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2 Idir wrote an ‘open letter to those who govern us’ that was published in a number of French national
newspapers (Idir 16.1.03) in which he refused to be associated with the government that remained associated
with repression in Kabylia.
3 ‘L’Année de quelle Algérie’ Le Monde 6.2.03.
4 Addi in Liberation 9.1.2003.
5 Quotidien d’Oran 16.12.2003.
Literature
Although there is a long tradition of written work in Algeria – from the fourth century work of Saint Augustine,
in Latin, to the nineteenth century theological writings of Abdel-Kader, in Arabic – the novel only arrived with
the French. Previous to this, fiction had been expressed as poetry and oral storytelling but by the beginning
of the twentieth century, Algerian writers began producing long fiction. Initially this work was written very
much in the French style for a French audience, but a powerful and often extremely political Algerian voice
soon developed. This work considered major issues of Algerian history and independence, Berber cultural
identity, the place of Islam in Algerian society and, more recently, the current conflict. Algerian literature in
French and Arabic now constitutes a very rich body of work in world literature, but unfortunately
comparatively little has been translated into English. 73
From the beginning of the twentieth century, novels written in French began to appear by a French-educated
Algerian elite. These typically reflected the negative view of the indigenous population that was dominant
among French colonisers and idealised the French occupation of Algeria; occasionally they were even coauthored
with French writers 74 . More realistic novels were initially rejected by French publishers; Mouloud
Feraoun wrote the semi-autobiographical Le Fils du pauvre (the son of the poor man) in 1939 which was not
published until 1950. It tells the story of a family from a small village in the Berber province of Kabylia where
life is extremely hard and there are no visible signs of the French ‘civilising mission’ despite more than a
century of French presence. Eventually the father of the family leaves to find work in France, as Feroun’s
father did and as was the case for a growing number of Kabyle men from the 1920s onwards. Feroun’s
second novel, La Terre et le sang (earth and blood) published in 1953, further explored the experience of
emigrating to France. A number of other novels of the period also dealt with emigration, such as La Colline
oubliée (the forgotten hill), written by Feroun’s friend Mouloud Mammeri in 1952. La Colline oubliée was
made into a film, directed by Abderrahmane Bouguermouh, in 1995. 75
Mohammed Dib, one of the most prolific Algerian writers, published the first volume of his ‘Algeria’ trilogy in
1952, La Grande Maison (the large house), followed by L’Incendie (the fire) (1954) and Le Métier à tisser
(the loom) (1957). These books present a picture of the highly exploitative relationship between the
colonisers and the local population in the region of Tlemcen. The books are ostensibly set around the
beginning of the Second World War but critics have demonstrated 76 that the events relate to a strike by
agricultural workers that Dib covered for a national paper in 1951. The events of the strike are dealt with in
L’Incendie, which was published a few months before the beginning of the 1954-62 war.
73 See http://goa.cet.middlebury.edu/mtoler/In_English_Translation/index.htm for a full and continually updated listing of
the work of Algerian writers available in English [accessed 5 May 2004].
74 Such as Saad Ben Ali and René Pottier (1933) La Tente noire, roman saharien, Les Oeuvres Représentatives, Paris.
75 Interestingly, the film was finished thanks to financial support from the emigrant community, particularly La Colline
Oubliée Fund based in New Jersey [accessed 5 May 2004].
76 Bonn, C. (1985) Le Roman Algérien de langue française, Editions L’Harmattan, Paris.
Navigation guide to refugee populations: Algerians
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