Cherifa Kersit is a singer-sheika from Tazruth mmu ukhbu "the hanging rock" a few kilometres from Khenifra. She was born in 1967 and was brought up in her family in the country, where she never went to school, like all the other girls of her age. She practised singing in the open air, either as she followed her herd, or as she did the housework, or again when she met up with other young girls. When she was sixteen, she gradually started to perform at weddings or traditional village fetes.