Marching (and Waltzing) toward Independence: North African Jewish Musicians at Mid-Century

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History, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

In 1947, as Jewish-Arab tension reached a fever pitch in Palestine, a 20-something Moroccan Jew named Salomon Amzallag entered a star-search competition in Casablanca and won. For the young vocalist, the year was life altering. It marked his transformation into “Samy Elmaghribi” (“Samy the Moroccan”) -- a stage name which evoked his sense of belonging to the nation -- and the launch of a music career that forever cemented his place in the collective memory of North Africans Jews and Muslims.

Algerian and Tunisian Jewish music-makers also continued to create in the Maghrib past Israel’s foundation. Across the region, Jewish artists set down roots in the moments surrounding Moroccan, Tunisian, and Algerian independence -- establishing cabarets, embarking on transnational concert tours, and delighting multi-confessional audiences despite ethno-religious discord in the Middle East.

While Jews of this period have long been viewed from the vantage point of impending departure for Israel, thousands of Jewish North Africans stayed in place at mid-century. How do we capture the richness of their lives and their sense of placeness? This paper approaches those questions from the perspective of musicians like Samy Elmaghribi, whose music not only enriched the daily rhythms of Moroccan Jews and Muslims (and those in Algeria) but also provided the soundtrack for a Morocco marching (and waltzing) toward independence. Using police reports, family archives, oral history – and the music itself, I demonstrate that Jewish musicians, far from ambivalent about their future in the Maghrib, actively shaped its sound from center stage.

Chris Silver
Chris Silver








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