This meeting was an opportunity to highlight the social, cultural and artistic dimensions of Amazigh music groups in light of the experience of its generation of founders, indicated Ahmed Assid, researcher in Amazigh culture, explaining that the experience of the late Ammouri Mbark, individually or in the company of the Ousmane group, was able to combine the musical demands of the generation of the 70s thirsty for renewal and the preservation of Amazigh cultural and literary authenticity.
“This is the artistic equation that any young Amazigh musical experience who wants to follow in the footsteps of the Ousmane group must preserve,” Mr. Assid underlined in a statement to MAP.
For the artist Belaid El Akkaf, the Ousmane group, which he co-founded with the late Ammouri in 1974, constitutes the first stone in the building of modern Moroccan Amazigh music. The philosophy of later Amazigh music groups was influenced by this group, he added.
Mr. El Akkaf warned new music groups against possible influence by the quest for renewal to the detriment of the human and cultural message that every artist must convey, recalling that the Ousmane group, despite its use of Western compositions and instruments , has always worked to perpetuate Amazigh culture and language by singing the works of great poets such as Sadki Azayku, Brahim Akhiat and Mohamed El Moustaoui.
Born in 1951 in Irgiten (Province of Taroudant) and died in Casablanca in 2015, the artist Ammouri Mbark began his artistic journey with the group “Souss five”, which, in addition to Amazigh songs, performed titles in French and English .
The deceased also contributed to the founding of Ousmane, considered the first Amazigh group to have entered the world of musical groups in Morocco, alongside “Nass El Ghiwane”, “Jil Jilala”, “Lemchaheb”, “Imazighen” or even “Izenkad”.
Organized at the initiative of the family of the deceased in coordination with the provincial press and media club and in cooperation with the Agdal district and the company “Asni Com”, the activities commemorating the ninth anniversary of the death of Ammouri Mbark were also marked by a photographic exhibition on the artistic journey of the deceased, an artistic evening hosted by a myriad of Amazigh singers and a tribute to several personalities interested in Amazigh culture and language.