2023-12-10 09:00:02
5 years without Rachid Taha is like a day without bread. While some summon his ghost, others perpetuate his memory in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, during the C’est dans la Vallée festival. Author: Elodie Maillot.
It’s been just 5 years since Rachid Taha has disappeared. He had long been believed to be immortal, and so it took a few years before artists, a director and even a writer dared to pay homage to him! Question of tempo.
The wounds slowly heal, but his presence remains unforgettable.
Rachid Taha has just been celebrated at It’s In The Valley festival in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, in the town of Alsace, where he landed upon his arrival in France and he even becomes a fictional character, a “ghost”, who haunts the novel that has just been published Medhi Ouraoui (My ghost – Éditions Fayard).
For many in France, Rachid Taha will remain the artist of a few clichés, rants and a political commitment which has often made us forget his avant-garde artistic dimension. Taha is often summarized in a few hits, (Oh Rayah, Sweet France with Residence permitor 1, 2, 3 Soleil), and its incredible fan club which includes artists like Brian Eno, Robert Plant, Santana, Led Zeppelin and Damon Albarn.
But just before dying, the author of the oriental dynamiting of “ Rock the Casbah » with the Clash, Mike Jones, as a guest, had made some intense trips to Africa, and in particular to Mali.
Rachid Taha at RFI 2016. © Laurence Aloir/RFI
Upon his return, Taha recorded an album called “ I am African ».
In this program, we will therefore talk about the complex and passionate relationship that Taha had with Africa: from what he called the Romania (this ass between two chairs that the sons of Algerian immigrants in France know), this ultimately powerful and creative “anomaly” that he sang and which inspired groups like Zebda, Gnawa Diffusion or Acid Arab. We will talk about the fight against racism in France from Algeria, from Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines in Alsace, this land of welcome for Algerian immigrants who came to work in the factory like Rachid Taha’s father, and also from Bamako in Mali which inspired his latest album, I am African.
Speakers: Rodolphe Burger, Justin Adams (Robert Plant), Steve Hillage (English production which tells the story of Ya Rayah), Sofiane Saïdi, Mehdi Haddab, Mehdi Ouraoui (author of the book “ My ghost » at Fayard), Maxime Delpierre (guitarist) and Hakim Hamadouche (the faithful mandola).
Rodolphe Burger, Sofiane Saïdi, Mehdi Haddab and Mohamed Lamouri, Festival C’est Dans La Vallée 2023. © Emma Derieux Billaud
Report from Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines by Elodie Maillot.
For further :
►Rachid Taha, a rocker without borders on France Tv.
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