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In December 2010, a young man self-immolated in the small Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid. His name was Mohamed Bouazizi. With his “sacrificial gesture,” as the French-Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jeroun put it in his opening speech at the Berlin Literature Festival, the young man in his late twenties unwittingly became part of a series of rebellions. Although its long-term consequences remain uncertain, its importance has changed significantly. It can be compared to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Ben Jeroun was so moved that he decided to write a fictional account of Bouazizi’s last days. His Mohammed in “Par le Feu” (“Fire”) represents all humiliated men. “When I saw him lying on the bed like a white mummy, I thought to myself, “This man has had a life, he has had youth, he has failed in love, he has had disappointments.” I wanted to give humanity back,” Ben Geran told Deutsche Welle. For him, the key outcome of the Arab Spring was the restoration of dignity and honor to an entire generation. Another 2011 publication, Letenser (The Spark), is a ferocious look into the minds of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak as they find themselves losing their grip on power. The invasion is his little revenge against the two men.Who took away so much from them? Karama forever.
As British author Jonny West explains in the preface to his book Karama! Journey through the Arab Spring, this Arabic word combines the concepts of dignity, honor, and self-respect. In what he calls “protagonist journalism,” West provides vivid insight into the prospects of those who risked their lives to profit from it. Karama return. Like Ben Jeran, he is convinced that this can never be taken away from them. He also told Deutsche Welle: “There will never again be a monopoly of ideas by any state-holding group in any of these countries. Intellectual conflict and freedom of thought will no longer be crushed.” Ta.
There is a fine line between dignity and humiliation
Although optimistic, the two authors are not wearing rose-colored glasses. Both are acutely aware of how unstable the situation in the region is and that there are many hurdles to overcome. They know that for many people it is difficult to maintain a sense of self. Karama. Ben Jeroun warns that constant vigilance is essential from a political point of view, as it is much easier to return to dictatorship than to build democracy. Mr. West has suggested that the United States and the European Union would implement a modern equivalent of the Marshall Plan, but he also expressed serious doubts about whether that would happen given the current climate. There is.
“The danger of not solving the economic problem is that the humiliation of being useless falls every day on millions of people without work, and the memory of the great glory of the revolution can only last for so long. “We’re doing it,” West said. he warned.
Ben Geran and West share the view that cultural events and literature play an important role. “Some, including myself, believe that the explosion of Arabic popular culture has been the single most important change in the region over the past two decades, trivializing mere events such as wars, peace negotiations, terrorist operations, and regime change.” “I believe that,” West wrote. Book.
He said that today the Arabic blogosphere is buzzing with poetry, comics and reportage, clearly showing how important the written word is. And while he acknowledged in Berlin that literature cannot do much in the face of human tragedy, he said that literature’s role is to stand by it, not lie, and be honest. “Imagine a society without literary works, plays, movies and music! It’s impossible! Culture is essential. We need to dream, imagine and feed our senses. It’s the same as bread. It’s so important,” he said.
“Politicians should read more books”
In a roundtable discussion at the festival, this year’s International Arabic Novel Prize winner, Moroccan author Mohamed Achari, said that contemporary Arab literature is on par with the world’s best literature precisely because it meets the highest aesthetic requirements. Ta. It is also important in terms of content.
He noted that for decades poets have been tortured, imprisoned, exiled, or sentenced to death for delving into taboo subjects such as human rights in their works, but in recent years the novel has given young writers a newfound social recognition. reported that it provides a relatively free forum for considering political injustice. , including traditionally unacceptable themes such as politics, religion, and gender. Mr. Achari half-joked that if politicians had read more books, they might have realized that society was in crisis.
For exiled Iraqi writer Fadil al-Azzawi, it is vitally important that writers within and outside the Arab world ask themselves very carefully what they should write at a time when their countries are in transition. “The key theme is the struggle between modernity and extremism, traditionalism and outdated thought patterns,” he said.
“What is most important for literature, and for people living on the streets, is to consider how to modernize society, prevent the development of fundamentalism, and open new horizons for a free and modern development full of compassion.” It is to be.”
If young people intend to maintain their newfound sense of Karama And developments along these lines seem essential if we are to never again be so driven to despair that we choose to emulate Mohamed Bouazizi.
Author: Anne Thomas
Editor: Luisa Schaefer
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