- silence

- Even in my country, I was already an exile.

- music

- One or two teachers at the time who, when we spoke a bit in Berber in the corner, especially in class,

- told us we couldn’t speak gibberish, so it was quite a shock.

- My brother told me, ‘Come on, let’s enlist, seven years go so fast.’

- I told him, ‘No, brother.’

- music

- Angaga, a poem from the Chenoua region.

- Matoub Lounès is a Kabyle singer who was murdered

- and we had calls from friends saying that we may come next, so we came to France.

- music

- I insisted, I have no money to live.

- So I told myself I would compose again.

- Like I did in Algeria, but this time I compose in a different context, it is no more the Chenoua, Tipaza, the root.

- music

- So why did I start with Angaga?

- First because it is an old poem. It stands as a wreck.

- Then, I have to compose the music, we have to record it, people will sing it, and then people rise from oblivion.

- music

- And it is oral folklore, as it is not written, it was only told and transmitted like that.

- But she didn’t want to hear about anything, money is not the most important thing.

- Over there, music allowed me to express myself, to say things, same things here.

- I grew as an orphan and I raised you as orphans, I got used to destitution, you still are my protégés.

- Oral transmission, the old way, and the mixing of cultures, yes, I follow my path that way.

- music

- So I arrived in 2000.

- To come to France is also exile, so I am a bit into transmission as people say, it is how I go on fighting.

- Mohan is an Algerian professional singer, famous in France and in Northern Africa.

- A former interpreter and the founder of the group “Ichenwiyen”,

- he comes from the region of Mount Chenoua, a small Berber-speaking island on the heights of Tipaza, a coastal town of the Mediterranean famous for its rich archeological heritage.

- An exile in France in 2000, he has now created his school music, Free Hands, in Marseille.