10 Stories of Women. (5) Cheikha Rimitti
CHEIKHA RIMITTI - SIDI MANSOUR For
@[Taddi] Being born into a poor family in one of the poorest areas of an already not-so-flourishing Algeria is certainly not a walk in the park, just as it wasn’t in the 1920s.
If you then become an orphan at just over 10 years old, your fate seems sealed. Instead, Saadia El Ghizania, after living for a few years on odd jobs and makeshift means, sneaks into a group of wandering musicians; she dances and sings, and so, by the time she is not yet 15, Saadia becomes Cheikha Rimitti.
Rimitti "the crazy one."
She discovers Rai, the music from Oran, and her talent. By the age of twenty, she has already written dozens of songs. Cheikha is illiterate, but she knows life. Her songs speak of suffering, sex, alcohol, and street life. They are recorded on cassettes that circulate throughout Algeria; it’s during the years of the War, and Cheikha is already a small celebrity in Algeria. In 1952, Cheikh Mohammed Ould Ennems, a well-known musician in his country, introduces her to Pathè Records, and Cheikha records her first album, but fame will come two years later. "Charrak Gattà" is sung everywhere in Algeria in ’54, but the problem is that the lyrics are an explicit invitation for girls to rid themselves of their virginity.
The religious authorities are furious.
When Algeria gains its independence, the religious figures unleash against Rai (and against many other things). Cheikha is forced to flee to France, but she continues to return to Algeria to perform concerts whenever she can.
During one of these tours, a car crashes at breakneck speed into Cheikha's band bus.
Is it an attack or an accident? Most likely the former hypothesis holds true.
Three of her musicians die, and she remains in a coma for about 3 weeks.
In the mid-’70s, she will wholeheartedly embrace the Islamic faith, yet she must still remain away from her country. In the ’80s, she will move to Paris.
Even after the accident and her conversion, this brave woman continued to sing about her people and the injustices they face, about the lives of women, sex, poverty, and alcohol. She recorded hundreds of cassettes and dozens of albums. And she remained semi-illiterate!
She traveled the world, an ambassador for the women of her land. She played with everyone. In "Sidi Mansour," for example, she was joined by Bob Fripp, Flea, East Bay Ray, Geza X, Walt, and Bruce Fowler... (album PAZ-ZES-SCO!!).
On May 13, 2006, at the age of 83, she is on stage at the Zenith in Paris, in front of nearly 5000 people.
Two days later, a heart attack takes her away.
