Aziza Brahim-Activist and Singer

Image courtesy of Freedom to Create

Aziza Brahim was in exile even before she was born. In 1976, her heavily pregnant mother fled to a refugee camp in Tindouf when Morocco annexed the land where she lived. Azizas family comes from El Aaiun, the capital of the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara. Aziza never met her father, who stayed behind in the occupied city.At the age of 11, she received a scholarship to study in Cuba but left school when she turned 18 to pursue a musical career. Aziza has never forgotten her roots and she returned to the camps, not as a 19-year-old musical ingnue, but as a voice for the Saharawis, a people fighting for independence.
Aziza embodies the new voice of the Saharawis. Her songs evoke exile, the right to freedom and human rights. She dedicates all her songs to her peoples struggle. Her song titles are evocative: Peace, Son of the Clouds, The Battle of Guelta, Memory of the Tank, and Return, a tribute to the Saharawis pursuit of self-determination and independence. She has been nominated for an album of her songs, Mi Canto.