Urban Folk and Popular Music in Algeria

Algeria has had a long history. Fantastic rock paintings in the central Sahara dating from approximately 10,000 years ago demonstrate the existence of a black population. Some 5,000 years ago Hamitic tribes of Berber extraction invaded the region from the east. After them, Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, their slaves from black Africa, Turks, and Europeans all left their mark. The present ethnic and social structure of the population is complex, and the traditions are many and various,...