Dania Ben Sassi
{{short description|Libyan singer}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Dania Ben Sassi
| image =
| native_name = Danya At Sasi
| birth_date = 1998
| birth_place = Belgrade, Serbia
| instrument = Voice
}}
Dania Ben Sassi, Tamazight: Danya At Sasi, Arabic: دانيا بن ساسي (born 1998) is a Libyan Amazigh singer whose music went viral during the First Libyan Civil War, due to the fact her music praises Amazigh resistance and are sung in Tamazight.
Early life
Dania Ben Sassi was born in Belgrade, Serbia in 1998, to a Libyan father from Zuwarah and a Serbian mother.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=DANIA BEN SASSI|url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=http://www.music-berbere.com/artiste-dania-ben-sassi-ia-420.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205215141/http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=http://www.music-berbere.com/artiste-dania-ben-sassi-ia-420.html |archive-date=2021-02-05 |access-date=2021-01-26|website=archive.wikiwix.com}} Her father had been forced into exile in Serbia, after fleeing the Gaddafi regime due to his activism for Libyan Berber rights. She is fluent in Serbian and Libyan Tamazight and can write Tifinagh.{{Cite web|last=Rédaction|first=La|date=2014-05-29|title=La voix de la Révolution libyenne !|url=https://www.depechedekabylie.com/culture/138887-la-voix-de-la-revolution-libyenne/|access-date=2021-01-26|website=La Dépêche de Kabylie|language=fr-FR}} She studied economics at the University of Belgrade.
Musical career
Ben Sassi's music is inspired by the Amazighs of Libya and their resistance to cultural assimilation. The majority of her music and lyrics are written by her father, who is also her manager. His activist influence is clear, since Ben Sassi's music anchors Amazigh identity in Libya and demands that the Amazigh language be recognised by the Libyan constitution.{{Cite book|last1=Tilmatine|first1=Mohand|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b9dMDwAAQBAJ&q=Dania+ben+sassi&pg=PA212|title=Les revendications amazighes dans la tourmente des " printemps arabes ": Trajectoires historiques et évolutions récentes des mouvements identitaires en Afrique du Nord|last2=Desrues|first2=Thierry|date=2018-02-19|publisher=Centre Jacques-Berque|isbn=979-10-92046-33-5|language=fr}} Tamazight was severely repressed in Libya when Gaddafi was in power.{{Cite book|last=Sturman|first=Janet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L0OKDwAAQBAJ&q=Dania+ben+sassi&pg=PT2929|title=The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture|date=2019-02-26|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-1-5063-5337-1|language=en}}
It is due to the circulation of her songs on the internet that she became an icon during the democratic uprisings that preceded the First Libyan Civil War.{{Cite book|last=OIRY-VARACCA|first=Mari|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v1K_DwAAQBAJ&q=Dania+ben+sassi&pg=PT109|title=Montagnards dans la mondialisation: Réseaux disporiques et mobilisations sociales dans l'Atlas (Maroc), les Highlands (Ecosse) et les Alpes françaises.|date=2019-11-21|publisher=PUG - Presses universitaires de Grenoble|isbn=978-2-7061-4371-7|language=fr}}{{Cite journal|last=Merolla|first=Daniela|date=2020-01-02|title=Cultural heritage, artistic innovation, and activism on Amazigh Berber websites|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2019.1624153|journal=Journal of African Cultural Studies|volume=32|issue=1|pages=42–59|doi=10.1080/13696815.2019.1624153|s2cid=197689713|issn=1369-6815|url-access=subscription}} The singer has been described as "the swallow of the Libyan Amazigh spring" by the writer Lhoussain Azergui. Amazigh history has inspired much of Ben Sassi's music, for example: Numidya (Numidia), which takes the name of the Numidian Berber kingdom.
