a biography of the day-marguerite taos amrouche (first female algerian writer)
Taos Amrouche
Marie-Louise-Taos Amrouche (4 March 1913 in Tunis, Tunisia - 2 April 1976 in Saint-Michel-l'Observatoire, France) was an Algerian writer and singer.
She was born to a family of Kabyle Roman Catholic converts. She was the first Algerian female writer. Her first novel Jacinthe noir (an autobiographical novel) was published in 1947 . Her mother Fadhma Aït Mansour had a great impact on her life. Her literary style reflected the oral traditions of Kabylie, descended from her mother. With her compilation of tales and poems La Grain magique in 1966, she took the nom de plume Marguerite-Taos, Marguerite was her mother's Christian name.
While she wrote in French, she sang in Kabyle. Her first album Chants berbères de Kabylie, which was a great success, was a collection of traditional Kabyle songs that were translated to French by her elder brother Jean Amrouche in 1939 . She was an activist in Berber issues and she was among the founders of Académie berbère in 1966.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taos_Amrouche