He sang Cathar history and Occitan culture as well as African tales. Mr. Henri GOUGAUD, writer, poet and singer, left us on May 6 at the age of 87.
Born near Carcassonne, in the department of Aude, within an anarchist peasant family and engaged in the unions then in the resistance, Mr. Henri GOUGAUD had been raised in the taste of art and freedom. As a teenager, he was passionate about poetry and the history of Catharism, deeply rooted in the Occitania region. In his youth, he began to perform in cabarets between Paris and Toulouse, before focusing on writing, offering his songs to Serge Reggiani, Juliette Gréco or Jean Ferrat.
After May 68, Mr. Henri GOUGAUD had founded the publishing house Bélibaste, named after the last «perfect» Cathar, condemned to the stake in 1321. Without giving up the radio or the stage, he had published numerous works, including translations, such as Political poems of the troubadours (1969) or his own stories of which Overseas departments and territories (1977) winner of the Goncourt Prize for Short Stories, and The Great Departure (1978). Beyond his rich romantic production (Bélibaste, 1982), Mr. Henri GOUGAUD had worked to compile several collections of tales and legends from around the world, in line with the tradition of orality and transmission of the occitan troubadours he admired.
I extend my condolences to his family and loved ones.
Rachida DATI
Minister of Culture