Google doodle celebrates the 111th Birthday of Algerian French singer and author ‘Taos Amrouche’

This graffiti honors Algerian-French singer and writer Taos Amroush. His work contributes to the preservation of the oral culture of the Kabyle people, a Berber people native to northern Algeria. The doodle artwork depicts Amroosh in his stage outfit.

Amroush attended secondary school in Tunis and moved to France in 1935 to study. She collected and interpreted Kabyle songs with her mother and her brother, and she also received a scholarship to analyze Spanish and Berber music at Casa Velazquez in Spain. She became interested in the oral traditions of the Kabyle people and traveled to Algeria to learn more about their ethnic traditions.

In 1947 she published her first novel. Jacinthe Noir (Black Hyacinth), about a bicultural Tunisian girl, is one of the earliest books published by an Algerian woman. Her second novel, Rue des tabourins, is also autobiographical and reflects on her childhood in Amroush. Her experiences as a French and Algerian flow into La Grain magique (The Magic Grain), a collection of Kabir’s poems, proverbs, and legends about her, translated into French by Amroush.

In addition to her compositions, Amroosh performed traditional Berber songs in French. Her first album, Chantsberbères de Kabylie (Berber Songs of Kabylie), was a huge success, and she released four more albums in the 1970s. These stories and songs helped Amroush preserve part of his oral heritage and connect with his French and Kabyle identity. She frequently participated in Berber language discussions and was also a co-founder of the Académie Berber, which she occasionally hosted at her home in Paris. Today, a plaque honoring her art stands in front of the house.

Amroosh has dedicated much of her time to preserving the resilient Kabyle culture, and her music and books embody this. Thanks to you, we have become more familiar with Berber literature and culture – Happy Birthday, Taos Amroush!