Punk Beur : Popular Music, Itinerancy and Identity in Sakinna Boukhedenna’s Journal ‘Nationalité: immigré(e) ’

Abstract

Sakinna Boukhedenna’s Journal ‘Nationalité: immigré(e)’ contains many stimulating invocations of popular music, and these highlight familiar Beur themes of marginalisation, movement, liminality and identity in a highly interesting way. Engaging seriously with Sakinna’s musical interests and her commentaries about the rock and proto-punk music of Lou Reed, the punk rock of the Sex Pistols, the reggae music of Max Romeo, Rastafarian culture, and the Arab music of Umm Kulthum is crucial for understanding the importance of movement and itinerancy in her struggle to construct a viable postcolonial identity. Sakinna’s treatment of music also takes us out of the usual Beur geographical frame (France / Mediterranean / North Africa) to the worlds of the Atlantic and the Caribbean, and it reminds us of the richness of Beur writing and the multimedia modalities of Beur culture more generally.

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