Eu Não Sou Daqui | Brazil

Genre: Boi de Roça
Location: Feira de Santana, Bahia – Brazil
Collection: Projeto A Barca, 2005; Performers: Quixabeira de Lagoa da Camisa

It was in Bahia, or in the area of the territory that we call Bahia nowadays, that, in 1500, a fleet led by Pedro Álvares Cabral moored. Their intended destiny was India, but instead, they arrived at a land that they called "Terra de Vera Cruz" (Vera Cruz Land). It's said that Brazil was discovered, but this land was already inhabited. The African influence in this region's culture, due to the arrival of African slaves brought by the European colonizers is notorious in several ways, in particular in its music.
Eu Não Sou Daqui - meaning "I'm not from here" - was found during our search for traditional music in Portuguese outside of Portugal and the first country that we wanted to explore was Brazil. The Project "A Barca", which was very relevant in collecting and reinterpreting traditional music from several regions in Brazil, was the main source of information, and this song, of several dozens, maybe thousands, available to hear on its website, was our choice due to its melody and the lyrics content that leads us to believe that it is related to a slavery context.

Written by | Sofia Portugal
Translated to English by | Rita Portugal


Ashtata | Morocco

Ashtata is a popular song chanted by children in Morocco at the first rainfall of the season. The youngsters rush to the roofs and the streets to catch the little raindrops that are washing the thirsty soil, singing in great ecstasy and jovial excitement: “Ashtata, the ploughmen’s children.” Moreover, this song is a popular berceuse sung in a quiet voice by the mothers to lull their kids to sleep.
As for “Ashtata” that Mina used in the album, the starting point was the modernised version by “Handala”; a group that was created in France; in the suburbs of paris, in the early nineties by two Moroccan students Saïd and Hajr who purposefully preserved the form of the song, altering the text and adding politically-laden satirical passages.
The song, as handled by Handala, recounts the tragedy of “the ploughmen’s children” - the poor farmers in Morocco in the eighties – This period witnessed widespread poverty and, in certain circumstances, famine for it coincided with a particular historical context which is the structural adjustment programme imposed on Morocco by the IMF in 1984.
The song has become a political catchword ever present in the social mobilisation of Moroccans, ceasing to merely stand for a precise epoch. The situation of the poor farmers kept worsening due to the ever-growing clout of the big farmer “Master Bouzekri” as he is often referred to in the song. And “Bouzekri” is a common proper noun in Morocco whose symbolic significance in the song is associated with the Moroccan city of Meknes where many of the most fertile agricultural lands are located. These endowment lands were known as “aḥbās Bouzekri” whose grandchildren have borne his name and accordingly reigned over substantial agricultural activities in the region.

Written by | Haikel hazgui & Terez Sliman
Edited by | Asmaa Azaizeh
Translated to English by | Mohamed Amine Khedhiri