In 2011 Ben Sassi released her song 'The Revolutionary Our Star' in Tamazight, which according to the political researcher Nadine Schnelzer "is remarkable in itself".{{Cite web|date=2017-12-15|title=دنيا بن ساسي تصدر أغنية باللغة الأمازيغية|url=http://agadaz.com/?p=1854|access-date=2021-01-26|website=...::: تين ؤسّان ::: ...|language=ar}}{{Cite book|last=Schnelzer|first=Nadine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R_rpCgAAQBAJ&q=Dania+ben+sassi&pg=PA50|title=Libya in the Arab Spring: The Constitutional Discourse since the Fall of Gaddafi|date=2015-11-10|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-658-11382-7|location=|pages=50|language=en}} The fact the song, and her music more generally praises the sacrifices made by the Libyans during the revolution, explains why she has become an icon of the Libyan Amazigh movement.{{Citation|last1=Merolla|first1=Daniela|title=" Le sentiment d'être chez soi " sur les sites amazighs et le " printemps arabe " : déconstructions et renégociations sur le Web|date=2018-02-19|url=https://books.openedition.org/cjb/1371|work=Les revendications amazighes dans la tourmente des « printemps arabes » : Trajectoires historiques et évolutions récentes des mouvements identitaires en Afrique du Nord|pages=289–322|editor-last=Desrues|editor-first=Thierry|series=Description du Maghreb|place=Maroc|publisher=Centre Jacques-Berque|doi=10.4000/books.cjb.1371|isbn=979-10-92046-33-5|access-date=2021-01-26|last2=Dahraoui|first2=Abdelbasset|editor2-last=Tilmatine|editor2-first=Mohand}} Her music also addresses issues of gender facing Libyan and Amazigh communities.{{Cite journal|last=Clancy-Smith|first=Julia|date=2015-03-01|title=Gendering the History of Libya: Transnational and Feminist Approaches|url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/jmews/article/11/1/98/15712/Gendering-the-History-of-Libya-Transnational-and|journal=Journal of Middle East Women's Studies|language=en|volume=11|issue=1|pages=98–103|doi=10.1215/15525864-2832358|s2cid=143823722|issn=1552-5864|url-access=subscription}}
In 2013 she performed on French television, on a programme on France 2 entitled 'The Night of Ramadan'.{{Cite web|title=La Nuit du Ramadan : Thierry Beccaro et Leili Anvar en duo à Marseille|url=https://www.toutelatele.com/la-nuit-du-ramadan-thierry-beccaro-et-leili-anvar-en-duo-a-marseille-50956|access-date=2021-01-26|website=Toutelatele|language=fr}}
Discography
- Tidet/ The Truth - تيدت - ⵜⵉⴷⴻⵜ
- Agrawli Itri nnegh/The Revolutionary Our star - أكًراولي إثري نًغ - ⴰⴳⵔⴰⵡⵍⵉ ⵉⵜⵔⵉ ⵏⴻⵖ
- Numidya - نوميديا - ⵏⵓⵎⵉⴷⵉⵢⴰ
- Abrid n Tilelli/The Path to Freedom - أبريد ن تينللي - ⴰⴱⵔⵉⴷ ⵏ ⵜⵉⵍⴻⵍⵍⵉ
- Sfeḍ imeṭṭawen-im a weltma/Wipe away your tears my sister - سفض يمطًاون إم ا ولتما
References
External links
- Dania Ben Sassi - [https://www.amazighnews.net/Video-club/2147-Dania-Ben-Sassi.html Agrawli itri negh (LIVE Tripoli 2013)]
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhWBrOyZnuE Dania Ben Sassi & Idir, Avava Inuva, Concert au parc de Vincennes, 29 Septembre 2013]
- [https://stepfeed.com/10-libyan-songs-to-kick-back-and-listen-to-7610 10 Libyan Songs to Kick Back and Listen To]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ben Sassi, Dania}}
Category:Musicians from Belgrade
Category:Serbian people of Libyan descent
Category:21st-century Libyan women singers
Category:Berber-language singers
Category:Berber women musicians