. Adding to the pop-culture-meets-trad-singalong-percussion shtick is the inclusion of the theme song to Abdelkhalek Fahid's Miloud comedy sketch TV show (Essururat 3la Miloud) and a song about then-new cell phones (Portable). Silly, yeah, but tailor-made for singalongs at parties by much funkier groups:



SIDE A
1) Ghina' Pokemon / Eddawrat l-Pokemon

2) 3andi ana mushkila / L3ama bgha itzuwwej / Portable
3) Ezzerda / 3regtuha wslebtu 3liya
4) Essururat 3la Miloud / Mut b-jnun / Bghat mwigina

Get it here.

Najat Aatabou - Moroccan Modern Soul Sister - 1st album (c.1984)

One of the most individual female voices in Moroccan music, both sonically and artistically. Even when complaining about typical women's problems (sneaky men, jealous women, family estrangement..) from an underdog position, the strength of her voice makes her seem to be the one in charge of the situation.

Snippets of her biography can be found around the web, e.g. here, here and here. Before starting her professional career, she would sing informally at parties in her hometown of Khemmiset. Bootleg tapes of her performances began to appear in local tape shops, and her unapproving family eventually found out she'd been singing. To escape their wrath, she fled to Casablanca, where she began her career in earnest.

Najat Aatabou made an immediate impression on the Moroccan scene in the early '80s with a sound and songwriting style that hadn't been heard before. Like Roucha, crossover success by singing Middle Atlas Berber izlan-styled songs in Arabic (rather than Tamazight - though she occasionally records in her native Tamazight too). Her early recordings used a fairly traditional musical texture (though with the Arab oud rather than the typical Berber lotar). But the songs were anything but traditional. Women singing from a woman's perspective was nothing new - but Najat Aatabou's clever wordplay was something new, and she approached the issues not from the ambiguous, seductive position of the shikha, but as a modern soul sister, singing out to her contemporaries.



She remains popular today, though mainly among oldsters from my era. I think the last big hit she had was the great "Mali Ana Ma 3andi Zhar" in around '96. Over the years, she's achieved some international attention with CD releases on Globestyle and Rounder (both out of print). On the latter you can hear "Hadi Kedba Bayna" - the hit of the summer of '92, at least among the folks I was hanging with in Marrakech. This song was later sampled by the Chemical Brothers for "Galvanize".

Najat Aatabou has always maintained strong creative control of image, career. Instrumentation has changed over the years, but tends to be best when she sticks to a simple format where her vocals can shine with a basic Moroccan rhythmic and melodic accompaniment, which she uses most of the time.
(Though her orchestral tape from the late '80s is pretty awesome - I may post that at some point.)

This tape is, I believe, her first album, featuring the hit "J'en ai marre" (I'm sick of it). It's a shame most of her work is unavailable. Hope you enjoy this - I've got plenty more!

1) J'en ai Marre
2) Shahama
3) Ras el Ain

4) Sam7i Liya Lwalida
5) El Mektab
6) Hak Shmata

Get it here.

Charli Elmaghribi and other goodies at the Jewish Morocco blog

 

Chris over at the Jewish Morocco blog recently uploaded a couple nice tracks from this cassette here. There are some other audio goodies in his stash - mainly vinyl - from Morocco (Koutoubiaphone) and Israel (Koliphone), as well as great info about some overlooked artists. Check it out!