Homages
My journey with Idir’s Azwaw song
AUTHOR: Yazid Djerbib
My Journey with Idir’s “Azwaw” Song
Yazid Djerbib
Independent Scholar, Ottawa, Canada
Abstract: In this essay, Kabyle engineer Yazid Djerbib who resides in Canada, interweaves personal recollections of his childhood years in Algiers when he discovered Idir’s songs with important facts regarding Berber culture and history. In fact, he draws from Ibn Khaldun’s monumental History of the Berbers and from several events in Algeria to put in context and then analyze one of Idir’s well-known songs, Azwaw.
Keywords Azwaw, Kabyles, Berber flag, Kabyle soccer club (JSK), Ibn Khaldun
Throughout the life of every person, there are moments or events that are so special that they become founding material for reflection. For me, the encounter with Idir's A Vava Inou va album is one of these moments.
Idir’s death on May 2, 2020, has been a great loss for the Kabyles, the Amazighs, and humanity at large. He always preached love, diversity and tolerance. Idir, with his powerful songs, has helped me to enhance my attachment to my roots and still embrace modernity and universality.
My first encounter with Idir's songs was magical! My late uncle had come to our home for a weekend-long visit. He brought with him Idir's freshly released A Vava Inou va cassette and a tape recorder. We spent the weekend listening to all the songs. Us kids picked the ones we liked best to learn and later record ourselves singing with a tape recorder. This was long before the invention of smartphones, which provide easy means for recording at our fingertips. I remember choosing “Azger” simply because I understood all the words. However, I was intrigued by another song, “Azwaw.” I was 9 years old and Idir's very first album just got engraved into my memory.
I was attracted to the “Azwaw with a yellow scarf” song without being able to grasp its meaning. The rhythm is lively and, as a kid, I couldn’t understand what it was about. I only knew one person named Azwaw, and thus I inferred that it was about someone named Azwaw who had a yellow scarf. My understanding of this song remained unchanged for a few years.
The lyrics are by the poet Ben Mohamed and the music by Idir. The song has four parts about scenes from weddings, tradition, friendship, and brotherhood. The repeating “Azwaw with a yellow scarf” chorus is drawn from popular culture that Cherifa, a famous Kabyle diva, had previously performed but with different lyrics. Additionally, in 1979, Malika Domrane, another famous singer, also had a song entitled “Azwaw.” This only reinforced my understanding that Azwaw was a character in those songs.
In my teenage years, in Algiers, I learned that the Algerian Western people (not Kabyles) use the term “Azwaw” to refer to us, the Kabyles. At first, I suspected that this was another derogative term for the Kabyles, since we are used to being picked on by our friends in Algiers, who see themselves as urban, for our roots in the mountains and rural areas. Idir's song made me question this, however. I told myself that if it was a derogative epithet, Idir would not have used it in his song, right?
FIG. 1. Idir. Credit: Hayat Aït Menguellet
The second element of the song, the yellow color of the scarf, had not yet caught my attention, despite the obvious hints that were all around me. For instance, in 1979, the famous Kabyle soccer club JSK changed their colors from red and green to yellow. Furthermore, the color yellow is frequently used in Kabyle women’s beautiful clothing and in traditional silver jewelry.
As the Amazigh reality was denied—treated as non-existent and never taught in the Algerian school curriculum—my curiosity in taking it on myself to learn about Kabyle history and culture grew. This led me, in my twenties, to tackle reading Ibn Khaldun's monumental fourteenth-century book History of the Berbers (Imazighen). I was proud to discover that Ibn Khaldun depicted a positive and very rich Amazigh heritage.
In his work, Ibn Khaldun lists all the Amazigh tribes, including the Zwawa, which is the plural of Azwaw. This helped me realize that “Azwaw” was in fact the name of today's Kabyle tribes of Algeria. As a result, this again changed my understanding of Idir's “Azwaw” song. It was not used as an individual's name, but as a reference to the entire people of our region.
Surprisingly, this word, as a name of our tribe, was not familiar to me. The usual appellation is “Igawawen.” Later, I came to learn that “Zwawa” and “Igawawen” could be the same term that has been pronounced differently over time and according to the different historical influences.
After the democratization period of Algeria in 1989, as the brutal repression against the Amazigh cultural and political dissent softened a little, the Amazigh flag started to appear in peaceful public rallies, demonstrations, and events, including during the 2019 Hirak movement in Algeria. In 1998, the World Amazigh Congress officially adopted this flag. Interestingly, this flag includes one yellow horizontal rectangle, as this became one of the symbols of the pacific Amazigh movement. Moreover, the flag that the self-proclaimed Kabyle Provisional Government in exile adopted in 2015 also includes the color yellow. Are these flags replicas and representations of the yellow scarf in Idir's song?
As my life goes on, my understanding of Idir's “Azwaw” song has continued to evolve. I feel that I have come to grasp its true symbolism. To me, the song is not about the story of a specific person named Azwaw, and the yellow scarf is not just a random object.
Now, in my middle age, I have come to realize that Idir’s “Azwaw” is representative of every Amazigh, and more particularly every Kabyle, who proudly waves the Amazigh flag to celebrate their long and rich heritage. The Amazigh flags show that people still fight for their values, freedom, and liberty.
I have been living in Canada, away from my dear Kabylia, for decades now. Canada has become my new home and I can freely live my Kabylity. I had the privilege of taking Kabyle lessons provided by the International Language Program (ILP) of the Ottawa Carleton District School Board (OCDSB). This program is funded by the Education Ministry of Ontario. This is something that the successive Algerian regimes denied to generations of Kabyles and Imazighen.
It is hard to believe that Idir’s songs are almost half a century old. The years have not added a wrinkle! They continue to be uplifting and bring all peoples of the world together.
Azwaw lyrics, in Kabyle (original):
Ay Azwaw s umendil awraɣ
Ters-ed ad tecḍeḥ ur tessin (2)
Tewwet-iyi lwehma mi d-tebda leɣna
Ay Azwaw s umendil awraɣ
Ayefk n yemm-as isqaεd-as afud (2)
Yebbi-d asalas s axxam n lejdud
Ay Azwaw s umendil awraɣ
Sliɣ i ucewwiq tergagi tasa (2)
Mlaleɣ-d aṛfiq luleɣ yid-es ass-a
Ay Azwaw s umendil awraɣ
Feṛḥeɣ s gma-inu mi iyi-d-nnan hat-a (2)
Yebbas aseqqamu ad tefṛeḥ tejmaayt
Ay Azwaw s umendil awraɣ
Azwaw lyrics, English translation:
Oh! Azwaw with a yellow scarf
She started dancing
Even if she did not know how to
I was amazed
When she started singing
Oh! Azwaw with a yellow scarf
His mother's milk
Had strengthened him
He carried a new pillar
To the ancestors’ home
Oh! Azwaw with a yellow scarf
I heard a tune
And my heart trembled
I met my dear friends today
Oh! Azwaw with a yellow scarf
Delighted by the presence of my brother
When I was told he was among us
Made the assembly proceed in joy
Oh! Azwaw with a yellow scarf.
Keywords: Azwaw, Kabyles, Berber flag, Kabyle soccer club (JSK), Ibn Khaldun
How to Cite:
Djerbib, Y., (2024) “My Journey with Idir’s “Azwaw” Song”, Tamazgha Studies Journal 2(1), 86-89.
DOWNLOAD
ISSUE
Volume 2 • Issue 1 • Spring 2024
Pages 86-89
Language: English
INSTITUTION
Independent Scholar