WHO IS FERHAT MEHENNI?
By Mairead Tagg, Scottish Independence Activist.
I was honoured to meet with the provisional president of Kabylie, currently living in exile in Paris after attempts on his life and persecution by the Algerian authorities culminating in the assassination of his son Ameziane in Paris.
He is a strong supporter of Scottish independence and is focused on supporting the independence struggles of other movements notably Catalonia and the Canary Isles. He is charismatic friendly and charming and works tirelessly to build links of solidarity and support with Scotland Catalonia and other people without a state
Ferhat Mehenni is a Kabyle artist, a political activist and the founder and first President of the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie (MAK). Since 1 June 2010 he has been the President of the Provisional Government of Kabylia, a government in exile that the movement set up in France. He has been a Laureate of the Gusi Peace Prize since 23 July 2013.
Background
Mehenni was born on 5 March 1951 in Illoula Oumalou, Tizi Ouzou Province, Algeria. Having graduated from the University of Algiers with a degree in political science, Mehenni made his first steps into the world of music in 1973 by winning the Algiers Modern Music Festival’s first prize. It was soon after this success that he began his career as a protest singer and political activist.
He was notably hostile towards the Algerian government and extremists; this led to him being arrested 13 times, imprisoned for three years, and tortured by government forces.
After the Black Spring massacre in Kabylie which cost the lives of 128 unarmed Kabyles, (triggered by the Algerian army killing of a young Kabyle man, Massinissa Guermah in detention), he established the MAK, Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylia, a political movement calling for political autonomy in Kabylia. In 2015, the MAK movement passed over from the large autonomy claim to Self-determination.
The assassination of his eldest son (Améziane Mehenni) in 2004 is regarded by some as a punishment to his fight for autonomy, though others suspect it was a case of mistaken identity and that Ferhat was the real target.
Music
Chants berbères de lutte et d’espoir “Berber songs of struggle and hope” (1983)
Tuγac n ddkir “Songs of steel, love and liberty” (1994)
Tuγac n tmes d waman “Songs of Fire and Water” (1996 and 2001)
I Tmurt n Leqvayel “Hymn to Kabylia” (2002)
Adekker d usirem “Requiem and Hope” (2004)
(Mehenni comes from an oral tradition where the song acts like newspapers or political speeches in European societies.)
Ferhat Mehenni is primarily a political activist who, living in a society with strong oral traditions, uses music to convey those ideas. It is quite difficult to separate the politician from the singer.
REACTION OF THE LAWYER SPECIALIST IN HUMAN RIGHTS MASTER SALAH DABOUZ FOLLOWING APPEALS FOR THE ASSASSINATION OF MAS FERHAT MEHENNI
On his Facebook page, the famous Amazigh lawyer and human rights defender Maitre Salah DABOUZ strongly condemned the appeal of the Algerian journalist-writer Omar Touati for the assassination of Ferhat Mehenni, qualifying this act, quite naturally, of terrorist act: “An Algerian journalist calls for the liquidation of Ferhat Mehenni considering him responsible for the European Parliament’s resolution on the human rights situation in Algeria. I denounce this act which I consider a terrorist act ”he wrote in his post Facbook.
Maitre Dabouz also gave his opinion on the reasons for this terrorist call by linking it to the statements made by Mas Aselway Ferhat Mehenni in relation to the official launch of the work of the Kabyle Constitution project (Tamendawt Taqvaylit): “In my opinion what has happened made the power react through Omar Touati, it is the project of the Kabyle constitution announced by Farhat Mehenni which will serve to many Algerians as a means of comparison with the Algerian constitution riddled with contradictions. We will then no longer be able to say “We cannot compare the Algerian constitution to that of Switzerland” “that we could read in another post on his Facebook page.
Ferhat Mehenni
“If Algeria for which my father had sacrificed himself, had taken the party to recognize all the rights of the peoples who compose it; that freedom, democracy and human rights were respected there; if the concern of successive governments was to build a future for young people, instead of pushing them to flee, to cultivate respect between the identities present rather than sowing hatred to divide them, would I have had the idea of to claim the independence of Kabylia? I do not believe that.”