The Role of North African Writers in theDevelopment of French Literature

Motahare Mozafari  BUFS

Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, the former Afrique du nord française, now
known in French by the Arabic term, Maghreb, represent an unusual case within
Francophone Africa. The term Maghreb was used in Arabic by Medieval Arabgeographers to refer to the region: Morocco was known as Al-Maghrib al Aqşa(The Farthest West), Algeria as al-Maghrib al Awsat (The Middle/Centre West)and Tunisia as al-Maghrib al Adna (The Nearest West). The term was adopted
after Independ­ence to clearly mark the region’s affiliation to the Arab world. In1989, a new political and economic union known as the Union du Maghreb Arabe(Arab Maghreb Union) was created along the lines of the European Union. Thisentity included Libya and Mauritania, and the five countries together are referredto as Le Grand Maghreb (the Great Maghreb). It was supposed to be theprecursor for the creation of a North Afri­can Common Market (also referred toas Maghreb Economic Space), but it appears to have done little or nothing toachieve this and has no apparent impact on the everyday life of Maghrebians.
After achieving independence from France, all three countries of Algeria,
Morocco and Tunisia undertook a policy of Arabization, seeking to eradicate187 2018 지중해지역원 연례학술대회French from public life and restore Arabic to its role as national language. Despite
this, French continues to play an important role in a number of domains, and its
status is far from that of a mere ‘foreign language’, which is the only official role
it retains. The relationship between the Maghreb and the French language iscomplex, the result of a long and fraught shared history, particularly in the case ofAlgeria.
According to an Algerian linguist, Rabah Sebaa “the situation of the Frenchlanguage in Algeria is unquestionably unique in the world”. During the colonial era– 1830–1962 for Algeria, 1881–1956 for Tunisia, and 1912–1956 for Morocco– French was the language of power and prestige, but was limited to the elite.
The democratization of education means that more Maghrebians than ever be­fore
have learnt French over the last five decades, and vast improvements in masscom­munications mean that these people are increasingly exposed to Frenchlanguage and culture through a variety of means previously unavailable – Algeria,
Morocco and Tunisia were an important part of the French Empire in thenineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and despite having gained independencesome fifty years ago (1956 for Morocco and Tunisia, 1962 for Algeria), they
continue to be closely linked in a number of ways, and remain important membersof the international French-speaking community, albeit reluctantly, especially in thecase of Algeria. Each country has pursued policies of Arabization, destined toremove the French language from public life and replace it with Arabic, yet Frenchcontinues to be an important lan­guage in many areas of life. The proximity ofthe Maghreb to Metropolitan France, the extremely high numbers of Maghrebiannationals living in France, and the volume of trade and business between France
and the countries of the Maghreb all contribute to the continued impact of theFrench language and culture on the Maghreb.
Writing in French by Africans was formerly classified as "colonial literature" anddiscussed as part of colonial studies for its ethnographical interest, rather thanstudied for its literary merit. Any texts in French from the colonies and territories
that were considered to have merit were subsumed under the classification ofFrench Literature.
On July 5, 1962, following a referendum announced by Marshal De Gaulle inAlgiers, after 132 years, the country left France's domination andbecameindependent. Indeed, the attempt to reach it this condition was not non-violent,188

❙ Motahare Mozafari ❙contrary to the efforts of the people of India under the leadership of Gandhi, and
the Algerian revolutionaries were using all means possible to strike at the French
forces in Algeria, including the bombing or Assassinations of French officers andmembers of the Algerian Bureau of Security, and, similarly the French also called
the Algerian oppositions as terrorists , attempted to change the issue of theAlgerian independence with taking actinon against turmoil and terrorism.
However, this struggle was rooted in decades, and the Algerian people hadalready called for membership in the French parliament and for equal rights with
the French citizens. Arabic language teaching along with the French language inAlgeria was another demand of the people of this country. But in 1954, theAlgerian uprising entered a main stage, continuing the National Liberation Front
movement up to eight years and announcing the independence of Algiers which
resulted into killing one million people.
The struggles for independence during years of chaos influenced many of theconcepts of modern life in France, and influenced literature, in addition tosociological issues. The Algerian war even affected the invention of a concept
called "New Novel", and perhaps it could be considered as one of the factors thatcaused the novels to focus on internal feelings. This effect is also considerable fromthe field of cinema to the field of literature.
Perhaps Franz Fannon, the revolutionary writer who had a profound impact on
the radical movements of the United States and Europe in the 1960s, is one of thefirst writers to figure out the struggles of Algeria and how it was reflected in theFrench-Algerian literature during the post-war struggle and post-war era.. Fanon,
who was born at Martinique, was able to attract audiences beside Aimé Fernand
David Césaire. Fanon, who focused his attempts on "black skins", believed that theviolent revolution was the only effective way to end the repression of colonies anda way to free theThird World countries from western domination. He defends

