“The cosmopolitan society that we dream of, to which the Republic claims, remains an objective”

Every day, a personality invites itself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Thursday June 27, 2024: the author, composer, writer and founder of the Zebda group, Magyd Cherfi. He is releasing a new album, perhaps the last, “Le Propre des Eratures” and will be in concert from mid-December.

In 1985, Magyd Cherfi began singing with friends in a group. His pen was used to create all the songs that would make this group, Zebda, famous. Since 2004, he has decided to embark on a solo career, definitively erasing the dyslexia that accompanied him for a long time when he was a child in Toulouse. After presenting his book to us, My mother’s life, published by Actes Sud last January, he is releasing a new album, The characteristic of erasures. He will be on tour from mid-December.

franceinfo: The nature of erasures is very dense, very intimate. You say it will be the last. Are you sure and why?

Magyd Cherfi: I’m not sure of myself, but we feel that there is a moment when we perhaps need to close a certain number of stories a little, particularly for me, that of music.

This album is the soundtrack of My mother’s life in a way, with this mother who has been at the heart of your life since your earliest childhood. Today we realize to what extent this solo career has allowed you to emancipate yourself and exist as a being, as a man.

Yes, it’s true, because deep down, a group is never really natural.

“A group imposes collective creation, and I, immediately, dreamed of intimacy. I wanted to say things of my own and I kept silent in the name of the group.”

Magyd Cherfi

to franceinfo

And afterwards, when I found myself alone, obviously immediately there was an obsession with saying: “I want to tell myself“and telling me about it was talking about a woman. And it was my wife who one day said to me: “But what are you, woman!“, because I have gestures, it seems, effeminate, I have an effeminate verb. I don’t really know what that means. And so indeed, all my books, like the albums have this kind of feminist touch .

You say that women have been trampled on for a long time and that your mother herself was “cardboard” by your father. You use strong terms. Was it also a way of supporting them, of putting words to what they could not express for years?

So obviously, it’s difficult to say: “my mother is a battered woman“, because it is not said. My mother hid it and yet at times, she almost claimed it because it identified her, “I am a woman since I have some interest in my husband“. And then there is a kind of whisper, a whisper that says: “you shouldn’t say it“. So all my literature has been excited by: “you shouldn’t say that about us“, and as much as I am a defender of immigration, I am also for looking inward and saying: but the evil is also in there. It is not only on the outside.

Maupassant, Flaubert, Hugo accompanied you all the time. They were your best friends. Ultimately, they are the ones who reached out to you through their works. We feel to what extent literature has saved you, in a way.

Yes. She made me French. I discovered a culture in this literature, particularly from the 19th century. I discovered a language, I discovered a people, a territory. I was missing that because when you come from exile, you look for reference points. As a child, I loved it at school when they told us: “your ancestors the Gauls“. It must also be said because we liked being hung on a tree. And France missed this meeting. It can work to say to a Maghrebi, your ancestors the Gauls, because all ancestors are equal. Afterwards, reality overtakes you and artificially, you refuse to identify with your ancestors the Gauls and me, secretly, no.

It took you a while to appreciate Brel because you were ashamed at that time of being Arab, an immigrant, and also of being poor.

When we are children, yes, we are ashamed of being poor. We are ashamed of having parents who are destitute, weak, fragile, afraid, terrorized.

“Today, at 85, my mother is terrified at the idea of ​​the National Rally because she says to herself: ‘they are going to chase us away’. It’s still incredible to be afraid of being chased after more of 60 years of quiet presence in France.”

Magyd Cherfi

at franceinfo

Are you afraid ?

I am not afraid. I have to tell you that I expect it. For almost half a century, I have finally seen this refusal to accept ourselves as a French component. And so I told myself that it had to happen eventually. It happens and I’m not afraid because I’m French. If they chase me away, they’ll chase away a Frenchman, get over it!

To conclude, this album is an album of memories and hope. It’s an album full of hope.

Yes, I have children in their twenties and we cannot tell them: “it’s dead“. The cosmopolitan society that we dream of, that the Republic aspires to, remains an objective. So obviously, it is difficult, but it is inevitable, we will be mixed or we will be nothing.