Marie-Louise-Taos Amrouche (Tamazight: Mari-Lwiz Ṭawes Ɛemruc, March 1913 – April 2, 1976) was a Kabyle writer and singer. In 1947, she became the first Kabyle woman to write and publish a novel.

Biography

She was born in Tunis, Tunisia, to a family of Kabyle people who converted to Roman Catholicism. She was the only daughter in a family of six sons. Her family moved to Tunisia to escape being treated unfairly after they converted to Christianity in Algeria.

Her mother, Fadhma Aït Mansour, was a well-known Kabyle singer. Her mother’s influence helped shape her life, and her writing style showed the traditions of the Kabylie Berber people from her mother’s background. Amrouche studied in Tunis and went to France in 1935 to attend a school called École Normale at Sèvres. Starting in 1936, she worked with her older brother, Jean Amrouche, and her mother to collect and explain Kabyle songs. In 1939, she received a scholarship to study at the Casa Velasquez in Spain. There, she studied the connections between Berber and Spanish folk songs.

Her first book, Jacinthe noir, was published in 1947. It is one of the earliest books written in French by a North African woman. In 1966, she published a collection of stories and poems called La Grain magique. For this work, she used the pen name Marguerite-Taos, with "Marguerite" being her mother’s Christian name.

Although she wrote in French, she sang in Kabyle. Her first music album, Chants berbères de Kabylie (1967), was very popular. It included traditional Kabyle songs translated into French by her brother, Jean. She recorded other albums, including Chants sauvés de l’oubli ("Songs Saved from Oblivion"), Hommage au chant profond ("Homage to a Profound Song"), Incantations, méditations et danses sacrées berbères (1974), and Chants berbères de la meule et du berceau (1975).

She was an advocate for Berber rights and helped start the Académie berbère in 1966. She died in Saint-Michel-l'Observatoire, France.