Mririda n'Ait Attik


Mririda n'Aït Attik was a Berber Moroccan Shilha poet writing in Tashelhit. She was born in Megdaz in the Tassaout valley. Her poems were put to paper and translated into French in the 1930s by René Euloge, a French civil servant based in Azilal.
Little is known about her life. Born in the village of Megdaz, in the Tassaout valley, Mririda married at a very early age, but soon fled her unhappy life at home to become an itinerant oral poet and performer. She toured from market to market, improvising and performing her poetry, which she composed in Tashelhit.
Mririda was the pen name she used on stage, and her real name is unknown. She was illiterate and never committed her poems to paper. Her poetry dealt with topics tabu at the time, such as divorce, love between women, household problems, and unrequited love, and she openly voiced her inner thoughts as a means of resistance and rebellion against a culture of patriarchy.
During the 1940s, she is said to have been a courtesan in the souk in Azilal, and was famed for the songs she sang to the men who visited her house. By the end of WWII, Mririda had disappeared. No one knows when or where she died.

Books

Poetry collections

Les Chants de la Tassaout de Mririda N’aït Attik Songs of Mririda by Mririda n’Ait Attik Tassawt Voices, by Mririda n-Ayt Attiq and René Euloge

Anthologies

Bending the Bow: an anthology of African love poetry, ed. Frank M. Chipasula