Aziza Brahim

Aziza is a Saharawi from Western Sahara, born in a refugee camp in Algeria. At the age of 11 Aziza received a schoolarship to study in Cube where she spent seven years, before abandoning her studies in order to dedicate herself to music. She won the first prize in a national song competition in a cultural festival of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic - the self-proclaimed Saharawi state, exiled in the refugee camps and recognized by over 80 countries. Aziza did her first recordings for the Saharawi National Radio in the refugee camps and from there came her first tour outside the camps in Mauritania and Algeria as part of the National Saharawi Music Group. In 1998 the spanish record company Nubenegra publish the trilogy "Saharauis", including two songs from her. After that she made several tours with the National Saharawi Music Group "Leyuad" in Europe from 1998 to 2004. In 2005 she made her first experience mixing the traditional music from Western Sahara with another musics, with the Latin Jazz music group Yayabo. Now she's working with her new group, Gulili Mankoo (a mix of Western Sahara music, rythms from Senegal and Blues & Rock music) in her new forthcoming record.



Aziza's family come from El Aaiun, the capital of the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara. Aziza's mother fled the Moroccan invasion in 1975 and survived the 1976 Moroccan bombardments of napalm against the Saharawi civilians who had sought refugee deep in the eastern desert of Western Sahara. Aziza never met her father who stayed behind the occupied Western Sahara and went on to remarry and have children. brothers and sisters that Aziza has never met, due to the 2500 km long wall in the Western Sahara, that divides every Saharawi family and was built by the Moroccans to defend their occupation.



Saharaui. Nacida el 9 de junio de 1976 en los campamentos de refugiados en Tinduf,en Argelia. Estudió en Cuba durante 7 años. Volvió a los campamentos en 1995. Ese mismo año ganó el Primer Premio Nacional de la Canción en el festival de cultura de la RASD. A partir de ahí­ pasa a formar parte del Grupo Nacional Saharaui haciendo su primera gira internacional.En 1998 y con el Ministerio de Cultura de la R.A.S.D.,la discográfica Nubenegra publica la trilogí­a Saharauis. En el Álbum A pesar de las heridas, aparecen sus canciones "Dios Mío" y "La tierra derrama lágrimas". Con el grupo Leyuad realiza su primera gira en Europa ese mismo año,actuando en Francia,Alemania y España. De vuelta a los campamentos,realiza unas grabaciones para la Radio de Tinduf con el grupo Tuareg de Tamarrast en 1999. Desde el año 2000 reside en España, realizando giras con Leyuad en España (2001),Francia (2002 y 2003) y compartiendo cartel en el Festival Internacional de Moers (Alemania,2003) con Ojos de Brujo y Cheb Khaled. Desde 2006 trabaja con su nuevo proyecto musical,tras sus experiencias con Yayabo y otros músicos, con el grupo Gulili Mankoo, con músicos saharauis, españoles, colombianos y senegaleses. Su EP "Mi Canto" está a la venta por descarga en internet.



In 1963, the United Nations (UN) included Western Sahara in the list of countries to be decolonized and asserted the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination. In 1966 the UN, for the first of many times, passed a resolution calling for this self-determination to be exercised by referendum.



On 31 October 1975, Morocco and Mauritania invaded Western Sahara as Spain (the former colonial power) looked on. The Saharawi people were expelled from their homes by force, including the use of napalm. In 1991 the United Nations brokered a ceasefire and agreed to organize a referendum in which the Saharawi people could vote on the future of Western Sahara . Morocco still refuses to allow UN sponsored referendum to take place.