Matoub LounËs

Matoub Lounès was a popular Berber Kabyle singer who advocated Berber rights, secularism, democracy and freedom of speech in Algeria. Matoub began his career playing with the established Kabyle singer Idir, and released his first album in 1978. At the time, Matoub was the only singer in Algeria to openly criticize the government in his songs. Despite being banned from Algerian television and radio, he became very popular within the Kabyle communities in Algeria and France.

Matoub’s outspoken nature often put him at great odds with the Algerian government and Islamic fundamentalists. In 1988 he was shot five times by a policeman and was left hospitalized for two years while undergoing 17 surgeries. He had also been marked by the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) because his songs dealt openly with sexuality and other forbidden themes, and also due to his support for the secular Berber-based political party. In 1994 he was kidnapped by the GIA and was condemned to death. His supporters assembled a demonstration of 100,000 people who threatened outright war on the fundamentalists which pressured the GIA to release him after 15 days.

In 1998 Matoub’s car was stopped at a fake roadblock eastern Algeria and was fired upon by masked gunmen, taking his life. A week of riots ensued in Algeria’s Kabyle minority and among Kabyle immigrants living in France. Protesters clashed with police and attacked government property. Shortly after the GIA claimed responsibility for the assassination.