the violence for that purifying power, which removes human nature from theharshness, despair, and weakness and returns courage and dignity to him.
By his first book “Black Skin, White Mask” in 1952, Fanon analyzes the effectsof colonialism and its destructive effects, which has a profound impact on civilrights, anti-colonial thoughts, and black-skin liberation movements around theworld. He criticized colonial policies, which imposed a fabricated entity on black189

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skin people and forced the victims to acknowledge the white skin people to retain
their false distorted identity, which is now also considered in post-colonial
literature.
On the other hand, Camus was very famous after the war in 1945 and wasappreciated by Sartre and all the libertarian intellectuals of that generation. By
writing the book "The Rebel" in 1955, by raising his views on communism ended
his connection with Sartre. Camus was never forgiven by his French compatriots
since he demanded a ceasefire for the war of Algeria, and two years later, when
he proposed a compromise, no one welcomed him. He inevitably remained silent
and abandoned on both sides, while Sartre and others took the Algerian
revolutionaries side.
Camus, in his last book, ‘The First Man’, created a person with a strange senseof loneliness. Although Camus's complex personality was ignored by start ofAlgeria's independence movement, defining him solely as aFrench author, bet heemphatically emphasized the importance of Algeria’s issues.
Camus had a French nationality, but the French colonialists never approved andadmitted him because of his poverty. Camus, a prominent figure among theAlgerian intellectuals, who was politically influential in popular federation, foundhimself in a crowd of different races: Arabs, French and African populations. All
these led him to write ‘The First Man’ and to recall a person who is in absoluteloneliness. He should only grow up by force, with power and in solitude, to findhis own morals and truths, until he finally finds himself in the form of human.
Camus also speaks of exile in the "The Stranger", and it is not an exile to aplace, but exile from the intellectual world. Camus could not have been an
impartial person in those circumstances. He always had a firm conviction to real
resistance against totalitarianism, and issued a public turmoil against the Franco
regime in Spain.
Today, having left behind all these topics, literature goes its own way, andNorth African literature is divided into two sections of French language and Arabiclanguage. Arabic language goes back to the seventh century, when the Arabsexpanded to North Africa, and French-speaking literature began by Frenchcolonialism.

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❙ Motahare Mozafari ❙In fact, the relationship between France and Algeria did not end in 1962, and it
seems that from the view of post-colonial historical relations, as compared tocolonial experience, it remains to be considerable. Today there are still some key
points in postcolonial literature that can be traced back to half century ago.
As North African societies have passed years under the colonial regime, theworks of literature that depicted the life in Africa inevitably depicted the situation
during the period as colonies. Many great works during this period emerged that
centered on the issue of liberation, independence and negritude. ‘Things Fall Apart’(1958) by Chinua Achebe is among the first works of African literature thatreceived worldwide praise.
The 1950s was a time when many African societies gained independence, beside
the growth of liberation and literacy gradually African literature developed. In that
period, African writers wrote in western languages, especially in English, Frenchand Portuguese. In 1957 Albert Camus became “the first writer from African
region to win the Nobel Prize”.
Although today, the amount of literature in the Arabic language is as much asthat in the French language, some famous writers, especially those who were bornin France or have immigrated to France, write their works in French language.
Because of this reason, the collection of French Literature in 20th and 21st century
is highly indebted to the authors who are not originally French, but write inFrench and are in search for their identity.

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