Post-revolutionary France tried to stamp it out, but working class communities kept speaking it. Now Occitan powers a vivacious and political music European music scene
It’s May Day in Marseille, and beyond the celebrations – and the ongoing protests against President Macron raising the retirement age – another smaller but just as potent group are taking a stand on behalf of marginalised voices. It’s the 30th edition of the annual street party la Sardinade des Feignants (translated as the Lazy Man’s Sardinade), organised by the 40-year-old Massilia Sound System, a raggamuffin reggae and dub collective. In the blazing sun, the band toast the exuberant crowd as cooks grill sardines, the regional staple that give the celebration its name, off to the side.
Massilia also sing in Occitan, AKA langue d’Oc, and promote the conservation and vibrancy of this language and its dialects. The romance language sounds like a mixture of Catalan and Italian with barely a hint of a French accent, and its speakers sweep across the Pays d’Oc of southern France and into the Pyrenees and northern Italy. But today, says Massilia’s Tatou, AKA Moussu T (Mr T in Occitan), “the government still sees regional cultures that are not the language of the court of Versailles as exotic, folkloric, bizarre – cute but unimportant.”
