LAARBI BATMA l'écrivain

Laarbi Batma (1948, in Oulad Bouziri [Chaouia] - 1998) was a Moroccan musician and author, especially wellknown as the leader of the group Nass El Ghiwane.

Laarbi Batma was very much influenced by the music style of the Moussems (festivals) of his native region Abda oulad El masnaoui, he used to go to as a child. Loving words and rhymes, he was known to never put away his pencil, as he conceived writing as a way of life and an art in itself. As such, he was always ready to write down his thoughts, any events, and inspirations for a poem or a song. Among his many achievements, there is a 21,000 verses poem project Al houmam Al houssam, which took him his entire life to write, but that was only around 17,000 verses at the time of his death. The famous song Essiniya (The tray) had a particular story to it, very significant to the sense of curiosity and flair of this vision. It is the story of Ba Salem, a beggar who went through Hay Mohammadi, in Casablanca crooning the first verses of "Essiniya": walli macheftouni rahmou alia, bahr el ghiwane my dkhaltou belâani.... Laarbi, who listened to the first strophes from his window, invited him in and had a long conversation with him. This is how the famous song was composed.

s.milou

ALLAH YARHAMOU!!